


Endings, Beginnings, and the Journey in Between

by moonswirl (Awesome_Nerds)



Series: Lucaya Project [3]
Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 264
Words: 547,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27894646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesome_Nerds/pseuds/moonswirl
Summary: 3rd of a series of daily updated year-round stories, following an alternate timeline in which Maya Hart moves to Texas instead of Lucas Friar moving to New York. - Lucaya Project 2019
Relationships: Lucas Friar/Maya Hart
Series: Lucaya Project [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001985
Kudos: 1





	1. Their Home in the Morning

**Author's Note:**

> I will be bringing this story and its sequels along, little by little. There are nearly four full years' worth, plus two sideline stories, so it will take some time for me to catch up to where I am presently.
> 
> The story is broken down in week-long blocks, as reflected in the chapter title roots.

Maya looked around her room, and the impression it left her was that it had not looked so much like a basement since before she’d moved down here and they’d turned the room upstairs into the nursery. There was a great stack of boxes in the corner, piles of disassembled furniture, and her mattress was against the wall, waiting to be picked up by one of her mother’s coworkers.

She would be sleeping on the ground tonight, in her old sleeping bag. She could have slept on the couch, could have kept the bed where it had been, but this felt right. It would be her last night living here, and this was how she wanted to spend it.

The last pile held items still in their boxes, or packed in bags… The new things, for the house, for the room…

The last few weeks, since their return from Europe, had been non-stop preparations for the move. It was as exhausting as it was exhilarating. The five of them who would be sharing the house in Houston, Riley, Dylan, Sophie, Lucas and herself, had split the cost of purchases for the house. Their families had contributed, too, no way around it, but then they knew there were times when they could hardly refuse. On the whole, they were happy for how they’d fared.

And there were things for her room, too… her and Lucas together.

The way her parents were going on about it, she would have thought she might be more fretful about the whole thing… moving in with her boyfriend, sharing a room with someone else… but she really wasn’t. She was ready for it, she was excited. Maybe it was that they’d been looking forward to it for so long, and now… she just wanted it to happen already, wanted to start and end her days with him, just as she’d done over their trip.

As though he’d felt her thinking about him, her phone gave off the tone of an incoming Skype call.

“I live in storage,” she declared as his face appeared, and he smiled at once. “Look,” she held out her arm, moving her phone around for him to see her surroundings.

“Reminds me of the night we all came in to redecorate,” he responded.

“Right?” she agreed, pulling the phone back so he could see her again. “I’m tired, everything hurts, and I should shower but I don’t want to,” she frowned, giving a solid pout of exhaustion. “How’s it going on your end?” He gave a pronounced sigh. “Oh, that bad?” she couldn’t help but smirk, knowing full well what this would be about.

“Mom’s trying to come off like she’s fine, but whenever she comes near me, she looks like she’s a second away from bursting into tears. It made packing feel like I was only making her worse.”

“I’m sorry,” she told him, earnest though she still chuckled.

“I’m finally done though,” he went on, giving his own sweeping show of the room around him.

“Wow…” she blinked. Somehow, seeing her room grow emptier and ready to go hadn’t affected her near as much as to see _his_ room, which had been something of a standard in her life for the past six years, appear as bare as it looked now.

His walls had been cleared, his desk was ready to be moved… The two beds were going to stay, one of them returning to where it had once belonged, in the guest room, while Lucas’ bed, she knew, would remain just as it was, as Mrs. Friar insisted that her son should always have his bed to come back to when he’d visit. Some of the furniture would remain, but other items, things he wouldn’t take along, were already gone, and all in all… it wasn’t his room anymore.

This was it. It was really happening. They were moving in the morning.

“What?” he asked, the smile on his face echoing the one growing over her features.

“I’m just… I can’t wait for tomorrow,” she revealed.

“Neither can I,” he tipped his head.

“Can’t we just take off for Houston tonight? We have the keys,” she pointed out with a pleading look.

“It’s just a few more hours,” he insisted, and she gave an exaggerated sigh.

“Patience is so overrated.”

The house _was_ ready for them. They’d been out there a few times, including one weekend of wall painting, small repairs, and city exploration. Appliances were in place, the great U-shaped sofa, too, and the new double bed that was to replace their respective single beds, while the others brought their own… The rest would be loaded on to a moving truck which was to relay its way from the Zvolensky, Orlando, Matthews, Friar, and Hunter-Hart homes the next day. That truck wouldn’t arrive until the day after, as they’d been told, but that was fine by them. The idea of their first night in their new home being something like a sleepover was all too fitting.

It was not hard to want to get a move on with their relocation. Already the others had departed, Nadine and Zay off to Boston, Asher, Joey and Rebecca to New York, leaving the five of them soon to be Houston-bound behind. Everyone else had gotten their start, so why couldn’t they?

“You’ll make it. I believe it,” Lucas insisted, bringing her back out of her thoughts.

“This whole unconditional faith thing is really sweet, I just worry you’ll be let down sooner or later,” she beamed. “We’re going to be living together now, imagine all the weird little things you’ll find out about me,” she whispered.

“Bring it on,” he whispered back, and she went on smiling, lying down on her sleeping bag, phone held aloft. “How are your parents doing?” he asked.

“My dad’s been feeding me stories from when he was in college. Can’t decide if he’s trying to give me some cautionary tale or if he’s just reminiscing. And Mom’s trying to pass off _her_ teary eyes on the baby… We’re not buying it, but we’re pretending like we are, so if you see her tomorrow…”

“Heard,” he vowed, hand to his heart and everything.

He wasn’t going to ask about her sisters. He knew well enough that, though she wasn’t looking forward to being parted from her parents any more than from two-year-old Nellie and her twin, Gracie, it simply wasn’t the same kind of goodbye. Whether he had heard it from Maya herself or seen it from their interactions, he knew she worried greatly over how they would cope with this separation.

They were too little, they couldn’t understand, no matter how much they saw of the preparations for the departure, that their big sister was going to be moving away, that they wouldn’t see her every day, wouldn’t see her at all for days and possibly weeks on end, and he knew how Maya worried for how they would react to her absence. She would be off in Houston for the better part of their lives until they’d be six, and after that, who knew?

He would remind her that she only had to look to how their reunion had gone at the airport, when their flight had arrived back in Texas. As soon as the little brunettes had spotted Maya, their legs had made to run so much that Shawn and Katy had no choice but to set them on the ground, at which point the twin rockets had sped teetering off into their sister’s waiting arms. He knew it would be different this time, that this was going to be permanent, with the three sisters no longer living under the same roof, but at heart it was the same principle… There was not the slightest cause for concern that affection and love between them would change, regardless of where she lived.

“What about you, how are _you_ doing?” she asked then, with a look like she was feeling that she was commandeering the conversation when she wanted to know just as much of his side of things. He let out a breath, looking around his room, or what remained of it.

This had been his room, his home, all his life. He’d feel like he was lying to himself if he said a part of him wasn’t affected by the thought of leaving it behind. For all the ups and downs of his life up to this moment, this room, this house, had been a constant, and his parents… No matter how much it had delayed him, Lucas had never turned away his mother whenever she came with her barely concealed tears. Truth be told, the reason why it had delayed him so much was that he had indulged her, every time. And his father, and his grandfather… and Dash…

“I’m reminding myself that, although I’m leaving something behind, I’m also moving toward something I’ve been looking forward to, something worthy of that sacrifice,” he told his girlfriend, and her smile was all the proof he needed.

They said goodbye until the next morning, and Maya let out a breath, lying on the basement floor, staring up at the ceiling. She could hear them, if she stayed quiet. It was bath time for the twins, which was always a two-person job if you didn’t want to have to go at them one by one, and she could hear them squealing along, splashing about, while their mother and father tried to wrangle them. Nellie was notorious for having skidded off butt naked one day, leaving a trail of water as she went. Her mad caper had been brought to an end on the introduction of the floor. She’d fallen and proceeded to screech her head off. She now sported the tiniest mark on her chin.

She could hear them up there, just as she could hear the dogs down here with her, letting out these small whimpers like they just knew she was about to leave them. She tried and failed not to hear it, like some great canine guilt trip.

“Hey, it’s no easier for me, you know?” she sighed, turning her head to look over at them. Queen pulled herself up and padded over, leaning her big fluffy head forward to bury her mistress in kisses. “Dirty trick!” Maya laughed, closing her eyes as she reached up to give the dog some scratches. Refusing to miss out on this, Tuck and Ghost came forward at once, crowding around until Maya had no choice but to sit up and attend to them. It really wasn’t fair, having to leave them, too.

Her little house wouldn’t be so little for much longer. Already, it was changing. Work on the expansion had started, slowly but surely, in the last few weeks, even as she was getting ready to leave, though she knew her parents had been waiting until after her move to really push into high gear. It was just as Lucas had predicted, and now it was coming ever closer to a realization. They were tearing the roof off, they were building not just a second floor but an attic, too, and it all felt like something she couldn’t have envisioned but all the same… she was okay with it.

The expansion bore the promise of their family’s roots in Austin. The house would grow, even as they were growing. And even if it wouldn’t be the place where she lived anymore, she knew one thing as sure as she knew the love she shared with her parents, her sisters, those three dogs, and the baby as yet unborn in her mother’s belly. She would always have a place here. That was the truth she would carry along with her, squeezing it tight on those rainy days where she missed her people and her old home…

TO BE CONTINUED


	2. Their Home in Hours

He woke up from a dream which had started pleasant enough, the kind he would never see himself describing in the presence of his mother or father, or of… well, most anyone. Somewhere in the heart of it all though, the narrative had taken a turn, and it became more like a nightmare than a dream. When he opened his eyes, with that disoriented feeling that followed nightmares, it took him a few minutes to get to the point where he could remind himself, as hard as it had been to remember while he’d been asleep, that today would be a good day, that he was headed into something wonderful.

Today was the day they were headed up to Houston to stay, and no nightmare would convince him that the whole experiment would turn into a train wreck.

He knew where it had come from, too, this dread feeling. His parents, his grandfather, all this anticipation for the move… Kids like him went off to college all the time and they did just fine, but the way his parents were acting it could have seemed like he would disappear, never to be seen or heard from again.

He had a text from Maya already waiting, and that chased the last of the nightmare from him. Of course, she’d already be up and raring to go. Taking a chance, he put in a video call, and when she picked it up, her face appeared, peeking from just over a pair of curled brunette heads laid at her shoulders. She made a face as though to say ‘I’d wave, but my hands are full’ as much as ‘quiet, they’re sleeping.’ He could see from behind her that she was up in the nursery, which had once been her room, at the bay window.

“Hi,” he whispered.

“Morning,” she whispered back, pressing her cheek to the top of one of her sisters’ heads, he couldn’t say which one from what he saw. She looked as resolute as she looked saddened. They were going, she was ready, but it still hurt, having to leave these two behind.

“I’ll check with him, but Dylan should be here in about an hour,” he told her, and she gave a small, silent nod. “We’ll come and get you next, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied, as one of the girls in her arms resettled herself, tightening her grip.

They were borrowing Mr. Orlando’s truck for the drive into Houston. They would get those belongings they wanted to bring along with them in there, the rest being relegated to the truck that would join them at the house the following morning, along with Dylan’s father, who would get his truck back to Austin. One by one, they would collect their group of five, and then they’d be off, headed for their new home.

By the time he headed downstairs, dressed and ready to go as soon as Dylan arrived, he could see plainly that the time until his friend arrived would be as much preparation for him to go as it would be preparation for him to be gone. His mother, as collected as she had previously shown herself to be, the day they’d had that talk, the two of them, was now reaching critical levels on the other extreme. She had outdone herself in the breakfast spread she’d assembled, like she would somehow keep on feeding him and then he wouldn’t leave.

Once he managed to get away, eating so little – by her standards – that it started her on the idea that he would starve ‘out there,’ he started, with his father’s assistance, to bring down those things he’d be adding to Mr. Orlando’s truck, also showing what needed to go into the bigger truck later. And before they knew it, the doorbell was ringing. Dylan had arrived, it was time to go… time to say goodbye.

His father had said all he had to say as they were taking his things down the stairs, and on that Lucas was very appreciative. His grandfather was brief, his words few but meaningful. Dash, looking as though she was only now getting that her favorite guy was leaving, was nuzzling at his heels, whimpering. All that remained was Melinda Friar, and Lucas could see her trying to pull herself together again, to show her reasonable side, whether or not she would actually succeed.

“Maya’s next?” Dylan asked as the two of them brought the last of his things into the back of the truck. Lucas looked back to the house, to his mother still in the doorway, holding the fidgeting dog in her arms.

“Yeah,” he finally turned back to look at him, smiling.

“Then Riley?” Dylan went on, moving toward the driver’s side.

“And Sophie after that,” Lucas nodded.

“Alright, let’s go!”

“Dylan, hey,” Lucas stopped him, pointing back to his parents. Leaving him by the truck, he jogged back to the door, for ‘last hugs and wishes,’ and then they were off to the Hunter-Hart house.

They arrived to find Maya’s campaign of spending as much time as possible with her sisters before her departure had stretched out to the front lawn, where she was in the process of ‘chasing’ the teetering toddlers around, aided by three eager dogs as her parents watched, sitting on the front step. Lucas was quick to take out his phone, taking a snapshot of the scene. He had a feeling it was something she’d love to have once they reached Houston.

When Dylan sounded the horn to alert them of their arrival, Lucas was already halfway out of the truck, heading to greet the whole mad lot on the lawn. By the time Dylan joined them, he was crouched on the lawn, where Gracie Hunter – who seemed to have adopted ‘Lukey’ more so than her twin – was babbling away, swinging her arms along as he held her little hands. Maya would call him the miracle worker, the only one able to get the quiet ‘Mouse-Mouse’ to get in touch with her talkative side.

“Maybe we should just pack you guys up and take you to Houston with us,” Maya chuckled, with Nellie clamped at her legs.

“The more the merrier, right?” Lucas shrugged, smiling back up to her.

Looking at her, he could see deep down she would have loved to take them along for real. He had watched her grow and grow in the glow of this new family of hers, bit by bit over the years since he’d met her, closely enough that he could understand just how much she had been dreading this moment, even when it was weeks, months, years away. Now it had come, and bravery was failing her, when she had been going as though she carried an inexhaustible amount.

They would come back to Austin as soon as they finished school. He could see it in her eyes already, and as far as he was concerned that was just as it should be.

Finally getting to those goodbyes, Lucas and Dylan stayed back with the twins as Maya and her parents had some words. As promised, neither boy gave attention to Katy Hart’s tears, which were totally about the pregnancy and nothing else. They didn’t know what to blame Shawn Hunter’s tears on, so they didn’t look at him either.

As they got into the truck, Maya’s things joined to theirs, it very nearly became that the trio of dogs would have run with them all the way to Houston if Shawn hadn’t caught up with them and pulled them back. The ride off to the Matthews’ house was spent with Maya’s head at Lucas’ shoulder, as he held her hands in his.

The scene here was just as touched with tears as the one before, and, current or former, seeing one’s teacher in tears, no matter how much he tried to hide it, didn’t get any less weird.

“All set?” Dylan asked Riley, in the front with him while the others sat in the back. She looked back to the house, where they could all still see her mother and father and brother, standing in wait of the truck’s departure. She only nodded, like opening her mouth to speak would betray any amount of composure she could muster.

“We’re not going to cry all the way to Houston, are we?” Maya moved forward, laying a hand at either of her best friend’s shoulders. It gave Riley the small nudge she needed, enough to take a breath and appear at once comforted. So, they drove off, leaving the Matthews house behind as they headed toward Sophie’s home.

For how things had been between the Zvolensky women when they’d all gone off to Europe, the last few weeks had been an unexpected turn. It wasn’t as though all was suddenly right as rain, and they still had many a disagreement. But Mrs. Zvolensky, faced with her daughter’s desire to leave as soon as possible, taking Maya’s offer for her to stay at her house until the move, had cooled down on her attempts to redirect her daughter’s career efforts. And Sophie had decided to ride this turn and remain at home. Their relationship, she believed, was worth the salvage.

The rest of them saw to Sophie’s things, carrying them to the back of the truck, while the last of their household said goodbye to her mother. By the time she joined them, climbing into the back with Lucas and Maya, she was one more for the tissue box, sniffling tears away. Dylan gave her a respectable five minutes before plugging in his ‘expertly curated travel mood booster’ playlist, as they took off in earnest toward Houston.

Sitting between Lucas and Sophie in the back, Maya couldn’t help but look left and right and forward, to the four who would be her world as they settled into their new home together, in their new city, where they’d soon be starting in new jobs, and – for most of them – new schools. This would be a whole other life than the one they’d been leading just a few months ago, even in the last several weeks. High school, like Austin, was pulling further into the rearview mirror, shrinking away until it could no longer be seen.

“Should we stop for lunch on the way?” Riley asked the others, turning in her seat. They weren’t there yet, still a good half hour’s drive left, and with their early start and the depletion of snacks some time ago, it was getting to be about that time.

“Wouldn’t say no to pizza right now,” Sophie declared, the word buzzing inside the truck like magic, its power being that it left all five of them salivating at the thought.

“We could,” Lucas agreed. “Or we could wait… eat at home.”

And that was another magic word in itself. Soon they would be in their new home, and it wouldn’t be the place they’d been preparing for anymore, it would actually be the place where they lived. So, cranking up the music again in order to distract themselves from their growing hunger, they soldiered on, drawing nearer to Houston, to their neighborhood, to a promised pizza and their first meal in their new home.

“City limits,” Lucas pointed ahead as they neared. He looked to Maya, and she beamed, seeing how he’d remembered, before pulling out her phone to get a picture, later to be reproduced in a drawing. Six years ago, she had drawn something very similar, marking her entrance into Austin, as it became her new home. Now, she would get to do it again. This city may only be where they belonged for a handful of years, but that should in no way diminish its importance.

“And we’re here,” she breathed. “Mr. Orlando, find us a pizza. Find us two pizzas.”

“Four it is,” Dylan declared at once, and they burst out laughing.

TO BE CONTINUED


	3. Their Home in Sight

For how many times they had seen the place, been under its roof and within its walls, which was a few by now, the moment they pulled up in Mr. Orlando’s truck, the five of them alone and lugging a first load of their belongings… it felt different, felt more real than ever. This was to be their home, for the next four years if not more.

As they hopped out, still road weary and starving but brandishing a stack of pizza boxes ready to be devoured, they were filled with a new sort of exhilaration.

“Come on, let’s take a picture,” Maya declared, dashing to stand in front of the house. At once, the others came to stand around her, and they posed together, the home at their backs.

“Food, now?” Dylan pleaded after this, earning a laugh from Riley, as she brandished the keys and moved toward the door. It had been a ‘fierce’ game, over the ride, to figure out which of them would get to open the door as they first stepped inside on this day.

The space inside looked almost cavernous for the moment, with only their great big couch in sight here in the living room, and the appliances just visible there in the kitchen doorway. But there was still a sign of their presence here, the preparations they’d made for their arrival. They could look at the walls and remember which ones they’d painted, down to the five hidden thumbprints they’d pressed in the corner of one wall, like some marking of their claim to the place.

With the truck pulled into the garage, they planted themselves on the living room floor, opening the box on top of their pizza stack, digging in at once, even as Sophie was handing out cans and bottles from a bag.

“To the house!” Maya held her slice aloft, and the others imitated her with grins and chuckles.

“To the house!” they chanted back.

It was going to take a few days to sink in, that much they were all sure of. Much as they knew that this was their place now, really and truly, it would have to be filled up with the various things they had brought today, and the things that would be arriving in the morning, but even then… even then, it would take days of their living here, maybe weeks, before it all really felt like a home, like their home. This did not worry them. They had each other, and that was as good of a promise as they could hope for, to promise that it _would_ feel like home in time.

Lucas was the one to suggest that they go for a walk around the neighborhood, after they’d finished eating and before they started to unload the truck and started to unpack. For one, they’d just spent over two hours on the road, and now they had just eaten much too much pizza.

They had been here a few times by now, which showed in how they had already spotted a few of the places they’d be frequenting in the years to come. Today it was all changing, turning ‘the grocery store’ into ‘our grocery store,’ and ‘that restaurant there’ to ‘the diner on the corner,’ and so on. They had been thrilled to find themselves within walking distance of a movie theater, and it was tempting to head up there now for a movie, but they resisted.

“We can go tonight, once we finish?” Riley suggested.

For what small amount of their belongings they had brought along on the drive over, they knew they wanted to get it all unpacked today, as much as could be done without some of the furniture. Even with their parents way back in Austin, it seemed like each one of them wanted to show that they were alright, that they would thrive here, living apart from their families, and the best way they had at their disposal was readily available in the back of Mr. Orlando’s truck.

When they returned from their walk, the unloading started, with the five of them working through everything, bit by bit. The items came down in the reverse of how they’d gone in, so that they unloaded Sophie’s things first, carrying them up to her room.

“Okay, that’s all mine,” she breathed out, plopping her overloaded backpack next to her boxes.

“Wait, one more,” Maya pulled out one smaller box she’d kept hidden with her in the truck up to now. Presenting it to the heat-blushed girl, she saw her eyes lock on to the postage as much as the handwriting on the front. _Maya Hart, c/o Sophie Zvolensky_. “One more day and it wouldn’t have made it to my house in time for today,” Maya grinned, handing over the package flown from Rome and carrying the well wishes of Chiara Mantovani.

“Oh…” Sophie reached out and took up the box, holding it in her hands with an uncertain giddiness before finally nodding to herself and setting it on top of her boxes. She would open it later, tonight, when they were all done, or maybe while they were all split off in their own rooms and unpacking.

Riley’s belongings came up next, carried up into the room across the hall from Sophie’s. Maya could see, even as she carried in her boxes, that her best friend of old was anticipating settling into this place. On past visits she had taken measurements, the better to really start and figure out what she would make of this room once it was hers. She had gone so far as to recruit Maya’s artistic talents to sketch out a plan for her, and she could just see the sheet in question, having appeared out of some pocket or another, now in Riley’s hand.

“Unloading first, unpacking later,” Maya reminded her.

“Right… right,” Riley breathed, setting the drawing back in her pocket.

They decided to pull Dylan’s things next, from the back of the truck, knowing that everything else after this would be relegated to the last room. His room was next door to Riley’s, or, as they’d come to identify it, ‘one wall away.’

“You two can learn Morse code and send messages,” Sophie had joked, though it took only one look to the two of them to know they might have actually considered it.

With the last of his vaguely identified boxes unloaded, all that remained to the truck were the collected belongings of Maya and Lucas, which were to be carried up to the room across from Dylan’s and next to Sophie’s, the only one so far to contain a bed, the newly purchased and presently – after the day they’d already had – so very inviting bed.

“Hey, come on, up,” Maya yanked at Riley’s leg as she, hardly the first among them to do it, plopped herself down on the bare mattress after setting down the box she’d carried up from the truck.

“But… comfy…” Riley whimpered as she got up.

“I know, Honey,” Maya promised, ushering her back downstairs.

Thinking of the day they’d bought it, she still couldn’t resist the smallest giggle fit. It was just a bed, sure, nothing new to them, but at the same time, being that it was to be Their Bed, it had added a new sort of significance to it. Both their fathers had been with them at the time, on one of their visits to the house (no sense in buying it in Austin and shipping it to Houston after all).

The two of them had gone around, inspecting the various mattresses in the store, testing some of them out by first sitting on the edge, moving about, sometimes lying down… They’d been doing this for a few minutes before they’d realized they’d sort of forgotten their fathers standing nearby. After this, the exercise of testing out felt a lot more awkward, though they tried very much to act like it wasn’t. By the time they’d settled on the one they’d ended up purchasing, Maya had needed to pull Lucas into a quiet conference to confirm it was really the one they wanted and not just the quickest way out of this situation.

Now, coming to it again, in their room, with only their roommates about, they could both agree they’d made the right choice.

With the last of the boxes and bags and other items they’d brought along for the drive now relegated to their rooms, they split off to start and unpack. The one thing to bind them was music, ringing from Dylan’s phone, left in the hallway where they could all hear it.

Standing in their room now, with the others gone, Maya and Lucas turned to one another, a knowing smile on both their faces.

“Time?” he asked.

“Definitely,” she nodded. They moved to the foot of the bed at once, side by side, and with a joined leap, they let themselves fall back on the new mattress, which gave a squeak before starting to settle. Maya laughed, pressing her hands together. “Always wanted to do that…” she hummed, as he turned to look at her. They would have done so, right there in the store, except for their fathers, and the saleswoman, but now there was no one to stop them, was there? “Okay, unpacking,” she moved to sit up, only to have her arm tugged. She squeaked, falling back to his waiting arms as he wrapped her up and she laughed once again.

“Just a minute,” he insisted, and he got no argument out of her. They lay there for a minute or so, looking around briefly, and to each other longer. They’d finally made it, and now… now this was their home, their room… “I love you,” he pressed a kiss to her forehead, to her lips. He always knew just how to say it, enough that, for how much she’d already known and how many times he’d said it before, she always knew it was as true and felt as ever before.

“I love you,” she echoed, in much the same way.

“Now, unpacking,” he finally consented, and with a sigh she allowed herself to become untangled from his hold and they got to work.

Until the big truck would come in the morning, they couldn’t really make much of what they’d brought except to organize everything in some way to designate where the objects would go. There were those items they’d brought because they could easily be dealt with, to start to make the place feel homey, and then those essentials like clothes, and pyjamas, and personal things…

The only ones who had a less straightforward go at it were of course Lucas and Maya, as they navigated what was at once a merging and a division of their shared space. Before long they could both see how they were having the same issue, giving their say on what they did or didn’t want but also not wanting to overstep the other’s wants or needs.

“We’ll figure this out,” he promised, seeing her standing there with an unspoken thought on her face.

“We will,” she agreed, nodding before letting out a breath and moving to wrap her arms around him from behind. “This is _our_ space, we just… need to figure out what that looks like.”

Bit by bit, they got through their boxes and bags, until they’d done everything they _could_ do for the day. Dropping in to the other rooms, they could see Riley, Sophie and Dylan had all finished already, and following the sound of voices from below they went down to find they were in the process of setting up the sleeping bags in the living room. Big bed or no, they would all sleep down here tonight, just as they should.

TO BE CONTINUED


	4. Their Home in Peace

It took some time, after they’d fairly piled up on the couch in complete post-moving day release, for all of them to decide whether to do as previously agreed and walk on over to the movie theater to watch something. It had been a long day and, much as they argued that they were too young to be this tired this early, it really seemed like the only thing that would happen if they went up to the theater would be that they’d pay to fall asleep in some comfy chairs, which they already had here and now, in the form of the mega couch holding the five of them in its grasp.

“Okay, this is what we do,” Maya suggested, moving to sit up, much to Lucas’ complaint. “We promised we’d call home, check in with the others, too. So, let’s do that and, after, if we’re still too tired to go, then we don’t go. We have laptops, we can have our own movie night right here.”

This much was an easy sell. Soon, Riley, Sophie, and Dylan were all making their way up to their respective rooms, which left Maya and Lucas behind.

“I don’t know about you, but with the two of us and the three of them right now, it kind of feels like…” he turned to look at her.

“… Mom and Dad and the kids?” she smirked, and he chuckled with a nod. “They’re growing up so fast,” she sighed dramatically before pulling out her phone. “So, how do you want to do this? I can go up to the room to call, or…”

“I’ll go, you stay,” he insisted, kissing her before moving toward the stairs.

Maya watched him go, disappearing up to the second floor, and she didn’t know why this would be the moment to do it for her, of all things, but she could swear later on that this was the moment it really got to click in her head that they were home.

“Shawn, it’s her!” her mother called out when she’d put in the call back to her h… to her parents’ house… That was what it was now, wasn’t it? A few seconds later, her father’s face joined her mother’s on the screen, both of them with great big smiles like they’d been waiting on this all day. “You look exhausted,” her mother declared.

“That’s because I am,” Maya laughed despite this. It was so good to see their faces it almost hurt. It wasn’t as though she’d never been away from them for an extended period of time, especially after the Europe trip, and it had only been hours since they’d been together, but somehow it felt different here, now… She’d always gone back to them before, but from now on, going to them would always involve a return elsewhere.

They didn’t end up talking too much about her day, about the drive, and the arrival, and everything they’d done so far. All Maya really wanted was to hear about how their day had been, how the girls were doing, and the dogs… She listened as her mother and father spoke, and that was all she needed.

Upstairs, when Lucas stepped back into his and Maya’s room, he had something of his own moment of realization, of feeling how they were home. In his case, it came from walking into the room and looking around, seeing some of his things here, and her things there, seeing some of the artwork and pictures they’d already managed to put up on the walls together. The drawings she’d given him, of their first meeting, and its update, and the newest update, too… The poster he’d given her, of the painting which had them both enthralled once… Photos of their friends, their families, covered about a third of the back of the room’s door already.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he pulled out his phone to call home and found the picture he’d taken that morning, when he and Dylan had come up to the Hunter-Hart house. He’d almost forgotten about it, in the madness of the whole day. He had to show it to Maya when he had the chance.

“How’s Mom?” he asked his father when he appeared on the screen. The two of them spoke in something near to a whisper, like they both knew the moment Melinda Friar knew he was on the line they wouldn’t get a chance to put a word in.

“She’s been lounging like a diva on her deathbed,” Tom Friar declared, and Lucas bit back a laugh.

“Seriously?” he asked.

“No, but she’s been keeping busy though, and your grandfather and I have been kept busy, too.”

“House cleaning?” Lucas guessed.

“You know it,” his father nodded. “Now, tell me how your day went before I pass you over to her.”

The promise of a project to occupy her seemed to have managed to get her back in touch with her more level-headed side. She asked questions, but overall, she mostly listened as he told her about everything since his departure from home. Here and there he could see her louder, more exuberant side poke its head out, but all in all she didn’t sound like she was going to drive up to Houston and park herself in the house to look after him and the others, so that was a win.

Leaving the room to go and see if Maya was still talking to her family, he found Dylan and Riley had already finished their calls and were presently sitting at the top of the stairs, whispering. From Sophie’s room he could hear Sophie’s clear Italian, telling him she had finished speaking with her mother and had now put in a call to Chiara.

“Is she still…” Lucas whispered, pointing down the stairs. Riley stretched her neck, listening for a moment before getting up and bounding down to rejoin Maya, which was as good as an answer, so the boys followed. Maya was sitting on the couch, browsing movie times by the looks of it.

“So, we’re going?” Riley asked, peering over the back of the couch and over her friend’s shoulder.

“I don’t know, depends on you guys, but I figured I might as well see what our options are,” Maya explained, turning to look at them. “Sophie?” she asked, noticing the missing one.

“Chiara,” Lucas replied, and she nodded.

“Let’s just stay here?” Maya set her phone aside, indicating the couch, the sleeping bags…

“Ice cream though,” Riley jumped in.

“On it,” Dylan raised his hand before tapping Lucas’ arm. A minute later, the two boys were out the door on a mission for frozen treats.

By the time Sophie came down the stairs, Maya and Riley were huddled together, browsing movies on Maya’s laptop. When she asked where the guys were, they responded in a chorus of ‘ice cream run.’

“So, we’re staying,” Sophie understood, and she sounded wholly in agreement as she came around and sat at Maya’s side.

“How’s Chiara?” Riley asked with a furtive grin. Maya snorted, seeing the smile on Sophie’s face.

“Wonderful,” the redhead replied with a hum, resting her head to her roommate’s shoulder in contemplation. “Oh, that one?” she pointed to the screen. “Should keep us awake.”

“More like we won’t be able to sleep,” Maya pointed out, knowing Riley’s face would have receded into fright at once.

The boys returned, and their arms were laden with enough sugar to keep them hopping all night just as well as Sophie’s original movie suggestion would. Maya threw a look to Lucas that had him laughing, recalling their earlier comment on the couch. Oh, what kind of example were they setting for their ‘children?’

Soon, they were all changed into pyjamas, gathered around the couch and the sleeping bags with their treats, and they started the movie that they’d ended up picking. For how tired they’d all claimed themselves to be, it felt as though they’d just discovered a second wind. One movie gave way to a second, and then a third, before they all had to agree that they really needed to get some rest. The moving truck would arrive in the morning, and then they’d have so much more to do.

What little remained of their evening’s treats joined the remainder of their pizza in the fridge (“We need to do real groceries tomorrow,” Sophie commented.) and then they all got ready for bed. The house counted two bathrooms, one above, one in the basement. With five of them living here, they had already decided that the girls could share the upstairs and the boys would have the basement. The sole exception, of course, would be middle of the night needs, where the boys were welcome to the girls’ room, ‘as long as you keep it clean.’

Climbing into their sleeping bags, including the doubled up one shared by Lucas and Maya, with little more than moonlight and streetlamps left to keep them from the dark, silence fell over them. It brought with it a sort of exhaled breath, from all five of them. Their first night in their new home… They might have gone right to sleep if they’d gone to bed before the ice cream and the movies, but now they all felt a bit too wide awake.

“Anyone got a lullaby?” Dylan asked, acknowledging that none of them were asleep.

“I have two tiny sisters, what do you think?” Maya laughed as she pulled Lucas’ arms tighter around herself and he bowed his head to the crook of her neck.

“Close your eyes, count sheep,” he counseled his friend.

“I’m counting cats, thanks,” Riley announced, sending a rumble of laughs around the living room.

“Think of good things,” Sophie added, and silence regained.

As minutes trailed on, those who remained awake came to be aware that some were succeeding in finding sleep. Riley had been the first to go, followed by Dylan. Maya knew Lucas had fallen asleep as she felt him relax at her back. She could see Sophie from where she lay, the girl staring at the ceiling from within her sleeping bag, her mind perhaps an ocean away as her eyes started to grow heavy. When she was the last one standing, Maya breathed, closing her eyes and bidding for sleep to gain her.

She’d wondered for a time if she’d have trouble falling asleep here, and though it was slow coming for her here, it was in no way for the reasons she had previously feared. It wasn’t that she missed Austin and her family too much or that the place felt too separate from herself. For how much it had pained her to leave her parents and her sisters and the dogs this morning, now that she was here she was excited for all that was to come, and that… that would shield her from sleep at every turn.

But, in time, sleep did come. Here she was, in the comfortable warmth of her boyfriend’s arms on this relatively mild summer’s night, with her friends and roommates around her, as they spent their first night in this new chapter of their lives. This night would always be special, separate from all the rest. Already, on the next night, with everything they’d be doing once the truck arrived, the house would start to shape itself around them, start to become this home they were creating for themselves. This night was the in-between.

No matter how late they’d been getting to sleep, she awoke in the morning with the sun. She was briefly confused to find Lucas’ phone in her hands, along with a small strip of paper. She could just make out his scribblings on it. _Had to go to the bathroom, remembered I had this. Good morning…_

“Weirdo,” she chuckled under her breath. When she unlocked his screen, she found the photo gallery opened, on a picture he must have taken the morning before. There she was, on the front lawn of her parents’ house, with her sisters and the dogs, while her parents looked on from the front step. It warmed her at once, and she smiled, her hand absently gripping to his arm as he went on sleeping and holding her. It was just the perfect start to their first morning at home…

TO BE CONTINUED


	5. Their Home in Boxes

It was a pact made between the five of them that ‘Roomie Rule’ was observed when any parents were to visit or inquire about their activities. For instance, it fell under Roomie Rule that their breakfast of leftover pizza and ice cream would not be spoken of when Mr. Orlando and Mr. Friar came along today. As far as anyone was concerned, they had _not_ set themselves to the remains of the previous day’s meals – the better to make them disappear – but instead had gone out to a nearby diner for a more balanced meal.

Lucas woke up to find he was alone in the sleeping bag and, peering around, he could just make out the top of a blond head out the window. The others were still asleep, and he got up as quietly as possible before stepping out to where Maya sat, with her sketchbook open in her lap, a pencil in one hand and his phone in the other. She was drawing what he could already see to be a reproduction of the photo he’d taken outside the house in Austin the morning before.

“Morning,” she spoke without stopping, and he leaned forward to kiss the side of her face before moving to sit next to her.

“Been up long?” he asked.

“I don’t know, wasn’t looking at the time,” she shrugged. By the progress she’d made on her drawing, he’d say she’d been here almost an hour.

“It’s nice out here like this,” he remarked, looking around the quiet street.

“Which is why I ended up out here,” Maya agreed with a smile. “Are they awake yet?” she asked, nodding back to the house.

“No, although I think I saw Sophie stirring. We should probably wake them up, the dads will be here in a couple hours I think.”

So, they went back inside, and with varying degrees of ease their roommates were roused from their sleep and directed to that breakfast of leftovers, after which they set about figuring an order for each of them to get a turn at the showers. The guys graciously allowed the girls to go first, on the merit of their having ‘way more hair to get through.’ Maybe for that, it came down to hair length, which meant that Maya got to go first, followed by Sophie, and Riley, and then Dylan, and finally Lucas.

The movers would be coming along with the truck, but then they were also expecting Mr. Friar – driving Pappy Joe’s old car, which had been passed to Lucas – and Mr. Orlando, who would drive Sophie’s car down from Austin, before driving himself and Mr. Friar back in his borrowed truck. The two fathers had not yet arrived when Dylan shouted that he could see the moving truck pulling up, even as Lucas was finishing getting dressed after his shower.

The three men who went about unloading the truck were directed from room to room with whatever they were carrying at one time or another. As best as they could, the five roommates went along, trying to place furniture when it came along, and performing some amount of triage in the boxes which were left in a heap in the space where, just that morning, their sleeping bags had been laid out.

The unloading was still in progress by the time Mr. Friar and Mr. Orlando drove up, finding their sons and their friends hard at work and looking in every way like they had things under control. Not that they would express themselves having had any doubts of their capabilities, but it would be something good to report to the rest of the families back in Austin.

Even as the movers were still doing their part, Lucas teamed up with his father to assemble the various bed frames in Riley, Dylan, and Sophie’s rooms. Mr. Friar asked after their first night.

“We wanted to go to the movies at first, but we ended up staying in. Long day, you know,” he shrugged. Really, in the end, it might have been better than to actually go out, for them to get to stay and settle in their new home and get to laugh and talk over one another as they pleased.

He couldn’t help but notice a sort of change in the way his father spoke with him. It had taken him a few minutes to realize what it was. It wasn’t as though his father had previously spoken to him like he was a kid, but this time around there was a distinct sort of… grown quality to the way they conversed, a trust in his self-reliance. Lucas appreciated it more than he could say, and it did feel like he wanted to keep on giving his father reason to speak to him in this way.

While Sophie continued to play director to the movers, going all Super Zvolensky on the trio, Maya and Riley also teamed up, setting themselves to assembling a number of pieces of furniture they’d bought before the move, unlike the new double bed, back in Austin. They were renowned for being the best possible tag team for this kind of thing.

“Here,” Maya passed the screwdriver to Riley, and she started putting her pieces together. They were in her room now, putting together her new desk. When she noticed her best friend of old smiling to herself, Maya stretched out her foot to nudge her and get her attention. Riley looked over at her and Maya shrugged, silently asking what she was smiling about.

“Remember that time when we were like nine, and you stayed at our place for a week?”

“The time the pipe burst in our apartment, yeah, I remember,” Maya blinked. She hadn’t thought of that, or of her old home back in New York, in longer than she’d realized. “We were so happy, it was like we were living together. You didn’t want me to leave.”

“You didn’t want to go either,” Riley countered, and Maya smiled back. “And we said that one day…”

“We’d live together,” Maya finished for her, and at her friend’s grin she just chuckled and moved forward for a half hug around the slow transformation of the pieces into a whole desk. “Only took us a few years, right?” And in that moment, it didn’t matter that, like the week when they’d been nine, this would not be a permanent situation. The only thing that mattered was that, for now, and for the next four years at the least, they were living together.

“How are we ever going to find someone new for the band?” Riley asked, after a few minutes more of work. Maya let out a breath, looking back at her again.

“I don’t know, auditions?”

“The four of us became a band together because we were friends first. It’d feel weird just bringing in a stranger… or strangers.”

They hadn’t really talked it through, the two of them, since Nadine and Smackle had given their blessing for the two of them to find one or more new bandmates. It would definitely help TXNY carry on despite having two of them in Houston and the other two way off in Boston and New York. They knew they wanted to make it happen, if only because they couldn’t see themselves letting the band die like that. But it said something that they hadn’t touched on the subject in weeks. It wasn’t just that they were busy with the move and they knew it. The whole idea of finding new people was a daunting prospect.

“We’re not taking anyone in just to take them in,” Maya promised her. “Only if it feels right and we all agree, okay?”

“Yeah,” Riley agreed, as apprehensive as they both still remained. “And…” she started to say, then stopped. It was no use, Maya understood what she was going to say.

“And if we don’t find anyone, then… it can be just the two of us. Nothing wrong with a duet, we’ve been one for over a decade.” There was nothing left of the fear on Riley’s face at this, and they happily carried on with their assembly.

When the movers had completed their work and left the house, leaving only the five roommates and the two fathers, Mr. Friar and Mr. Orlando remained to help for about an hour more, but then they agreed to get in the truck and start back for Austin, as the kids promised them that they could handle the rest between themselves. So, with many thanks and some hugs and handshakes, they saw the two men off. Now it was just the five roommates, and what still constituted a great mess.

“Look, we’re not going to get through all this tonight, so let’s just do what we can, and when we’re too tired to keep going, we stop for the night,” Maya suggested, and the others agreed at once.

“I’ll go to the grocery store, see if I can get us something a bit more substantial for dinner,” Sophie added.

“Are you saying pizza is not substantial?” Riley gasped in mock insult, making Sophie laugh.

“Wanna come with?”

“Okay,” Riley moved to follow, abandoning her indignation.

They had worked out a way to divide the household expenses between the five of them, though none of them argued as to who owed what for the time being, where food was concerned. They had decided, on the drive from Austin, that the next few days would be a mess, so they would go the way of ‘everyone takes a turn.’ Dylan had treated the pizzas the day before, and Lucas had handled the ice cream, and now Sophie was covering dinner. Maya and Riley would get their turn in time.

“Alright, boys, can we get the living room settled before they come back?” Maya asked Lucas and Dylan, nodding back to the door.

When Riley and Sophie returned, arms loaded with ingredients for this ‘substantial’ dinner, their big couch was no longer hidden behind piles of boxes. Instead, there was a short table in front of it, and the television was on the wall, other devices set up and plugged in, and the various movies and series they had brought along were being put away in shelves in the unit that surrounded the television.

“Woah…” Riley blinked.

“Wait ‘til you see the kitchen,” Dylan announced with pride.

“Where’d the boxes go?” Sophie asked.

“In the rooms where they belonged,” Lucas reported.

“Riley, come look,” Maya went and pulled her by the hand toward the basement door. They only had to go down a few steps for her to see the instruments set up there. On the walls, they’d stuck several photos, print-outs and clippings, all about the band.

“How long were we gone?” Riley was gobsmacked. Maya laughed, scooping her arms around her and giving her a good squeeze.

“TXNY lives,” she whispered.

Before long they were all of them contributing to the preparation of the dinner, from the food itself down to setting the table – assembled earlier, along with the chairs, by Maya and Riley – with the freshly unpacked dishes, cutlery, glasses… When dinner was served and they sat around the table, it was impossible for any of them not to feel just energized and happy.

“Getting the substantial thing now,” Dylan nodded appreciatively.

“Well done, Zvolensky,” Maya tapped the night’s chef on the arm, and she sat up with a beaming smile.

“Can we eat now?” Riley asked, with saucer eyes taking in everything they’d brought to the table.

With another exhausting day in them, it was no wonder they opted for another night in, although they spent most of it sitting outside, taking in some air as they discussed their plans for the next few days. Unpacking and settling in were a priority, of course, and it would include a trip or two to get some missing items once they were through with their boxes, but beyond that, they had jobs to start soon, and for most of them school was also on the horizon. But not tonight… Tonight was for peace among friends.

TO BE CONTINUED


	6. Their Home in Togetherness

The second evening’s activities were much more subdued than the first’s. None of them had the energy or appetite for movies and ice cream, and they’d spent the better part of the evening huddled side by side on the couch, halfway (or full way) dozing off. Finally, the night was called, and they split off toward upstairs and their respective rooms to get ready to go to bed.

Lucas turned around when he saw Maya trail off back toward the kitchen. He followed to find her standing at the sink, reaching for the sponge to get at the skillet left to soak.

“Hey, hey,” he spoke quietly, stalling her wrists where they stood. “It can wait,” he insisted as she turned her head to look at him.

“Is it weird I just really feel the need to keep the place clean?” she asked, not defensive, more surprised with herself.

“No one’s going to come in here and say anything,” he promised. “Let go of the sponge.” Maya sighed, but she allowed the pink thing to return to its place by the sink. “Now, swear you won’t just come and clean it at sunrise,” he smirked, and she squinted at him.

“Oh, you’re good.”

The kitchen was left behind, and they made for the stairs, though Lucas could still see her eyes sweeping the whole way, like she was scanning for problems in need of fixing, things in need of cleaning. It was nothing to worry over. He had known her long enough to know she was still adjusting and, in time, she would find her rhythm and not worry so much.

They passed Dylan on the stairs, now in his pyjamas and carrying his toothbrush, paste and floss down to the basement, all of them peering out of his old Green Lantern mug. They could hear Riley and Sophie chatting away in the bathroom, with that muffled sort of voice that told them they were seeing to their teeth at the moment, too.

Stepping into their room, Maya paused. The bed had been made, the set they’d bought together now adorning the new mattress and their old pillows to make something that looked to her just… perfect.

“When did you…” she turned back to Lucas.

“Before dinner. I figured we’d be too tired later and it didn’t seem right not to make the effort for our first night in here,” he explained, and his reward was an immediate kiss.

They moved to start and get changed, and it wasn’t until they were about halfway there that they had a pause, like they were just now realizing they were very casually getting out of their clothes and pulling on their PJs, like it was nothing. It wasn’t as though they’d never seen each other naked, it was more the act of it, the fact that this was just part of their day to day now… Every new thing felt so much bigger than it actually was, and they never missed notice of a single one.

“Back in a few,” he told her when he’d changed, grabbing the bag with his toothbrushing things and showing it to her in explanation.

“Same,” she nodded, twisting her long hair into a braid as she went. She reached the upstairs bathroom just as Sophie and Riley were splitting off to their rooms, and the three girls wished one another good night as they crossed paths.

As the two doors shut behind her friends, Maya came to stand at the sink, smirking to herself at the way they had already set some of their things in place. They’d bought a set of four wall-mounted shelves, weeks ago. She and Lucas had taken on the task of installing them, because ‘shelves are kind of our thing.’ One shelf held Riley’s things, the other Sophie’s, and now the third would be for her things. The fourth was for ‘visitors,’ which was to say ‘for anything that isn’t specifically ours.’ Now that it was starting to fill up, it was just another thing that sent a jolt of giddiness through her.

By the time she’d gotten her teeth and face washed and returned to the room, Lucas was back, sitting on the ground as he burrowed through one of his boxes.

“Looking for something?” she asked, stopping to stand just behind him.

“No, it was just there and…”

“And you just couldn’t help yourself?” she guessed, with an innocence that made him look back to find – as he expected – a victorious expression on her face, calling back to minutes ago when he’d pulled her away from cleaning down in the kitchen. It said ‘see, it’s not just me.’

“Alright, that’s fair,” he moved to stand, but instead she came and sat next to him.

“We just won’t tell anyone, yeah?” she whispered.

“I won’t, if you won’t,” he smiled.

They spent the next three hours very quietly – for the most part – emptying boxes, placing objects, moving furniture… Maybe it was that they had to keep quiet so not to wake the others, or maybe it was just that they were working toward this common goal of creating this space that was both of theirs. They had much more of an understanding for what that would look like than they’d previously expected themselves to have. Or maybe it was both these things and also the inspiration of progress…

Whatever it was, by the time they climbed back up the stairs after having brought the empty boxes to the basement, they walked back into their room and it _was_ their room. Everything had been put where it belonged, and though they might pick up a few more things when they went shopping in the days to come, the room they entered genuinely felt like it was complete. And it was everything they could have wanted.

“I know you slept on the right when we were in Europe, so I put your pillow there, but if you want to have it the other way around in here,” he gestured around the room as they shut the door again.

“I’m so tired right now, just ‘on the bed’ will do,” she breathed out, crawling over the mattress and dropping facedown on the nearest pillow that would meet her head and letting out a satisfied breath. A moment later, she felt someone prod at her shoulder. “Sorry,” she lifted her head with a smirk before assisting him in pulling down the covers so they could both climb under. Even as they did, she could feel his arm slip underneath her, the better to pull her closer as they settled in. She hummed happily, and he responded by peppering her neck with kisses, which got her laughing, only to remember the others sleeping nearby and willing herself to stop. “I could get used to this…” she declared, turning herself in his arms so they could face one another.

“I already got used to it,” he replied. “The last few weeks on my own were just a nightmare.”

“Aww,” she intoned.

In his defense, she couldn’t say she didn’t know exactly what he meant, having found sleeping on her own, after all those nights side by side in Europe, his nearness, his warmth… She’d gotten accustomed to the sound of his breath and, if he held her just close the enough, the beat of his heart. And then they’d gone back home and it was back to how it had been and it just wasn’t enough anymore.

But now they were here, and as far as she was concerned this was how it would always be from now on, and that was as it should be.

“Can I just say… I am kind of digging our room,” she told him, her eyes travelling along, taking in their nightly efforts.

Riley wasn’t the only one who’d gone in with some forethought about her floor plan, although in their case it had been born solely out of the necessity to factor in their sharing the room, deciding what they’d bring from home, what they’d have to buy… They’d managed to get both of their desks in, occupying one corner of the room along with a tall bookcase. The closet was large enough that, though Lucas was wholly willing to let her have most of it, he still had his side of it to hang the clothes he had to hang. The dresser was new, along with the night stands at either side of the bed, and each of them had all the space they required in here, too.

Then there were the wall shelves, a transplant from her old room and calling on memories from the pair of them. They had been installed over Maya’s desk, holding her sketch books as always. Along with the decorations they’d put up on the previous day, there had been a brand-new set to discover, on the final hour that night, when they’d opened the box Shawn had given his daughter on her graduation day.

The mystery box had been part of those things they’d brought along on the drive yesterday, and when she’d pulled it out she’d simply set it in the closet, on the shelf, knowing it wasn’t the time for it. Her father had said she’d know when to open it, and he’d been right. It was as they were putting away the last of their unpacked things, including some items going on the closet shelf, that Lucas had turned to ask where she might want to put the box, now that the room was set.

“Right here,” she’d held out her hands for it, and he’d handed it over. She’d looked at it, nodding to herself. This was the time, she was positive. This would be the finishing touch.

When she’d pulled the top of the box, sitting on the ground by the bed and soon joined by Lucas, she’d found it held a single item, nestled so neatly within, so that the box could only have been created to hold it. A photo album. On the cover, a gold trace she recognized as her father’s hand: the words read _The Portable Home. It goes where you go._ And then she knew exactly what would be inside.

From the moment they had met, when he’d come into their lives, him and his camera had been a matched set, his photography, had been the thing to bind them. How long had the old gag gone on that he was passing through Austin, visiting them, because he had some assignment or another? He’d been the one to get her to fall in love with photography as another medium worth exploring in her art, and art in general.

And inside the album, along those pages, she could see the last six years of her life, of their lives as a budding family, being told. Pictures that had been taken over the course of that first year in Austin would open the ball, and to see herself so small again, captured in her father’s eye, to see her mother there, too, the woman he’d come to love, to marry, to make a family with… There were pictures Maya had taken herself, as he’d shown her how to do it, pictures they’d developed together.

The years evolved, and there was the wedding, there was her mother’s belly, growing and growing before relinquishing its load in the form of her little sisters. How had they gotten so big already? The band featured in a whole section, too, and she’d have to show it to Riley in the morning. And there was the graduation, the last of the images, before he’d placed the album in her care, but there were blank pages, too, on the end, waiting for more. On the first blank page, there was a post-it note. _I’ll send you more and you can keep it updated. Love, Dad._

The album, within its box, now sat on the shelf of her night stand, precious and near, whenever she needed it, needed them. Now lying here, with one who loved her holding her and others immortalized within pages at an arm’s length, in this room, in in this house… Maya felt no fear, no doubt, and Lucas, she knew at once, felt just the same.

TO BE CONTINUED


	7. Their Home in Houston

It still felt like they’d only just moved in, when it had actually been a whole week already. If they had difficulty believing it though, all they really needed to do was to look around, on the ground floor, or upstairs, or the basement… All the boxes were gone, everything had found its place, and it looked like home… started to feel like it, too, to all five of them.

In many ways it still felt like their own private universe. They didn’t know anyone here yet, not really, so no one had been there except them since the day after their arrival, when Lucas and Dylan’s fathers had come with the cars and left with the truck. Eventually they’d meet people, in classes, or at their jobs, and they might invite them over, but until then it was nice, and cozy, and all theirs, and it left them very aware of how fortunate they were to have something like this.

They could not have pulled this off without help, there was no denying it. They’d saved up a lot over time, much of it going into their European adventures, and from what remained they had done their best, in keeping part of it, of course, to provide as much of what they’d need for the house on their own. But even split five ways they had needed contributions from their families, and they had received them, gladly and openly, and now that they’d been living here on their own for days, the one conclusion left to them was that… they needed to acknowledge it.

“Hey, come on, they’re ready,” Maya poked her head into Sophie’s room, finding her sat up on her bed, reading a book which had been part of Chiara’s care package. Sophie set her bookmark at the page she was on – also from the package – and left the book on her night stand before climbing to her feet and following her as they made their way down the stairs and into the living room, where Dylan was sitting on the ground in front of the coffee table, his laptop open in front of him. Lucas was already waiting on the couch, while Riley was leaning to look over Dylan’s shoulder.

“Oh, they’re calling, they’re calling,” she declared, nudging Dylan so he’d accept the call. Maya and Sophie barely had time to hop over the back of the couch and sit with the others before the screen was filled to show a group of familiar faces looking back at them from the comfort of Diana Zvolensky’s sitting room. For about a minute, it was all a cacophony of the five of them giving a chorus of greetings and receiving some in return, everyone on both ends talking at once until, from the Austin side, Shawn Hunter gave a whistle that silenced the whole giddy bunch.

They’d all been in regular contact with their families over the past week, through anything from texts and phone calls to e-mails and video chats, and that was all good and fine, but this wasn’t what this call was about. This was something they wanted to do as a group, as a household. It had required the organization of this little get together of the people now sitting with Sophie’s mother, which included Maya’s mother, father, and sisters, Lucas’ mother, father, and grandfather, Riley’s mother, father, and brother, and Dylan’s stepmother and father. Those five families were no strangers to one another by now, but their association had changed, now that the five of them were living together, out of town.

“Thanks, Dad,” Maya smiled, responding to her father’s assistance in bringing everyone to quiet. Shawn tipped his head to her. “You’re all probably wondering why we asked you all to come together like this,” she indicated everyone on the screen before pointing to her roommates.

“There may have been wagers,” Pappy Joe declared, sharing a furtive look with Auggie Matthews, who shushed him, playing innocent as his mother gave him a pointed look.

“Look, it’s nothing much, only that… we were all talking, and we thought there was something we needed to say to all of you, now that we’ve been here all of the past week,” Maya went on. “We wanted to say… thank you. We couldn’t have gotten half of this done without all of you, and since it goes for all five of us, then it wasn’t enough to thank our own families. It’s… all of you,” she finished, her smile shared by the others on the couch and on the ground.

Bit by bit they _had_ developed something of a rhythm of life in their new home, their new city. They were still figuring things out, but then that was more or less the reason why they’d made the move when they had, so they’d have time to settle in properly before they started school, could get through the start of their new jobs, too.

Maya had started at the restaurant the day before, and she had another shift that evening. When Lucas had dropped her off that first morning, for a bit of training, she’d told him precisely how she felt in that moment: she was so ready, she couldn’t wait to start. She told him how much that feeling made her happy. It wasn’t as though she never used to have the capability for it, but she was all too aware of the blocks that had once been in her path, most of them dropped there by her own lack of direction, her own lack of hope for herself and her future.

She had not stopped treasuring this awareness within herself, grown over the past six years, just like she treasured the growth she’d undergone. As ever, she was her own guide, only she didn’t go around like her feet would never leave the ground, not anymore. In all those years she’d spent in Austin, she’d discovered she could fly, and now here she was, soaring through the clouds and on her way to the stars. She could just see them, off ahead. She would get there.

How a simple waitressing job would have filled her with as much pride as anything else would… It probably made little sense to a lot of people, but it made a whole lot of sense to her, and it made a whole lot of sense to Lucas, seeing her off for that day. Working at the diner, back in Austin, had taught her a lot. It was a part of her journey as much as school, as people. And since she’d left her old job, she had missed that sort of contact with the world.

“I’ll be back to pick you up tonight,” he’d told her, as she was grabbing her things to go. He had a couple of job interviews lined up that day, and she knew that as much as he was keeping a strong front, he was nervous. They all needed to support themselves now. They’d gotten this far by their own efforts, yes, but also with their families’ help, and going forward it was just them now. If he couldn’t find something…

She’d leaned over the seat, giving him a kiss that felt almost too calculated for her own tastes. She’d recounted to him that night, the two of them laughing it off, how part of her had wanted to kiss him stronger than she’d done but then she’d gone the other way, not wanting it to seem like she was pressuring him to do well on his interviews.

“That’s what that was,” he’d chuckled as she gave a sheepish grin.

They had already discovered something of how they liked sharing words in the morning as they woke, and at night as they got ready to go to sleep, back on the trip to Europe. Of course, they’d been sharing hotel rooms with a handful of friends back then, so it had been a lot of whispering. Now, getting to have these quiet conversations together was fast becoming one of their favorite things about the Houston house. That previous night, they’d gone on and on, him about his interviews, her about her training and her first shift, and they would have been hard-pressed to find a moment when either of them had stopped smiling very long.

Now here they were, with their families on a screen, expressing deep and genuine gratitude for having gotten this far even as they awaited word of what would come next. They were still waiting on word from those places where he’d interviewed. He’d been told it would be a few days, though this didn’t make the wait any easier, especially with him seeing his parents and his grandfather up there. He hadn’t told them about the interviews, like it might jinx him.

Again, Maya was the only one he’d spoken to on the subject, but a part of him worried as to his chances. As he’d pointed out, the one job he’d had, at the museum, he hadn’t exactly gotten unaided. His mother had pull there, like a foot in the door. What if that was the only reason he’d even gotten in, and now he’d just be some kid fresh out of high school, whose mom had gotten him his first and only job…

“… that you did really well,” Maya had cut him off at once, resisting the urge to grab him by the front of the shirt so he’d listen to her and hear her. Just seeing her hand hover inches from his collar seemed to have done the same thing. “So, she helped you get in, fine. Ask anyone out at that museum, they’ll say you were one of their best guides. You remember when we were in London?” she’d given him a look, and the smirk had come freely upon his face. “Remember all those shirts I had to get because you couldn’t help yourself, Guide Boy, sorry, Guide _Man_? Now, look me in the eye and tell me that is the last I’m going to hear of you doubting yourself. Say it.”

“You know I’m not going to be a guide this time, right?” he’d whispered, but then, seeing her hand inch toward his collar, “Okay, okay, I swear, don’t ruffle me or I definitely won’t get the job,” he’d laid a hand to his shirt like a shield. She’d tilted her head to him, waiting. “Thank you,” he’d simply said, and she’d beamed, giving him that not-too-strong kiss.

Dylan had a job, two even, catering and coaching, and he’d started the first one two days ago. Sophie had a job, at a bakery, she was starting in two days. Riley, like Lucas, was still searching, up until just this morning, when she’d gotten a call back that confirmed she’d been hired, doing office work, of all places, for Diana Zvolensky’s friend who’d helped them get the house. She was able to tell her parents right then and there, and to see how happy they were for her, Maya couldn’t help but look to Lucas, finding he was already looking back at her, like he was thinking the same thing. Last unemployed roommate standing. A smile from her set him back on track.

They finally said goodbye to their families, the call was ended, and the others dispersed. Dylan was on grocery duty, Riley wanted to do research for her new job, and Sophie wanted to get back to her book.

“Hey,” Maya moved up to Lucas on the couch, planting her chin on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his. “You good?” He reached to clasp her hand, nodding. “Are you lying?” she gave a small smile. He let out a breath. “Right. I need to shower before work, I’m pretty sure I still smell like yesterday’s special,” she frowned, kissing his shoulder before rising and climbing over the couch to head on upstairs. As a whole, showers were not a fast thing, not when she had her hair to contend with, but she made well sure that this one would be on the quick side, so she’d have more time with him before work. She knew how he felt, she’d been there. It didn’t mean she had to sit back and do nothing.

By the time she came back down, dressed in her work clothes – black skirt, white button up shirt, nothing fancy – she found him in the kitchen, looking in the fridge.

“Hey, so I was thinking…” she started to say, before she saw he had just taken out the box of cupcakes Sophie had brought from the bakery where she now worked after her interview. “Not to sound like your mom or anything, but we _just_ had lunch,” she teased, hoping to get him laughing. He gave her a look like ‘why did you have to put that image in my head?’ but he opened the box, pulling one cupcake out and placing it between them before reaching for a knife to cut it in half.

She didn’t know how she made the leap from this to the reason behind it, but she stood up straight.

“Bookstore or coffee shop?” she asked, while he handed her half the cupcake and took up the other half for himself.

“Bookstore,” he answered, now smiling, and she cheered enough to rouse the others, wherever in the house they may have been, moving to embrace him while both of them extended their cupcake-bearing arms away to prevent any frosting incidents before she had to get to work.

“Yes!” she laughed as his returned embrace turned into a one-armed lift off the ground. “What did I say? What did I say?”

“Something true, as usual,” he set her back down.

“Oh, this opens up so many new possibilities, just think… literary nicknames.”

“Just… eat your half a cupcake, please?” he begged, already imagining the nicknames from the moment he’d gotten off the phone with the store’s owner.

“Half a cupcake, honestly, this deserves more than half a cupcake, and I am telling you we will make sure this gets the celebration it deserves,” she tapped his shoulder before making her half disappear in two bites.

“Your shift,” he reminded.

“After I get back,” she added after a beat, like it had been part of her initial statement.

He drove her off to the restaurant, as he had done the day before, and already it felt like the evolution of their morning walks to school, or a first new incarnation at least. It was the reverse of how it had been before, of course. It used to be that they met up to go to the place where they’d be together, where now they left together before parting ways. It was kind of better that way, because in the end they would come together again. Today, it was even better, because they got to celebrate two new jobs instead of one.

TO BE CONTINUED


	8. Their Introduction to College

“What time is it?” Lucas mumbled, barely awake.

He never knew how his body seemed to know, when he was fast asleep, that _she_ had woken up even though she had not moved to rise in any way, but he did. And so he would wake up, too, his eyes fluttering for a moment until he realized he was awake, shutting again as he’d dip his head back into the pillow or in the crook of her neck, if they’d remained as much in hold as they’d been when they’d gone to sleep the night before.

“Early,” Maya replied, her voice clear enough to suggest she’d been awake long enough to shake off the last of her sleep. “Sorry, go back to sleep,” she told him, reaching her hand behind herself until it found his face.

“It’s okay,” he insisted, breathing out and moving back so she’d turn over to face him. “First day of school, in a new city, I mean the last time you had one of those…” he gave a humble shrug, and she chuckled as she nodded.

“Went pretty well, yeah. So, are you saying I’ll meet a cute boy today, too?” she teased. “I hear so much about these college guys…”

“Ha,” he gave an amused frown.

“Now, any of those college girls looking at you like fresh meat out there…”

“Good luck to them if they run into you?”

“Something like that,” she nodded, moving to rest her head at his shoulder. He held her close, fingers nudging and brushing at her long braid.

“You could still sleep for an hour… or three,” he finally saw the time.

“Not a chance,” she sighed. “You’ve never seen me first thing in the morning on the first days, I barely sleep. But you should, really. I’ll stay here, shut your eyes.”

“Not a chance,” he echoed her choice. “It’s you and me here, remember? If you can’t sleep, I can’t either. What do you want to do now?”

After some consideration, they got out of bed, got dressed, and went for a walk that would wake them up properly. By the time they got back, they could faintly hear the shower going upstairs, telling them either Riley or Sophie was up. While they waited, they busied themselves with starting breakfast, which was as good of a way as any to get the others out of their own slumber.

“I smell bacon,” Dylan’s voice declared, not yet through climbing down the stairs.

“Yeah, well, keep smelling for now, wait for the others to get down before eating,” Lucas told his friend and, a moment later, Dylan was headed back upstairs. He returned two minutes later with Riley – barely awake – and Sophie – hair still only halfway untangled post shower.

“Good boy,” Maya crooned with a smirk, ‘rewarding’ him with a slice of bacon.

“He’s not a dog,” Lucas whispered to her though he still laughed.

“Isn’t he though?” she asked, running a hand through the oblivious Dylan’s hair before moving to place a cup in front of Riley.

Sophie finished dealing with her hair before coming to take her seat at the table. After weeks of sharing their meals here, the seating arrangement seemed to have become cemented, even when they weren’t all there together. The table was round, though it could split in the middle to fit an extension. There’d be Maya, and then Lucas, and Sophie, and Dylan, and Riley closing out the loop.

“You can take my car to get to work,” Lucas offered Dylan as they got to eating. The rest of them were all headed out in Sophie’s, so there was no point in his car being left behind when it might serve.

“It’s fine, Willow’s coming to get me,” he revealed. Willow Regan was another of the waiters he worked with at the catering service. The two had become fast friends in the past few weeks, and she’d been over to the house a couple of times now. Like Dylan, she had not gone on to college when she’d finished high school two years ago, although she was now considering applying to a course in the winter.

It wasn’t as though Lucas and the girls all had the same classes or even started at the same time, but they decided it would be easier for them to head off together, the better to take in more of their surroundings. Their paths would diverge and rejoin throughout the week and their schedules, including Sophie, who would not be starting on her way to become a cop for a couple years still.

They said goodbye to Dylan until later that day, and they grabbed their things, and they took off for their first day of class.

“I’ve only got two today,” Maya spoke, sitting in the back with Lucas, while Riley was up front next to Sophie. “You guys have four each, yeah?” she asked the girls, recalling. They both nodded.

“And I’ve got three,” Lucas concluded the enumeration. As they pulled to a stop at a red light, Sophie instructed Riley to find a piece of paper in the front of her bag. She looked at it, then passed it on to the two in the back. Sophie had taken all four of their schedules and managed to line them up on each day to show the blocks of time where either two or three or all four of them weren’t in class.

“Okay, Detective,” Maya blinked, smiling. She took a picture of the paper with her phone before handing it back. “Lunch?” she looked to Lucas, showing how they had free time right around then, where the others did not. He accepted at once.

“If we’re not done too late today, we can meet up and grab Dylan. I think he’s at the community center this afternoon.”

“He is,” Riley confirmed from the front seats.

The last few weeks had gone by much faster than they would have thought possible. It was like, one second, they’d been moving in, and the next they were here, fully settled to the rhythm of their new lives in Houston. They had been at their jobs long enough now that they couldn’t be distinguished as being new anymore, which was just as well now that they were weaving classes and all that involved into the mix.

They’d had a few visitors beyond Dylan’s new friend, though none from their jobs as of yet. Sophie’s mother had been the first of the parents to drop by since moving truck day, a few days after the group chat. Seeing them together now, the others could still see some shade of the old issues showing through, though these came in the middle of the unmistakable appearance of mother and daughter both trying to make better what they’d left to linger for too long. The difficulties having come to a head during the European trip and after their return, things might not have been perfect just yet, but all it had taken for Sophie to accept the change had been to see how her mother did genuinely try.

Mr. Orlando and his wife had been the next to show up, a few days after that, using the delivery of a package from Dylan’s older brother as an excuse to come and see how he and the others were faring. None of them were mentioning how they still didn’t exactly agree with his choice not to go to college, but they couldn’t deny that he was doing well here, that he was happy… Whatever they thought would be best for him in the long run, they could only trust that it would manifest itself in time.

Next had come the Friars, and to see how they’d all worked to clean up around the house before the trio arrived, they would have thought they were under scrutiny. They’d all been good about keeping up with keeping things in order, so it was silly to think there was anything there for them to be reproached on, but the promise of Melinda Friar walking through the door had filled them with one plan. The last thing they wanted, Lucas especially, was for her to sweep along, looking for something to do. He had a feeling his mother had been putting off this first visit, like she’d want to move to Houston and be close to him the moment she saw him again.

Whether thanks to their house cleaning or not, the visit had gone off well enough, and instead of ending up with a sixth roommate like they’d been joking/terrified they would get, they were now the proud owners of a barbecue and a patio set.

Both Maya and Riley’s families had come to see their daughters and sisters last of all, just a few days past. They’d always figured their families would come as one, and it had come something like an unspoken agreement that they needed to have the time to really find their footing, to settle into their new home life before they could be reunited. On that level, they were just a bit sympathetic to Mrs. Friar’s previous apprehensions.

Of all things, Riley had been waiting for the moment she’d get to show her brother her room. She’d gripped Auggie’s hand, leading the twelve-year-old up the stairs with barely a hello to her mother and father and a promise she’d get back to them in a minute or five. When she’d left home back in Austin, she had made her old room her parting gift to him. It was bigger, and he was bigger, too, and he deserved more space, so she wanted him to have it. They had made the settling of their respective new rooms a sort of joint, long distance, brother/sister project. Of course, she had to show him the result from this end of it.

Maya had been in trepidations all morning, waiting for her family to arrive. She’d told her mother to keep her updated on their approach, and Katy Hart had come through on that wish, sending off texts every twenty to thirty minutes from the moment they’d left the house. When the last text had come through, letting her know they’d be there in less than ten minutes, she couldn’t sit still anymore. It had been easier to manage how much she had been missing them when she’d been here and they’d been back there, but now that they were here, now that she saw her sisters, teetering toward her the moment they’d been set on the ground, she was crying and pulling them close like her heart had been mended.

For each of them, the reunions had come at the price of eventually having to say goodbye again, realizing how much they weren’t as adjusted to the separation as they’d started to believe they were. It was a good thing then that they’d had the last few days to get back on track, to prepare themselves mentally for what would come today, with the start of classes.

“Right, well I need to go now,” Lucas turned to Maya shortly after they arrived to the lot where Sophie parked her car. “Need to get going my way, don’t want to be late the first day… But I’ll see you for lunch, right?” he asked, reaching for her hands. She nodded, smiling as she stretched on her toes to kiss him. He closed his arms around her, the better to prolong the embrace just a little longer. “Say hi to the college guys for me,” he joked at her ear and she laughed, kissing him again.

“Hug a puppy for me or something,” she called after him as he started walking away.

“I don’t think they’ll have any of those around on day one,” he turned back to look at her.

“I don’t care. Find a puppy, hug it, that’s an order,” she pointed at him, and he gave a half bow forward before going on his way.

TO BE CONTINUED


	9. Their Introduction to Day One

There was nothing else to be said for it, a part of him had imagined this moment in his life differently. That could sound like he wasn’t satisfied with the way it was now, and that wasn’t true, not specifically. He was where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do. He had this house that continued to feel, rightly so, like a miracle, and he had friends, and he had Maya, and if things went the way they’d planned it, soon, they’d have a dog… or two.

This image that was in his head, the one that wasn’t matching reality, it was an old one, which more than accounted for its difference. This was something he had thought about… not too long before Maya had come into the picture. Back then, he’d been making his way back from his suspension, which had earned him more than one conversation with his father, all about his future, and what it would be like. It made for how much it mattered to him to make it a good one, and not one following the path he appeared to be taking, according to his father.

It was the first time he had looked into the future and thought about his life after high school, when he’d be going to college. What he saw, without fail, was himself, and Zay, and Asher and Dylan. The guys had been his closest friends for as long as he could remember, and he thought it went without saying that they would continue into college that way, too.

But Zay was in Boston, him and Nadine both, and Asher was in New York, and Dylan was here, sure, but he wasn’t going to school anymore. He was happy for them, knew they were where they wanted to be and doing what they wanted to do, same as him. That memory though…

He shook his head to himself, which looked sort of ridiculous enough as he walked on his own, but it helped him more than anything to stop getting his head caught up on the what if and instead focus on where he was, and what he had. They were growing up, and part of that meant realizing that those old unrealized dreams could fall in one of two categories. Either they just hadn’t come to the point of becoming true yet… or they were never meant to, and this, what they had instead, this was the dream they hadn’t known they could have.

Elsewhere, Maya was finding herself thinking of the past a bit, too. It was hard not to, with where they were and what they were about to start. It would still have been a monumental sort of day even if they’d been back in Austin, with their families, but being out here made the stakes higher. If they failed, what happened?

It made her think about how she’d felt, back when she’d first arrived in Austin and she’d started school. She wasn’t that girl anymore, thrown into the deep on her own and clinging to school, finding a way to thrive, the only way she could. For the first time in her life she’d felt herself become motivated by school, and it had changed everything. She had started, and she’d kept going. Every little victory had brought her higher and higher.

She’d worked hard, reached advanced placement, which would once have been more than impossible to her, it would have been plain laughable. But she had made it, and oh she’d been proud. And she’d carried on, reaching even higher and taking part in the quiz bowl team. Now she was here, and the light at the end, the big goal, was to make another ‘educational leap,’ to the other side of the classroom, to be the person there for kids like her, to be the step to help them rise, too. So maybe that was it, wasn’t it? Six years ago she’d walked into a middle school in Austin, trying to figure out what her new life would look like, and today… today she’d be walking into a university in Houston, trying to figure out how to become the person she sought to become.

“We have to go,” Riley pointed off ahead of them, looking over to Sophie before turning back to Maya. “See you later?”

“You know where I live,” she joked, with a tip of the head to encourage them to go on ahead when she saw them looking at her like she wasn’t saying the right thing, like they believed she needed them to stick around a little longer. “Go, if you’re late for class it’s no dessert tonight,” she gave them a pointed look she’d honed by observing Topanga Matthews. It got Riley a little rod-straight all at once. “You know, we got that cake…”

“You wouldn’t,” Riley breathed.

“Oh, I would,” Maya nodded, keeping her eye. Riley reached for Sophie’s arm without breaking eye contact, leading her away.

“See you tonight!” Sophie called back, laughing. Maya smiled, watching them go. They were fortunate, getting to have their very first class be one of the ones they were both taking. Maya had a couple of those with them, too, though not until later, which meant that, for now, she was on her own.

“No problem,” she spoke to herself. “Go to class, take the class, do the work.” She paused, looking around in case anyone was nearby. “Don’t stand around talking to yourself and have everyone think you’re nuts on the first day…”

Right about now, on her first school day in Austin, she had crossed paths with Lucas, and Zay, and before she knew it she’d met the rest of the group, and then for as much as she was feeling a bit lonely, and confused, and lost… she had them, and it had made things easier. Now she didn’t have them, not completely, and… well, she wasn’t scared or anything, but it did make her feel a bit incomplete, exposed, which was about the silliest part, with her being a singer, standing front and center on stages again and again with TXNY.

“Pull it together,” she huffed to herself, moving onward. She had an hour until her first class, but she’d come with the others to use that free time to her benefit, which meant getting a move on. When she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, she pulled it out to find a picture from Riley and Sophie, showing they had arrived to their class on time. Maya smirked, replying with a cake emoji.

Now that she had her phone in her hand, she debated whether she might shut down these nerves for good by reaching out for one of her people. It would be easy to call Lucas, text him, but even if he hadn’t been on his way to his first class, she knew there was someone out there who would have loved nothing more than to be this person for her right about now.

If she had called Lucas, she would have found him on the line already, on the receiving end of a video call out of New York.

“You guys are starting today, aren’t you?” Farkle asked.

“Yeah,” Lucas told him, unable to hold back a bit of a smile. He was so happy to see him, his sort of brother from far away. “You?”

“Already started,” Farkle reminded him, and Lucas nodded. “It was good. Saw some people I knew back at Einstein, they’re in my classes.” Lucas would be very surprised if he met anyone from his old high school out here, in his classes. “How long before your class?” Farkle asked, making him realize he briefly hadn’t been paying attention. He looked at his watch, the pocket watch Maya had gifted him, and he smirked to himself, thinking about her. _Hug a puppy._

“Uh, twenty minutes or so,” he answered Farkle’s question. “What’s up?”

“Me? Nothing.”

“But you called me,” Lucas pointed out.

“Yeah, for you. Thought maybe you’d need to,” Farkle explained, making him nod, understanding. Of course, he would know, even without speaking to him.

“You did?”

“As far as I can see, anyone who’s spent so much time wound so tight into a group like that, striking out alone is going to suck no matter how ready you think you are.” Lucas considered this, nodding to himself.

“Sounds about right,” he agreed. “But that’s okay. You just helped me remember something, and I think it was all I needed,” Lucas told him, looking to the watch still in the palm of his hand. Before, more than once, he’d left it to Maya, like some proxy when he couldn’t be near her, like it was part of him and so it _was_ him, sort of. Looking at it, he remembered that this went both ways. She was with him, always.

“Hey, Mom,” Maya smiled, seeing her mother’s face appear on her phone’s screen, looking like she’d just met the business end of a paint brush. “Busy?” she joked, and her mother sighed.

“I’m getting vivid flashbacks to when you were a toddler,” she declared. Maya bit back a giggle. “What’s going on, are you at school?”

“I am, look,” she held back her phone to show her surroundings. “I don’t start for about an hour, so I thought I’d check in. Looks like I picked just the time for a good story.”

“Well, here’s the headline, Miss Penelope here takes after her namesake,” she gestured to her screen before turning out her own phone for a scenic peek. There, Maya spotted Nellie with her hands in color, dragging her fingers wherever she saw fit to add some of her ‘art,’ like the paper, and her arms, and her face, and her twin…

“That’s… I mean…” Maya tried to find the right words, then abandoned the endeavor, clearing her throat and finding a new topic. “And how’s the rookie?” she asked, referring to her impending brother or sister. They were choosing to be surprised this time. The way they saw it, if it was a girl they were all set, and if it was a boy, well they’d find their way.

“Oh, doing laps, tapping the walls,” her mother reported, hand instinctively moving to her belly. More than halfway there… “For my sake, he or she will take after Gracie, and you are stalling,” her mother flipped the subject so fast, anyone uninitiated to her techniques would have gotten whiplash.

“I’m not stalling, not… specifically, I’m just a little… nervous? I don’t know… First days…”

“Yeah, not a fan,” her mother agreed. “But you, Baby Girl, have nothing to worry about. You get to go in there and be exactly who you are, and you get to learn the things you want to learn now. At the risk of putting expectations on you, I am so proud of you right now, and so’s your dad. You’ve got this.”

Maya smiled, taking a breath, letting it out. So, she’d gotten a little spooked. That wasn’t a bad thing. But it was over now, and she was going to get through this day the way she’d known she would… right up until she’d forgotten just now.

“I know,” she told her mother, just as Nellie came into frame. Maya laughed. “Hey there, Picasso. Let me see those hands,” she asked, and Nellie presented her multicolored hands. “Inspired…” she shook her head in exaggerated awe that had her little sister laughing at once.

She didn’t call Lucas to see her through this momentary uncertainty, but she did text him a quick but no less meaningful _366_ which he reciprocated. Neither one of them needed to say much more beyond that. They’d see each other that afternoon, and until then they had classes to get to.

TO BE CONTINUED


	10. Their Introduction to Classes

He’d very nearly gone into the wrong class, which would have been a terrible way to kickstart this semester, but he was rescued from that mistake by one of his soon to be classmates, who spotted the textbook under his arm. It was the same one he carried, too.

“Hey, it’s in here,” the boy called, having to repeat it before Lucas realized he was talking to him. He turned to find a boy pointing through an open door, and he couldn’t help but do a double take. The guy was easily three or four inches taller than him, and a strong-looking sort of heavy, giving the distinct impression that you would not want to meet him in a fight. But just take in his whole demeanor, his face… and then you knew he’d sooner hug you than fight you.

“Thanks,” Lucas moved to join him, and they moved into the room, which already counted a handful of students, all of them dispersed. No one knew each other yet, and it didn’t look likely to change. Two of them were on their phones, another was paging through the textbook, another was tending to their nails, and another was leaning to the wall, looking out the window. Lucas looked to the boy, and the boy looked back at him.

“I usually sit in the back, otherwise whoever sits in front of me…” he indicated his height.

“Right,” Lucas nodded. “Alright if I join you?” It was the first time he was treated to that great big smile, and already he felt the two of them would get along great. He held out a strong hand, and Lucas shook it. “Lucas,” he introduced himself. “Friar.”

“Bishop,” he introduced himself. “Nicholas,” he went on and, seeing the hesitation on Lucas’ face, he specified, “Bishop’s my first name. Don’t worry about it, I’ve had to explain it all my life. No chance my mother would have given me a name that didn’t sound like a family name, with one like Nicholas. Guys at school would call me, ‘Hey, Nicky!’” he intoned in a booming voice that roused the other students and made them look over. Shrugging it off, Lucas and Bishop moved to the back of the class.

“Are you from here in Houston?” Lucas asked as they sat in the back row. Bishop shook his head.

“Paris,” he replied, and Lucas had to blink.

“France?” he asked, as though there would have been others… Were there? Now he’d wonder until he looked into it. Also, now that he knew about where he’d grown up, he thought he could just hear the hint of an accent in the guy’s voice, like it had colored his tone over time.

“My mother was transferred there to work when I was four years old. It was just me and her.”

“And you came to Houston to go to college?”

“My dad lives here. It’s a long story,” he explained, and if any subject could make the guy look small, Lucas figured it was best not to touch on it for the time being. “What about you?” Bishop finally asked.

“Austin,” Lucas told him, with a half smile on his face that seemed to say ‘it’s not much, compared to Paris, but what can you do?’ Bishop seemed as interested for his short journey as his own long one though, so maybe it was alright.

He started telling him about how he and his friends had been to Paris over the summer, if only for a day on their whirlwind tour, and to find himself happily conversing in French in the back of his first class, Lucas couldn’t think what he’d been so worried about anymore.

His first class was fairly straightforward, as first classes went. They only stayed about half an hour, while the professor ran through the syllabus with them, had them read a short text and discuss it with a partner – he chose Bishop, naturally – and then they were sent off with more reading to do for the next class. When the guys walked back out of the classroom together, they were quick to discover they had a few other classes together, seeing as they were here to study the same thing.

Bishop had moved to Houston midway through the summer, and it was the first time he’d been in America since he and his mother had left, nearly fifteen years ago, at the time living in his native Seattle. It had been like stepping into a brand new world, the way he said it, and he was still finding he had to adjust to certain things. Lucas gladly volunteered himself to assist if needed, and his new friend gratefully accepted.

Their second class together was also this morning, and if they’d been kept the entire length of the scheduled time they would have had all of fifteen minutes between the first and second, but they had considerably more time than this now, so they went and sat on the grounds until it was time to go back in. They briefly considered just starting in on the assigned reading from their first class but decided against it, seeing as it was the first day and they could get to it later.

Lucas talked some more about the trip to Europe when Bishop asked about it. He told him about how he and his friends had been planning to go and saving up for it for three years, and then finally how they’d gone, the massive group all together. He told him about some of the things they did, like the lost bet between Maya and Asher and all the shirts and hats which had ensued, and then about the videos they’d done with the girls from the band.

For a second or two Lucas had wondered if Bishop would suddenly look at him like he knew about TXNY, which, with all the people they’d met over the summer, in all those countries, who were fans of their music, wouldn’t have surprised him as much as it used to. He didn’t know about them, though he did say he’d check it out, and Lucas could tell, even after having known the guy for so little a time, that when he said he’d do something he meant it.

Their second class went much the way of the first one, where they found seats at the back and, after twenty minutes in the class, they were dismissed. This left Lucas with an hour to kill before he was due to meet Maya for lunch, so he followed Bishop to the bookstore to grab a textbook which had been late to be stocked. They arrived to find the place so crowded that the line for the cash registers stretched well out of sight.

“Wait, it keeps going, look,” Bishop pointed, and Lucas followed his finger’s trail as it indicated the line, which did indeed keep going, and going… This was going to take forever. “If you have to leave to meet your girlfriend, don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll stay as long as I can, it’s all good,” Lucas told him, so they went and found Bishop’s textbook before going in search of the end of the line. The further they went, the other students looked increasingly frustrated, ending in the pit of despair where the last few of them stood. Lucas looked at his watch. He still had about forty minutes before he’d need to go, so the wait started.

If nothing else, they got to learn a bit more about each other as they waited. Lucas told him about how his grandfather was living with his parents now, following his injury, and he told him about his dog back in Austin, how he and Maya, and the rest of their roommates, technically, were looking to adopt a dog or two before long. This led into discussion of the pup fund from senior year and his having been on the basketball team and how it had been cancelled for two of his four high school years.

Bishop told him how his mother had remarried when he was ten, gaining him a stepfather, one stepsister who had been just his age and his classmate already, and eventually five half-sisters.

“Five?” Lucas asked in surprise. Bishop chuckled and nodded, pulling out his phone to show him a picture of the whole family back in Paris. He was proud to say he recognized the location, and how they had been there last summer. “You miss them,” he stated.

“Yes,” Bishop confirmed, looking at the picture again. He must have inherited his size from his father, seeing how he towered over everyone in the image, even as he held two of his young sisters, in either arm, with the others arrayed around him.

The line made notable progress where everyone was able to take five or six steps at once, which was encouraging, but after this they were lucky to make one small step in the span of five minutes. When Lucas pointed this out, Bishop stared into the distance, which was substantial, with how tall he was, before letting him and the others ahead and behind him know that one of the registers looked like it had broken down, pulling one of the other cashiers away to assist, therefore reducing the number of registers receiving students to two.

“I’m sorry, I need to go,” Lucas finally had to say, looking to his phone to find a text from Maya, saying where she’d be waiting for him.

“Please, go ahead,” Bishop insisted. Before going, Lucas gave him his number, asked him to text back so they could keep in contact.

He only had one more class today, in mid-afternoon, and if it went the same as his morning classes, the rest of the day would be pretty breezy, which made his walk to rejoin Maya feel much the same. He was anxious to see her, to hear how her class had gone. Going by the fact that she was only reaching out to him now, he had to guess that, unlike him, she’d been kept for the length of the period.

Bishop texted him, as promised, letting him know he had looked up TXNY as he’d also promised, and not only was he enjoying it but it was also making the wait that much more bearable. Lucas grinned. He could just see Maya’s face when he’d show her this.

They met at a restaurant nearby. He found her sitting at one of the outdoor tables, her laptop open before her and her hands off the keys as she was reading. He came up behind her, all ready to surprise her, but she turned first, like she’d sensed him approach. It didn’t diminish either of their gladness in seeing one another, and he slid into the chair next to hers, greeting her with a kiss.

“I have missed your face, Lucas Friar,” she hummed, grasping it in her hands. “And the rest of you, too, obviously.”

“That’s good, yeah?” he laughed.

“Very much,” she promised, closing her laptop to slip it back into her bag.

“I’ve missed your face and the rest, too,” he declared as she turned back to look at him.

“Good,” she smiled. “How was your morning?”

“Uneventful for the most part. I had two classes and neither of them lasted long. Made a new friend though,” he revealed, before telling her about his meeting of Bishop Nicholas and all that had followed. “Converted another one to the band,” he concluded, showing her the text he’d received. Maya smiled.

“You’ll have to introduce us sometime.”

“So, what about you?” Lucas asked, after they’d ordered their lunch. “Did you have to stay the whole class?” She nodded, as he’d figured, although it was a happy sort of nod, like she hardly minded having had to stay that long and would not have minded staying longer.

TO BE CONTINUED


	11. Their Introduction to New People

When Maya walked through the door of her first class, for a moment, she wondered if she was in the right place or not, pulling up her schedule once again to confirm that this was the place. Was she just super early? The room was empty.

“Right… okay…” she breathed, walking into and scoping out the room for a couple minutes before choosing a window side front seat.

She sat there for a few minutes, taking in the room, looking at her book, fishing through her bag… She was looking at the back page of her blank notebook, where she’d started scribbling the beginnings of a new song’s lyrics. She’d been sitting outside, debating whether it was still too early to go in, and she’d started to feel it, that twinge of inspiration, and for a few minutes all thoughts of college and nerves had left her, allowing music to fill its place. She’d gotten what felt like a solid verse before a distraction had brought her back to reality and she’d looked at the time, deciding she might as well go in. Now here she was.

“Is that a poem?” a girl’s voice inquired, startling her into looking up from her notebook and discovering that not one but two girls had just one walked in. One of them, a tall dark-skinned girl who gave off the instant impression of being fit for the runway, was standing a few feet away, but the other, from her clothes up to her purple tinted short black hair, falling in a sharp line across her face and giving her the look of a rock star, had come up to stand just over her shoulder and look at what was on the page. “Sorry!” she startled, too, holding up a hand in apology. “I’m curious beyond boundaries… so I’ve been told.”

“No worries,” Maya shrugged. “And it’s a song, or it’s going to be… hopefully.” She closed the notebook and opened it back up to the first page, ready for when class would start, just as she heard a gasp come from the other girl, who’d so far remained silent. When Maya looked back toward her, she was looking to her curious friend, her hands moving excitedly.

“What?” Curious Girl blinked, looking back down to Maya like she was trying to confirm something. “Oh!” her face split into a grin. “You’re the singer, TXNY, yeah?” A little gobsmacked, Maya nodded. It shouldn’t have been so surprising to her anymore, to know that people out there knew about her, might recognize her, but it was, especially whenever she was anywhere outside Austin.

The signing girl only needed that nod from her for her hands to start going again, and though she didn’t know what she was saying, Maya felt from her expressions and movements that she might have been saying something to the effect of ‘I love your music, I found it in such and such way, I love this song and that song, but oh this one is my favorite,’ and then it felt very much like she was signing along to the lyrics of one song, pairing it to loose dance-like moves before laughing and winding her hand in what felt less like signing and more like the internationally accepted signal for ‘say what I said’ to her friend.

“Right, well, Kayla is a big fan of you guys. I mean I like your music, too, but she has me beat,” she explained, indicating the girl who she now knew to be named Kayla. At this, she gave a small smile and a wave, which Kayla reciprocated. “She was over at my place last year and my brother was playing it in his room… He always plays his music louder when he knows Kayla’s around, he’s had a crush on her since he was six and we were nine,” she recounted, this part more from her than from what Kayla had said, going by how she signed it for her benefit, getting a smirk in response. “But this time he got her attention alright,” Curious Girl nodded, a moment before blinking and adding “I’m Franny, by the way. And you’re Maya, yeah?”

“That’s me,” she confirmed, feeling just a bit cornered, though hardly in a bad way.

“I can’t believe you’re here, in our class,” Franny translated as Kayla signed. It gave her the slightest impression of Sophie, back when she’d first come into their lives, how energized she’d get. She’d leveled off over time, though there was no doubt she was still absolutely a super fan.

Franny ended up sitting to Maya’s right, and Kayla next to her, so they occupied the front seats of the three rows nearest to the window. As the class finally started to fill up, Maya was given a brief tale of how Franny Santos and Kayla Banks had become friends when they’d been seven. Franny had grown up already signing because her adoptive mother was deaf. The Banks family had been new in town, and some shared acquaintances had led to the two young girls being introduced, soon to be thick as thieves.

“Wait, wait, wait, you guys are from Austin,” Maya realized, the memory rocketing out of the depths of her mind. “We played against your school a few times, you were on the basketball team,” she pointed to the both of them. As aware as she’d tried to be of their opponents and their lineups, this had been over three years ago, in what had been their freshman year, before the teams were disbanded. She didn’t remember them from the previous year.

“Yeah, yeah!” Franny pointed at her, remembering, too, before turning to Kayla and relaying this new information. “That sucked what happened to you guys,” Franny translated her response, with a nod to pass on her agreement of this statement.

“You have no idea,” Maya breathed out. “I didn’t see you last year though.”

“Junior year, I got hurt in the finals,” Franny told her, stretching out her foot, where Maya could see a long scar snaking up from her bare ankle.

“Damn,” Maya winced.

“Put an end to that for me, and Kayla wouldn’t play while I rode the bleachers, no matter how much I tried to convince her.”

Not long after this, their professor entered the room, and the class began. Maya’s head was still spinning just a bit, first meeting the two girls as fans of her music, then as fellow basketball players and past opponents, and fellow transplants out of Austin. It was like a small piece of home, sitting by her side.

She found her focus soon enough though. The teacher was a woman who looked as though she might have been past the age of retirement, solid as she still was, but carried on teaching because she loved it so much. And really, they couldn’t blame her for it, because she was wonderful. She had this exuberance about her that made it clear she was not only extremely knowledgeable about her subject but also impassioned by it down to the bottom of her heart. Everyone in the class was looking at her, and she had their undivided attention.

Focused as she remained, Maya was also aware of the girls to her right. Franny and Kayla had their desks pushed together – as approved by the professor, who was aware of Kayla already – and whenever the old woman turned away, Franny’s hands would start going, as discreetly as possible, which Maya guessed to mean that Kayla could read lips.

The professor jumped headlong into her material, as they soon realized when twenty, and thirty, and forty minutes went by and she went on speaking, and they went on taking notes. When she wasn’t speaking, it was as she opened up one subject or another to the class, where one student or another would answer her. She would approach whoever the speaker was, with visible interest, nodding along, sometimes conversing… When Maya had a turn of it, it felt like speaking to an old friend, no amount of uncertainty in her… She knew she could say what she had to say without being made to feel like she was going on too much.

They only realized the class was over when a bell rang from the professor’s phone, and she looked disappointed to have to let them go. Maya felt that she might have set that alarm to prevent herself from running over time and making any of them late for another class.

Franny and Kayla did have another class not long after this one, so they were quick to depart, though not before exchanging contact information with Maya, who anticipated just as much as the two friends did the chance to speak again outside of class.

She texted Lucas, telling him where she’d be. Her head was still buzzing with her first class and how much it had felt… like she’d been waiting for something just like this for as long as she’d loved art, before she’d even known what that would look like, to be in a room full of people who loved it as much as she did, loved it and respected it…

She was looking up her professor, and she’d just found some papers she’d published when Lucas came along. She felt him near before she so much as heard or saw him. Hearing about how his morning had been going, she could see that he’d had a completely different experience, as far as volume of content, getting short introductions at the most before being dismissed from either classroom. But he’d made a friend, too, and she was glad to hear it.

When he asked her how her morning had gone, she smiled, probably looking like she’d chugged down one too many cups of coffee.

“Professor Robinson was… amazing,” she breathed. “She kept us the whole class and it felt like five minutes, blink and it was over.” She didn’t mean to ramble on about the class, but then he was just listening to her go on, a lot like she’d been back in class, although she knew his motivations would have come from a different place than where her own had done, listening to the professor. “Anyway,” she cut this short, moving to the other point of interest. “I made some new friends, too,” she revealed, telling him about her meeting with Franny and Kayla.

“We saw that. Remember the teams’ party that year?” Lucas’ eyes went wide when Maya told him about Franny’s injury, which had forced her to sit out the previous year. Maya gasped, remembering it, too.

It wasn’t uncommon, especially in those two years where they had the party almost more in remembrance of their lost teams than anything else, that they would see what the other schools’ teams were getting up to while they were all benched. And he was right, she remembered… was it Blake or Zay… someone had showed them this video of a player who’d had what could only be described as a spectacular crash in the middle of a game and had to be carried off, loaded on a gurney and clearly in pain. They had all looked at that video, feeling knowing sympathy to the girl who’d lived what was one of their worst nightmares as players.

They each had just the one class left for the rest of the day, though hers started a good forty minutes before his did, so after they’d had their lunch he walked with her, escorting her off to her second class like he was taking her home after a date.

“Want me to come and wait for you when I’m done here?” she asked him, smiling when she saw the look on his face that seemed to say ‘is that even up for debate?’

TO BE CONTINUED


	12. Their Introduction to Mingling

Maya’s afternoon class on this first day was not one she shared with friends, new or old, and without hitting it off with anyone that came along to this one, she kept to herself through the class, which let out about halfway through its set time. After the way she had been enthralled by her first class, it did feel like the second one would have a lot to live up to. And while there was no contest as to which of her classes she’d liked best today, it was in no way a slight on her afternoon class, which had reaffirmed what she’d slowly but surely come to trust, which was that she was right where she was meant to be.

She didn’t imagine that it would remain smooth sailing just because this day had gone off fantastic, and she knew that as more classes started, and the work started to pile up, it would get more difficult. But then to be here, back in classes, she could feel her academic focus coming back on track, the one she’d developed over the past six years of middle and high school. She was ready for whatever college had in store for her.

Now that she was done with her classes for the day, she went to find somewhere to sit, not too far from where Lucas was having _his_ third and final class of the day, to wait for him to emerge, as she had promised him she would. She started out her waiting by returning to those papers of Professor Robinson’s she’d found, leading her to some videos of past lectures which made her wish she hadn’t left her earbuds in Sophie’s car. But then she was feeling that rise of inspiration again, and so she went back to work on the song at the back of her notebook, until she was interrupted for a second time.

“Just a second,” she told Lucas without even reacting, her pen racing across the page to finish out the verse which had piled up in her thoughts all at once, begging to be written down. “Right,” she breathed, shutting the notebook, slipping it and her pen into her bag, and holding out her hands for him to pull her to her feet, where she promptly kissed him.

“Can you be here like this after all my classes?” he asked, moving to fall in step with her while keeping his arm around her shoulders.

“Was it bad?” she asked sympathetically, seeing from the time that they’d been kept the whole period.

“Not bad, no, but it was… a lot,” he declared. “On the plus side, I did what you asked me to do this morning… sort of.”

“This morning…” she had to think for a second, then she gasped. “The puppy hugging?”

“I don’t know if I’d call it a hug, but I held the little guy close,” Lucas informed her, and to see how the thought of the unseen puppy was enough to heighten her energy made _him_ chuckle.

“Wait, but this wasn’t one of those classes you had now, was it? Why was there a puppy?”

“It wasn’t in class,” he clarified. “After I left you at yours, on my way here, I saw him. He got away from his owner. I picked him up before he got too far away, gave him back. I’m taking it as a sign that I was supposed to do as you said earlier.”

“Won’t see me arguing against that,” she grinned.

“Also made me think I really can’t wait for us to see about our own dogs, the adoption, like we said…” he went on, and she breathed, knowing how he felt. They knew why they’d chosen to leave Dash with the Friars and Queen, Tuck, and Ghost with her parents and her sisters, but it didn’t make them miss their furry friends any less.

“Soon,” she reminded him. They had all agreed to wait until they’d had a few weeks at school, had time to get settled into the changes it would bring into their lives to be attending college before introducing a canine presence to their household.

“Oh, look out,” Lucas called as their walk toward the lot and Sophie’s car brought them to reunite with said car’s owner and also the girl presently sprinting in their direction with great excitement. Maya barely managed not to get knocked off her feet as she received Riley into her arms with a great roll of giggles.

“I saw you hours ago, was it that bad?” she asked as Riley pulled away.

“Can’t a girl miss her best friend?” Riley defended herself.

“Fair enough. So, was it good then? Actually, don’t tell me. Let’s wait, then you can tell us and Dylan, too.”

The three girls and Lucas got in the car, in much the same way as they’d gone in the morning, Sophie at the wheel, Riley at her side, and Lucas and Maya in the back (“Hello, earbuds!”) before they drove off to the coffee shop where they were set to meet up with Dylan. They did not lack in choices as far as potential hangouts went, but then Dylan’s new friend and co-worker from his catering job, Willow, had this spot as _her_ second job, and soon they’d started meeting there.

“Hey!” she greeted them with a smile as they came in. They could easily have passed the petite brunette as one of their classmates just coming out of high school, whether she was in a good mood as she was now, greeting the group she was getting to know and appreciate, or the sharper way she’d have, which she reserved for rude customers. Either way, she had been indispensable to them in acclimating to their new neighborhood ever since Dylan had met her. “He’s back there,” she directed them to the corner where they usually sat. “Can I get you anything?”

They gave their orders and moved to the corner, where Dylan sat, filling sugar shakers, as he was equally prone to do whenever he’d hang out at the diner back in Austin, where he also didn’t work. It was anyone’s guess whether he did it because he was that kind of helpful or because he enjoyed the task.

“Finally,” Dylan sat up when they neared the table, coming very close to knocking over an open shaker before catching and righting it, screwing the top on for good measure. He didn’t sound impatient so much as thrilled to see his friends. “How was it?” he asked.

Having heard of one another’s days already, Lucas and Maya were both eager to hear how this first day had gone for both Riley and Sophie, off in their own classes, the ones they had together and those apart.

As Sophie told it, her day had felt a lot to her like high school but with longer breaks, some smaller and some much larger classes, and loads of strangers. She _had_ struck up something like a potential friendship with one guy. His name was Leo, and he had been in one of her morning classes, though she hadn’t spoken to him at that time. It was in her last class of the day however, upon finding this sort of familiar face being the only one to have arrived before her, that they’d started talking. As it turned out, this was his second year, though in a lot of ways it felt like the first again, as he’d changed his major.

More than anything, as all of them knew, Sophie had wanted to ensure that this time she spent in college did not feel like she was just trying to pass the time until she started at the academy. She already knew where she belonged, what she wanted to become, but this was as much a part of it as anything. She’d chosen to study psychology.

“You’ll never guess who was in two of _my_ classes,” Riley turned to Maya, who looked back to her.

“Leona from the restaurant?” she guessed. Riley opened her mouth to give the answer, then paused when she realized Maya had just said it.

“How did you…”

“Well, you looked at me specifically, I don’t know that many people around here, but I do know one who told me she was starting today, too,” Maya told her, just a bit apologetic that she’d ruined Riley’s surprise.

It had been easy to become friends with Leona. They’d started as waitresses the same week, and they were the same age, both fresh out of high school and starting college. The first impression Maya had gotten, after spending a little time with the girl, was that she reminded her of a grown-up version of her Mouse-Mouse, her little sister Gracie. She was quiet, soft-spoken, walking along as though her feet barely touched the ground… But when she felt at ease around someone, like Maya, she could go on and on in her soft little voice. Whether or not it was because of the association with her sister, Maya found herself liking the girl a lot. She’d been looking to invite her over some evening after work, and now if she was in classes with Riley, that was just one more reason it had to happen, wasn’t it?

“You’re working tonight, right?” Riley asked her, and Maya let out a breath. She hadn’t so much forgotten as she’d put it to the back of her mind up until now. It wasn’t that she didn’t want or wasn’t ready to work, but maybe she’d hoped to unwind a bit more after this first day. She was going to have to get used to this, class and work on the same days.

“Yeah, why?”

“When we get back to the house, there’s a book I said I would lend to Leona, maybe you can bring it to her?”

They soon said goodbye to Willow and made for home. Dylan insisted he had dinner covered, though Lucas soon came along to lend a hand, where he was regaled with tales of Dylan’s jobs, at the catering service and the community center. Upstairs, Sophie was in her room, on a call with Chiara to tell her about her day, Riley was getting a start on some reading for one of her classes, and Maya was getting changed and freshened up for her shift at the restaurant.

“Food! Come and get it!” Dylan shouted when dinner was ready, and the girls came barrelling down the stairs at once. Maya, more than the rest of them, didn’t have the luxury of taking her time, and she made quick work of her plate. She could see Lucas was keeping pace with her on this, so there was no need for him to say it aloud for her to know he would be driving her to work.

“I’ll come and pick you up later,” he told her as they pulled up outside the restaurant.

“Thanks,” she breathed, leaning over the seat to kiss him. “If you’re too tired though, I’ll take the bus, really.”

“Noted,” he agreed. As much as he would always want to help her in what way he could, there would always be the memory of the accident in his head, fault or no fault, and he would always take the risk of being too tired to drive very seriously. “Got Riley’s book?” he asked, and she nodded, pulling it from her bag. “Bring me back some breadsticks?” he went on, and she laughed, holding a finger to her lips before climbing out of the car. He watched her jog up to the door before pulling back on to the road and turning for home. He would have liked nothing more than to spend this evening after their first day just relaxing with her, but then they lived together now, and maybe there would be time enough.

TO BE CONTINUED


	13. Their Introduction to Studies

When Maya would leave work, whether it was at the restaurant here or back at the diner in Austin, it had become something of a habit that the first thing she did, sort of as a celebration/sign that she was free to relax a bit, would be to undo whatever restraint she’d put on her waist-length blond curls while working in proximity to food. Today, she’d spent most of the day with only the sides pinned back before willing the whole thing into a ponytail and then a bun when it was time to clock in at the restaurant.

Stepping out today though, while she did allow the bun to unfurl, she didn’t loosen it the rest of the way. It would have been perfectly acceptable for her not to crack into any of the reading she’d been assigned earlier that day, not until the next day, but she’d picked up on habits as she’d worked and worked to better herself where her studies were involved, and getting to this reading now fell just in line with those habits. It would leave her able to use tomorrow’s free time to dig deeper, the better to have something to mention or inquire about when she’d have those classes again.

So, the ponytail remained, and when she got into the car where Lucas had been waiting, right on time, he saw it and understood what it meant. There was work to be done.

“Busy tonight?” he asked as they started back on to the road, nodding back toward the restaurant.

“Yeah,” she breathed, absently brushing at her half-released hair. “One birthday dinner, twenty-two people, some business people, and a first date that really didn’t end well,” she couldn’t help but chuckle, remembering it, even though she did sort of feel bad for the pair of them.

“Right,” he nodded before making a turn that was not bound for the house. When she looked at him, questions in her eyes, he just smiled and made her wait to discover he was taking her to grab ice cream before they went home and started working along at their neighboring desks. “I like the way you think,” she sat up. “Can you get me something that’ll keep me awake?” she asked, giving him the pleading eyes. Her feet were not in the mood to support her again just yet.

“Yes, miss,” he leaned over to kiss the side of her head before hopping out to get their ice cream.

Maya was soon left as custodian to a pair of cups loaded with ice cream and toppings, long red spoons sticking from each, while Lucas drove them on toward home. She could tell which one was meant to be hers, with how much he’d answered the task set upon him. If she ate the whole thing – and would she ever – she would not only stay awake long enough to do her reading, but she’d probably be awake all night before she crashed.

They started on their cups, sitting in the car once they’d reached home, before taking them inside and up to their room. The house was dark and quiet, everyone else either asleep or near enough to it that they’d retreated to their rooms.

Lucas could see her eyeing the bed as they walked into the room, like she would have loved nothing more than to disappear under the covers and forget about the world until morning, but then he could also see that she was determined to get her work done tonight, and he was there to help her get through it by tackling his own small load. He could have easily gotten through it over the evening, while she was at the restaurant, but he’d held out, so he could sit here now, at his desk while she sat at hers.

For a while they sat there, quietly reading and digging at their ice cream cups. After a while they managed to push the sound of pens and pages and cups to the backs of their minds as they focused on what they were reading. It was only as they switched from one item to another that the world seemed to reappear around them, like their brains were doing them a solid and not letting their thoughts wander too much.

He finished before she did, though he didn’t give any sign of it. He would know when she was almost done. She would suddenly resettle in her seat, and her feet would start tip-tapping… So, he waited, pulling his laptop open to research one thing he’d read. When he became aware of her motions, like the sprint before the end of the line, he smiled to himself, sneaking a look over his shoulder. Finally, she turned from her book, wrote down a few things in her notes, and then she decidedly set her pen down before reaching to the elastic holding her mass of hair together in one fluid motion.

“Need a hand?” he asked, leaning back in his chair.

“No knots?” she pleaded as she let down her hands and he got up to work her hair loose.

“I’ll be really careful,” he promised. He first removed the clips that had been set to hold the sides of her hair back so that, when he got the elastic out, he was able to dig his fingers through the mass of blond and work it good and free. Going by the way she hummed and leaned her head into his hands, he knew she highly approved. “Right, I’m saying this with as innocent of a meaning as can be: you, bed, now,” he declared, leaning to press an upside-down kiss on her forehead. She giggled. “Is that exhaustion or sugar?” he teased as she got up from her chair and took the short steps over to their bed.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she threw him a smirk as she set about getting changed before dragging her feet off to the bathroom to brush her teeth, because never let it be said that she’d let habits be forgotten now that she was living away from her parents, no matter how tired she was.

When Lucas came back up from his trek into the basement for his own appointment with a toothbrush, he found her sitting on the bed, no blanket pulled as of yet, like she was waiting for him. He raised his eyebrow in question and she tipped her head in what he interpreted to mean ‘sit, here.’

“Am I in trouble?” he whispered jokingly as he shut the door and came to join her.

“You wish,” she countered, making him bite back a laugh. “Just doesn’t feel right to just shut the books and call it a night just like that… If I let my head touch the pillow it will definitely be nighty night, so here we are.” On that, he had no doubt. Just sitting here now, on the mattress, changed and with her hair let down, he could see her eyes lead some revolt toward shutting down already.

“So. Day one,” he tapped her knees to get her to blink.

“Day one,” she repeated with a nod. It was at once sweet and what he imagined she might look like if she was drunk. “Can’t believe that was all today,” Maya went on, and on that he could agree, although it had to be that much more the case for her than for him. He’d just gotten to come home when it was all said and done, but she’d had to work what sounded like a busy night at the restaurant. And then there had been the reading, too.

But as she went on telling him about her impressions of her first day, he knew she wouldn’t have had it any other way. She thrived in this activity, this life she had made for herself, with great pride and determination. This day had been hectic and she’d liked it hectic, because it was also stimulating. He could just see it in her eyes, that light which so often translated itself in inspiration, in happiness, in love. On all accounts he had often found himself beneficiary to that light in her eyes.

“And tomorrow…” he told her, after she’d finished laying out her impressions of that first day, which involved heavy praise on to her first professor and nostalgia for their basketball days from her meeting of Franny Santos and Kayla Banks (“We should keep an eye on tryouts for the new teams!”).

“Day two,” she held up two fingers.

“Yes,” he smiled. “And I have this class in the afternoon…”

“Do you?” she intoned, a bit louder than she’d intended, he guessed, from how quickly she’d slapped her hand over her mouth before continuing in a smaller voice. “That’s so funny, _I_ have this class in the afternoon, too, you don’t think…”

“The same class?” he suggested with the same over dramatic intonation, and she laughed, tipping forward into his arms so they’d both tumble over. “Alright, I think we need to call it a night before you… fall asleep in my arms,” he whispered, when he saw she had fallen asleep, so swiftly he might have believed she’d passed out cold if she didn’t settle herself in her sleep. “That’s not fair,” he ‘accused’ before moving to get them both under the covers without waking her, which involved carrying her around like a kid as he went and turned off the lights and came back to the bed. “You’re going to laugh in the morning,” he told her, even if she wouldn’t hear him. He was just happy to get to lie here with her, to feel her cling to him, at peace in dreams.

He didn’t fall asleep right away. His day had been calmer, even if it had involved a session of video games with Dylan that had earned them a few demands for toning it down from the girls studying upstairs. It had felt good to spend some time with Dylan while he waited to go and get Maya from work. He knew his old friend had made the right choice for his own path when he’d decided not to go on to college, but Lucas did try and made an effort not to make him feel left behind when the rest of them were in college mode. Tonight, waiting to hit the books until Maya was back, it had been the perfect chance for quality time, made that much better when Zay and Asher had joined them in the game, live from Boston and New York.

Finally, it had been time to get in the car and go get Maya, to get to his reading. As much as he had lamented not having his old friends there with him at school, the day had found ways to reassure him. It had given him a new friend in Bishop Nicholas, and the game tonight had allowed him to touch base with his friends kept away by distance or different choices. It would all fall into place, he wholly believed it. And tomorrow… tomorrow they would have a class together, him and Maya, and Riley and Sophie, too. For how much their paths diverged, taking them to what futures they saw for themselves, they had this thing to share, something they’d chosen together, specifically for this purpose.

He soon fell asleep as his thoughts drifted on. One day down, another tomorrow, and many more after that… He knew that, back in Austin, his family and all the others’ were waiting to hear about this start they’d made, and those stories would come, though for a little while longer they would keep on belonging to them alone, the residents of the Houston house making their lives together.

TO BE CONTINUED


	14. Their Introduction to Other Firsts

As one day had turned to several, with each of them now in college experiencing each of their classes for the first and then second time, it got to be that they were finding their footing, which was about all they could have asked for. Everyone had their favorites and then the not so favorites, the reasons varying from the professors to the material on either end of the spectrum.

The best thing they had come to discover outside of their actual classes was a benefit of living all of them together the way they did, in their house as opposed to the dorms, where some of their friends lived.

Naturally, the fact that it was just the five of them, and that they were all as close of friends as they were, meant that they didn’t get any awkward surprises. They had sort of gone through a trial period over the summer and the trip, even over various sleepovers. Any odd 'quirks' any of them may have had, the others were already well aware and they didn’t get weirded out. Plus, getting to live with these of all people, in this house… It was the closest thing to holding on to home that they could hope for.

They would see each other at school, most of them, and they had their one class together – it was one of their favorites, and not just for the sake of company – but on the whole they did spend more time together at home, while they spent more time with classmates and new friends while in and around classes.

Lucas had Bishop in the majority of his classes, though Lucas could see the two of them hitting it off even if they’d had just one class in common. The more he got to know the guy, he could see his energy reveal itself. The guy could have been a cheerleader, or an announcer or something, with that great booming voice of his. The first time he had met the girls, he had spotted Maya and Riley, recognized them from what he’d seen of their videos - carrying on his promise to look into the band – and the two of them had looked like they half expected him to pick them both up in his arms. Lucas felt it, too, even as he knew his new friend would be more likely to respect boundaries than to get carried away.

He had been happy to meet them though, truly, going so far as to offer his services if they ever wanted to incorporate beatboxing in any of their songs. Maya had instantly gotten that twinkle in her eye that told Lucas her mind was already leaping away with the idea.

As memorable encounters went, this one was a respectable second to the one that occurred, two days after that, when Lucas and Bishop crossed paths with Maya, Riley, Sophie… and Leona. The moment the imposing Bishop and demure Leona had locked eyes, the others would swear it up and down, there may have actually been literal sparks.

They both just somehow leveled off around one another. Leona looked like she perked up, just a bit, while Bishop seemed to soften up, like he had discovered something precious. Seeing this go down, Lucas and the girls could only stand and watch, amused though they did their best to play it cool.

As of yet – to their knowledge – it hadn’t gone far beyond this, at least where the involved parties were concerned. At the house, it was a captivating topic if there ever was one. Everyone was assured it was only a matter of time… and nerves… before a date happened. Leona was just too shy for her own good, by her own admission, while Bishop recognized it and maybe didn’t want to impose. But of budding feelings there was no doubt. Lucas could attest for Bishop, and both Maya and Riley, at work or school, could do the same for Leona. They had one another on the brain.

Outside the unfolding tale of Bishop and Leona, Maya was getting to count Franny and Kayla more and more as indispensable friends. They had plenty to bind them, similarities mixed with differences that didn’t clash and hopefully never would. Besides, it was the things they had in common that bound them together.

Maya may not have been born in Austin, may not even have technically spent more than a third of her young life there, but it was still that… a third of her life… was enough to make her tell anyone who asked that this was her home. And she had that in common with Franny and Kayla. They’d lived in different parts of the city, gone to different schools, but it was still their city, and they missed it at times, much as they were adjusting to life in Houston.

She imagined how the three of them might have crossed paths before, without knowing it. They _had_ crossed paths, of course, on the basketball court. That had been freshman year, a lifetime ago in many ways, but what was to say they hadn’t nearly met before, time and again?

They had basketball in common, of course, and this had led to their coming over one day, where they teamed up with Maya, playing against Lucas, Dylan, and Sophie, with Riley in the middle. It was like all those afternoons they’d spent outside the Orlando house, all of them. Some people were gone, some people were new, but the heart remained. Now that she saw them play, she felt like she could remember those old games even more.

Kayla, in particular, seemed to dominate the scene, like she could have easily carried on playing to the end of high school and beyond. Franny, for her part, looked like she had recovered well enough from her injury, but still not to the way she’d been before her accident. Her leg continued to trouble her at times, and they could see it on her face when they played, how she kept thinking about whether she would hold out or not.

And they had art, the thing that had brought them together, in school. It had long been something that had brought _them_ together, Franny and Kayla. Growing up, they had spent many an afternoon in museums, one in particular, where Kayla’s father was curator. When they weren’t strolling through the exhibits, they would sit in a corner, where Franny would draw the further adventures of their tiny cartoon selves, as Kayla told her what to write in the bubbles over their heads. They had notebooks full of those back in Austin, and it was a dream of theirs to one day publish something together.

As much time as they all spent with the new friends they’d made, whether it was Franny, Kayla, Leona, Bishop, or Willow, or Leo, or Ellie who worked with Sophie at the bakery, or Pete and Rosa who worked at the book store with Lucas… As much as they loved getting to know them all, it was just as important to them to know how their old friends were doing, way out there, Zay and Nadine in Boston, and the others in New York.

They’d briefly considered setting weekly appointments for them to call one another, but it made it feel too much like a chore they needed to get to, when it was about keeping in touch with some of the people that mattered most to them. They didn’t keep a schedule when it came to their families, they called every one, two, or three days, whatever they felt like, so why did it have to be any different for their other family?

“Did he talk to her yet?” Zay asked, when he and Nadine appeared on the computer screen.

“Say hello first, doofus,” Nadine snorted, tapping the side of his head.

“It’s kind of implied,” he shrugged and gesticulated toward the computer. “Now come on, I need details.” Nadine was biting back a laugh, mirroring the five on and around the couch in Houston.

“Alright, maybe I’m wondering, too,” she shrugged. “Did he ask her out yet or not?”

“Not yet,” Riley told them, smiling nonetheless. “But we’re optimistic it’ll happen.” With how it had been part of their day to day, of course they’d mentioned the whole Bishop/Leona saga, though they had not expected it to connect with Zay the way it did… Well, maybe they did, just a bit.

“How’s it going out there? Did you find a new roommate yet?” Lucas asked.

When Zay and Nadine had been looking into their options once they headed to Boston, they had sought to do something not unlike what the five of them had done, although with some differences. They were renting out a loft, alongside a pair of fellow students, which they had found through an ad. Everything was set to go, until they reached Boston and discovered that one of their roommates to be had lost his scholarship, and would go to school back in Ohio, which left them now three instead of four and staring down the possibility that they’d have to move into a smaller place before long. They had already bonded with their remaining roommate, even the one who had backed out, and they were determined to stick it out… but they really needed a fourth.

“We did!” Nadine told him, sitting up.

“Potentially,” Zay specified, and she sighed.

“Isaiah here wants to run a background check because of the team he roots for.”

“That is not the reason,” Zay defended.

“That is so the reason,” Nadine frowned at him.

“Well, it would be a reasonable one, if it were, because who in their right mind would…”

“So yeah, he should be moving in over the weekend,” Nadine cut him off, getting back on topic.

Once the subject of the new roommate had been exhausted (including further reasons from Zay as to why he didn’t trust the guy, who sounded really nice, from what both Nadine and Holly – their other roommate, who was called to give her opinion – would provide) they had asked after their classes. Zay liked all of his about as was to be expected, with some comments here and there. Nadine felt like she was right where she belonged, no matter how much work was demanded of her every day. She had felt it was something a gamble to come all the way out here, but it was paying off more and more every day.

“Did he ask her out?” Asher asked when they called to his apartment next.

“Seriously, they’re all obsessed,” Maya shook her head, like they were alone in this.

Out in New York, Asher had moved in to the apartment Ray had already been living in for a year, and as his other roommates had just graduated, he was spared having to search for replacements when Joey and Rebecca moved in.

After the others had come to join in on the call and they had all been assured that, no, Bishop hadn’t asked Leona out yet, the conversation had been renewed, with their own news passed on once more before they got to hear from the others out in New York. It was sort of strange to think about how a few years ago they had all been living here in Texas, while she and Riley had been in New York, and now it was the other way around. Asher and the others may not have been able to give them many pointers for Houston (well, Asher had his connections, so he sort of was able), but Maya and Riley were always happy to share some of their native knowledge, regardless of how outdated it had come to be.

“That store you told me about is gone now, it’s a pizzeria,” Rebecca revealed to Maya and Riley, and they went wide-eyed at once.

“I mean I love pizza, but how could they…” Riley declared, with a sufficient amount of indignation.

It was hard to feel that they weren’t all getting through what the others had to say before getting to what they had been wanting to hear about the most, but then that was kind of what it was.

They got to hear about Rebecca’s culinary adventures, and how she had as much been feeding them as she’d been using them as her test subjects. It was all good and fine most of the time, with the skills she already had and what she’d been learning about in culinary school, but then there were those times, especially when trying out some new things, where it felt more like she was waiting to see if they’d pass out after eating her food. She had also recently dyed her hair back to its natural blond, which, after knowing her with brightly mixed colored hair for so long was just weird.

Ray, now in his second year, said that it was a good thing they were all here now instead of the year before, so they didn’t have to experience living with him as he was figuring things out. Now he was more relaxed and on top of things. And he was simply happy to have Asher back full time, a feeling he shared with his boyfriend, and that they were now living together. Asher was enjoying his classes, too, but it almost paled in comparison to seeing their year apart come to an end.

Finally, all they had left to hear from was Joey, and all of them wanted to hear about the show, on Broadway, where he would have a supporting role. For as long as they’d known about it, they still couldn’t quite wrap their minds around it, around the idea of shy Joey Garcia standing up on a stage night after night before hundreds of people… singing, dancing… and yet there he was, or there he would be, in the spring.

“Asher, you’re in charge, you’re sending us tickets as soon as they exist, right?” Maya leaned in to the screen as though they were in the same room and she’d just gotten up in his face.

“Count on it,” Asher had the common sense to look moderately startled.

“Good,” she smiled, leaning back. Transport wasn’t even a question here. Sophie had already said she’d take care of it, no arguments.

“And on that note, I have to get to work,” Lucas got up from the couch after they hung up.

“Same,” Sophie got up next.

“I’ll drive you both,” Maya followed.

“Want to come to get groceries with me,” Riley looked to Dylan, who gladly nodded. One by one they all took off, three getting in a car, the others walking off down the street with empty bags ready to be filled, to make dinner for those of them who wouldn’t be working at dinner time.

TO BE CONTINUED


	15. Their Routine For Distance

It was the first time they returned to Austin since the move. Leaving on Friday afternoon, with plans to return Sunday evening, they packed into Sophie’s car, all five of them, and left Houston for two days. The excitement in the car was palpable… and loud, so loud with songs and laughter.

With a few weeks of college under their belts, it felt as though they had more than merited this. They had waited this long for a reason after all. The move, the split from their families, had been given time to exist, to feel like less of a fresh thing, and then with college starting, they’d needed to give it as much breadth as the rest. But now… now all their ducks were in a row, and it was off to Austin for their reward.

Best as they’d been able to discuss together, it wouldn’t necessarily be that they would always go all five of them together. If just one or two or three wanted or had to go, it was up to them, and they would leave one of the two cars at their disposal if necessary. This time it was all of them, and it was a surprise. They could have easily told them, sure, but this ensured them that certain of their parents – without naming any names – wouldn’t go off and plan anything overly extravagant for their arrival.

Sophie dropped Dylan off first, before leaving the rest of them near the Matthews home. As they had discovered, thanks to Maya’s covert texting skills, both her parents and Lucas’ were visiting Riley’s today, for a Friday night dinner which had been rotating between them and the Orlandos and Diana Zvolensky, though this week’s only counted three of the families.

“Oh, I have an idea,” Maya grinned at once, looking to her two best friends with a look they were both more than familiar with. It could spell trouble or a whole lot of fun.

She led them around the side of the house, the three of them crouching to keep out of sight as they passed windows. At the back, they found the ladder, as it had always been, and they brought it into place before climbing up toward the window to Riley’s old room.

“What if the window’s locked?” Lucas asked as he waited for the girls to go up ahead of him.

“Call it a hunch but I don’t think it will be,” Maya whispered back to him from overhead.

And it wasn’t. She slid the window open as quiet as possible, and in they went, one by one, landing in what was now Auggie Matthews’ room.

“Wow…” Riley smiled, taking it in for the first time since she’d left. They had briefly wondered if this would be weird for her, but all they saw in her features now was giddiness. And then the door opened, and the room’s new occupant took one step in before stopping short, finding them all there like so many burglars. They were all frozen, startled.

“Shhh,” Maya held a finger to her lips, and the boy pressed his lips together like it would enable him to do as told. Years ago, she would have expected him to bust their surprise, but he had grown, and it showed in little things like this maybe as much as getting to see him get taller and taller.

“What are you doing here?” he whispered, looking from his sister to her friends and back.

“I forgot my toothbrush, what do you think?” Riley told him before moving to hug him. They ascribed his seeming hesitation toward this gesture as his sliding into adolescence more and more, which was both funny and strange to see.

“They’re all downstairs?” Lucas asked, stepping forward. Auggie nodded. “Right, so…” he turned to the girls to see if either of them knew where they wanted to go from here.

“Well, now we go and surprise them,” Riley shrugged.

“Nothing too big, I mean what if my mom goes and…” she made a sweeping gesture they took to mean ‘and has the baby.’

“I know!” Auggie raised his hand before taking off at a sprint back out of his room and down the stairs.

“Auggie, wait…” Maya tried to call quietly, but he was already gone, leaving them to stand there, looking at each other. After a few seconds of uncertain silence, Riley spoke, like she was only looking for a way to break the awkwardness.

“Mom told me yesterday he’s been telling Dad and her he wants to be called August now.” They both looked at her, intrigued.

“Did your mom cry?” Lucas asked. Riley’s face resisted a chuckle.

“Not my mom, no,” she replied, and now Maya was the one trying to keep from laughing. She could just picture that look on Mr. Matthews’ face.

When Riley’s phone started to ring, her very distinctive ringtone piercing the quiet so suddenly that there was no masking it, she scrambled to pull the thing from her pocket like it was a hot potato. They could all three of them see, from the screen, that the call was coming from inside the house. Maya almost called on the classic horror trope, but instead she yanked the phone from her friend’s house as she understood what Auggie’s plan had been, as confirmed by the buzz of voices below and then by the confused tone of Riley’s father’s voice on the line when she answered the call.

“Hello, Riley’s phone?” she intoned in her best receptionist voice, complete with a head tilt.

“Maya?” he asked, and now her parents would be looking at him.

“What up, Matthews?” she grinned.

“Where are you?” he asked, like he didn’t already know.

“Oh, you know, just hanging around,” Maya shrugged. Lucas was grinning, and when he held out his hand, she nodded, holding up a finger. “Hang on,” she passed him the phone.

“Hey, Mr. Matthews, thanks for leaving the ladder,” he greeted his former teacher while the girls only barely stifled their laughs now.

“Lucas?” Cory played right into their hand again. He could hear his mother in the background, and he quickly nodded toward the door to suggest they head down now, possibly to prevent Melinda Friar from wrestling the phone from her host’s hands. Much as that would have been a bit of a joke, Lucas genuinely couldn’t write off the possibility she would do just that. She had her manners, but where her son was involved, the bets were sometimes way off.

So, they revealed themselves, coming down the steps to many happy greetings, hugs, kisses… It was as good as they could have hoped to imagine it. They joined their families, their parents plus Auggie and Pappy Joe, for the remainder of the evening before Maya left with her family and Lucas left with his. By now, it would be strange not to have one another to fall asleep and awaken with, but as trade-offs went, this was excellent.

The ride back to the Friar house saw Lucas joined in the back seat by his mother, who still looked as though someone had injected her with sunshine all of a sudden. It wasn’t to say that she’d been miserable all this time, but now that Lucas was here, oh… she was even better.

Driving toward their house, the sensation was strangely wonderful, like old memories put in the back of his mind had been allowed forward again, and he had lost nothing. If leaving had been hard, he supposed getting the chance to discover how good it felt to come back was a good compromise.

To no surprise at all, he found that what he’d left behind of his room had not been changed much if at all. And there was his old bed, waiting for him. He wasn’t sorry to see it, not after the drive and then the evening they’d had. There was some temptation to say he was headed to bed already, the better to jump into some of the work he’d brought along, which he still needed to do over the weekend, but he only had to see his family’s faces to know they would want just a bit more time tonight, so he gave it to them gladly.

The drive home for Maya was just a bit more nerve-wracking, enough that she had almost tried to make up an excuse that would have allowed her to have either Lucas or Riley along with her, but then she had her parents, and if that wasn’t enough then what was. It was just… it would be the first time she really got to see what they had been working on in person.

The work on the extension to the house wasn’t complete, though it was sufficiently advanced that they could live there again. They were doing their best to get everything done before the newest member of the family made his or her entrance into the world, and if they kept to schedule they should have everything done by late November, giving them a bit of wiggle room before the birth. Up until just a week ago though, Shawn and Katy and the twins had been bunking at the Matthews house.

As they were pulling up along the street, Maya was so quiet that her parents could guess she was scanning those familiar houses until they would reach the one, the not so little house anymore… All she could have asked for was that, at its core, it would maintain the spirit of what the house had been before and, when she finally saw it, her initial impression was that… it had done just that. It was bigger, taller, but it was still the house, not hers anymore, but her family’s still.

“Woah…” she declared, earning smiles from her mother and father.

She was sent on ahead to explore a bit while her father went next door to retrieve the girls. The sight of the stairs pulled her focus at once, so unnatural on first discovery and likely to remain that way for some time. She climbed up slowly, like, at any second, she’d realize there were no stairs and she’d fall. Setting foot on the brand new second floor of the house, it was much more evident than below just how much work they still had to do, but it was all sound, and when it would be finished… it would be beautiful, without a doubt.

The sound of her sisters’ little voices drew her back down, finding them in either of their parents’ arms and wide awake. When they spotted their big sister, they were all smiles and calling for their ‘Ya!’at once. Maya picked up Gracie from her mother so fast, sharing their enthusiasm, before crouching and sitting on the ground as her father put Nellie on her feet and she all but leapt into the embrace with her sisters. Maya didn’t know what she’d been so worried about before, about her sisters ever possibly drifting from her.

Their days in Austin would end before they knew, feeling much too short for their own tastes. But they said their goodbyes, with promises to call when they arrived home again, while their parents also promised to return the favor when they could. The five roommates got back into Sophie’s car, the trunk almost bursting from the various things their families had sent them off with, and they got on the road back to Houston, back home.

TO BE CONTINUED


	16. Their Routine For College

Thursdays were without contest his most loaded days. Five classes, starting early, finishing late… He didn’t dread the days, but they did come along like a sudden shift of pace in his weeks every time, and it almost seemed like he needed to take a deep breath before jumping in.

If he had been in search of a girlfriend who would thrive in waking early on those days, he doubted he could have found better than the one he had. Maya had a very light Thursday compared to him, didn’t even have class in the mornings, but she would wake and get up with him when his alarm would go off. They would get ready, go down to the kitchen for breakfast and they’d be off. She took great pleasure in getting behind the wheel and declaring that she was driving him to school. He fully expected her to take the gag to a next level by presenting him with a packed lunch in a paper bag, maybe even with a cartoon on the front.

“See you after lunch,” she sent him off with a kiss, and he watched her drive off, knowing she’d park the car and head to the library, where she’d be met on and off by Riley, or Sophie, or Franny, or Kayla, or Leona, to join her study session.

He had two classes this morning, although the second one stretched enough into midday that their professor would call a break, allow them to go and grab food, then return for what became ‘lunch and a lecture’ for the remainder of the period. Before all this, he had his first class, the one to bring him in early. Often, he would arrive to find Bishop sitting outside class, talking away in French to family back in France, like it had become a designated call time for him and his young siblings still out of school.

“Do they speak English?” Lucas asked, once he hung up.

“A little,” Bishop replied. “Mostly they picked it up from me, my parents hardly speak it around them, I think they figure they have a few years where they can tell each other things in front of them without their understanding. I’ve been trying to keep up being their source for it. They’re fascinated with Texas now that they know about me living here. I’m pretty sure they’re trying to talk with a twang now, don’t ask me where they picked it up.”

His first Thursday class was as much of a hurdle as he could get, on a loaded day like this especially. It wasn’t boring, not subject wise, but their professor always droned on, sounding like he had been no happier for this early class time and had not had enough coffee to wake himself up, which in turn left his students coming out of there in need of a boost of their own.

“Next week, we need to bring him a cup before class, see if it does anything,” Lucas joked as he and Bishop stood at the coffee cart before their second and much longer class.

“I’ll go in on that,” a girl commented from behind, and they turned to see she was one of the others in the class that had just finished.

Their passage into their second class hardly needed the caffeine boost, except maybe to guarantee that they’d still be awake by the time it started. Lucas had found his Professor Robinson in the form of Professor Alvarez. This was her first year teaching, but you would hardly have known. She was a natural, and she handled their long class with enthusiasm, down to the break to grab lunch and the lecture that would follow as they all ate.

“Thinking pizza today,” Lucas told Bishop as they trailed along with their classmates, everyone moving in one direction or another in search of their lunch of the day.

“Yeah,” Bishop tapped his shoulder like he thought this was an excellent idea, and Lucas swore he nearly dislocated it.

“Hey, Bishop,” a small voice sounded from their right, and they turned to find Leona Willis standing just a few steps away, meeting them with a shy smile. “Lucas,” she nodded to him after a moment, like she’d just realized she hadn’t acknowledged him and gone straight to the tall guy at his side.

“Hey, Leona, on your way to eat?” he asked, sensing Bishop needed a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking. She nodded, her eyes moving back to the other boy, waiting for him to say something. When he didn’t, she let out a breath and walked on, waving to them and wishing them a good day. Lucas gave Bishop a look, tipping his head toward the retreating girl. _Go after her, say something_ , his eyes said, but Bishop tipped his head the other way. They were going to get their pizza.

“We have… class,” he gave as his excuse.

It wouldn’t have felt right to push too hard, so he let it go. He wasn’t ready, and Lucas would respect it. He didn’t want to think that the two of them would miss their shot, that waiting would turn into drifting, but he chose to believe that if it was meant to happen it would happen.

After their second class, Lucas and Bishop would say goodbye until their last class of the day. Now, Lucas had his third class, and it was the one he shared with Maya, Riley, and Sophie. He wasn’t sure whether or not to bring up the encounter between their two friends, but, as he discovered, it appeared that they already knew, via Leona.

“Was she upset?” he had to ask.

“Leona? No, not at all,” Riley assured him. “I think she thinks it’s kind of sweet.”

Now with the ‘drama’ resolved, they went on to their class. It was easily the largest room, the largest class, they all had to attend this semester, enough that the professor wore a microphone and had a massive screen instead of a board. The size of the class by no means gave them an easy pass for not paying attention, not with their eagle-eyed professor calling them out if/when he saw them.

The four of them would sit along one of the long rows, not quite up front but near enough, and also on the very end of their section of desk with its dozen integrated seats so that, if ever they were called to work in pairs or teams, they always had each other to turn to.

The four of them all had about a half hour free after this, which allowed them to hang out, although it all went by much faster than any of them would have felt possible. Before long they were heading off in different directions again.

Class number four didn’t have much chance of dethroning the two preceding it for enjoyment, but it did give a valiant effort, mostly carried by the professor, who gave off so much of a Cory Matthews vibe that Lucas had often gotten distracted in down times, looking at the man as though to see if he could have been wearing a disguise. It was the kind of conspiracy theory he had kept to himself up to now, knowing how it would take root in the others if he ever said a word. Besides, it probably wasn’t him, right? Why would he go through all this trouble when Riley wasn’t even in this class? That was the other reason he kept it to himself… it was just plain silly.

The break between his fourth and fifth class was enough that he just might have had time to go home for dinner, but by now it would have felt like playing with fire to return to that comfort for a little while. So, he would just go and eat nearby and do some work, eventually to be rejoined by Bishop before they made for the class.

“You’re picking up your girlfriend from work after this, yeah?” he asked as they were walking to the classroom.

“I am,” Lucas nodded. She would give him the keys when they would meet for their joint class. Dylan would come and pick up the girls in Sophie’s car on Thursdays, so he would be leaving here in his own car after his final class, making for the restaurant to pick up Maya after her shift.

“Cool, that’s cool,” Bishop nodded to himself, and Lucas said nothing, waiting to see if he would ask to tag along, or something, the better to ‘casually’ run into Leona. But, once again, nothing. Lucas could see how bad he had to have it for Leona. The guy was not shy around people, not like that, but with her he lost all function. So, the wait carried on.

Their final class would see the setting of the sun, leaving them to dark skies and a settled evening by the time they left. It was enough of a lively class that they didn’t have too many people nodding off. By the end of it, Lucas was sure he might have started nodding off, too, but he was good, so he hung out for Bishop just a bit, both of them making plans to meet over the weekend to work on a project they’d just been assigned, and then they went their separate ways.

Driving off to pick up Maya, when all his classes were done, on Thursdays felt like a breath of release. He had made it through another one of those.

Maya’s shift wouldn’t be over for another twenty minutes or so, and like Bishop and his little siblings, this turned into a call time for him, too. It would vary, from his parents, his grandfather, to friends across the country… Once he had almost called Mr. Matthews to see if he could get him to give himself away as being here in disguise.

He was just hanging up with Farkle when Maya came bounding out of the restaurant with Leona, walking her to her car before doubling back to get in with Lucas.

“Well hello, stranger,” she beamed, leaning over to kiss him.

“You’re cheerful,” he smiled as she grinned.

“It was a good evening,” she shrugged. “I’m going to ride this feeling and nail my essay, I know where it has to go now, it’s been turning in my head all night, I just need to get it down.”

“So, we’re not stopping for ice cream then?” he joked, knowing she’d turn on him at once.

“Of course, we are, now let’s roll!”

The ice cream was acquired, and then it was back home, up to their room, for another session of work and studying. On this one, they also had to turn toward one another, to work on a small assignment for their joint class, so they started with that, while they were finishing their ice cream.

As hectic as his Thursdays were, by the time he got to this, to them working side by side, he couldn’t remember what felt so hectic about it anymore. Here he was good, and accomplished, and by the time they went to bed, with one more day to look forward to before the weekend, he was coming to the conclusion that maybe this was actually his favorite day of the week.

“Farkle said to tell you that Smackle was almost done with the music for the lyrics you sent her,” he told Maya as they were picking up their things after finishing their work.

“You didn’t say anything until now?” she gasped, looking over.

“No distractions,” he shrugged, trying not to smile at how cute she was when she was excited. But then he could see that excitement waver. Having a new song was all good and fine, but it also reminded her of their present situation… They still needed to find a new person… or people…

TO BE CONTINUED


	17. Their Routine For Shifts

Maya worked three nights at the restaurant, then Saturday and Sunday from opening – at three in the afternoon – to closing. When she had been hired, Asher’s aunt had assured her that, if the schedule proved to get in the way of her studies, they could look into reducing her hours. Up until she had started classes, she _had_ been working full time, only getting down to her current schedule on the week they’d started college. Since then, she’d been keeping to her three nights and her weekends, and she wasn’t finding it so much of a struggle that she couldn’t handle it… Actually, it was no struggle at all. That could very well change in time, especially if they got things sorted out for the band… For now, though, she was doing well enough to carry on without change.

The evening shifts, depending on the day she’d had preceding them, whether she’d had two classes, or three, or five, were always something she couldn’t predict ahead of time. Would she have a quiet night after a quiet day, or a busy one? And would she have a busy night after a busy day, or a quiet one? She kind of preferred the busy nights, to be honest. Sure, once she’d get out of there she’d really feel it, but while she was in the moment, going from table to table in her section, to the kitchen and back… she wouldn’t feel the exhaustion kick in until later.

The very worst combination was a quiet night after a busy day. It could have appeared as though a busy night after a similar day would have been the absolute worst, but it wasn’t. She could hit her momentum and be good to start dozing off on the ride home with Lucas. A quiet night after a busy day was an invitation to distraction, letting her day wash over her in those moments where she didn’t have so much to do. The best she could do to try and counter the effect was to find something else to do, anything at all, until she was back on track.

The weekends were another beast entirely. Saturdays before work would be for chores and longer calls to family and friends and some schoolwork if she had the chance, Sundays were for school alone. Then, on both days, she’d be changed for the restaurant and on her way out to the restaurant around two in the afternoon. She had four potential drivers ready and willing to get her there, but on weekends she would usually be picked up by Leona and they would head out together.

“She’s here!” Riley called out from downstairs that Saturday afternoon.

Upstairs, it took a few seconds for Maya to catch Riley’s call. She was at present time locked in her boyfriend’s arms, in a kiss that had been lingering on long enough that it had banished any and all awareness of the outside world. It had started a few minutes ago as, putting the finishing touches to her ‘work hair,’ she had asked what he would do with his day while she was gone, and he had told her in something between honesty and exaggeration that he would sit here and miss her.

“You poor thing,” she’d smirked, moving up to kiss his forehead, which was easy, with him sitting on their bed. He’d closed his arms around her waist at that, and so she’d gone and kissed his lips, and they hadn’t parted since then except for the slightest pulls of air into their lungs. Neither could have said when they’d tipped over on to the bed, but when Riley called for the second time and her voice brought them back to reality, there they were, with their legs dangling over the edge.

“I don’t know if this is going to make me miss you less or more,” Lucas told her, as they both played catch up with their breathing. She laughed, then, hearing steps on the stairs, she sighed, and they pulled apart, sitting up. She moved to get a look at herself, adjusting anything that might have been disrupted before looking back at him with a smirk.

“You’re definitely going to miss me,” she teased before giving a short wave and hurrying out into the hall to meet Riley before she could come any closer. “I’m here, thanks. See you later,” she tapped Riley’s shoulder before moving past her, bounding down the stairs, waving to Dylan, and walking out the door toward Leona’s waiting car. “Hey,” she smiled, letting out a breath as she buckled in.

“Are you feeling okay? You look flushed,” Leona asked as they pulled away.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m good, thanks,” Maya promised, possibly getting a bit pinker in the cheek for this. Hopefully, her face would have time to get back to normal by the time they reached the restaurant.

She had a special sort of appreciation for the time before opening. It had been the same way back in Austin when she’d been working at the diner. Maybe it was that sort of… backstage vibe it gave her, being in here, making sure everything was ready before they opened, people starting to come along… She would usually team up with Leona for this, which was really how the two of them had gotten to become friends. It was certainly the time where they got to chat the most.

“You’ve been to France, yes?” Leona asked today as they were tending to tablecloths. Maya smiled to herself. _Here we go…_

“Twice, yeah,” she told her, casual now. The second time had only been for a day, but she doubted this was the important part.

“And you speak French fluently?”

“Fluent enough, I’d say.” She paused, waiting for the next question, then turned to look at her friend when it didn’t come. Leona was smoothing out one tablecloth beyond necessity, like her brain had gotten stuck in a loop while it got very far away from her. Maya moved toward her, setting her hands atop the other girl’s. Leona blinked, looking up at her. “I think you got this one,” Maya whispered, and Leona smiled shyly (which was to say she smiled her normal way).

“I took Spanish in high school,” she spoke, like she was now remembering what they’d been talking about. “I’m a quarter Puerto Rican, on my mother’s side, but she never learned the language properly, after my grandparents divorced, so I wanted to do it…”

“I feel like you’re diverting here,” Maya pointed out, moving to tend another table’s cloth. Leona didn’t reply. “Alright, real talk?” she turned again. Leona was listening, though she was also attempting to look like she was focused on her work. “You have two options right now. You can wait until you-know-who gets his act together, or you can take the plunge for the both of you and just ask him out yourself.”

She almost thought Leona would tug on that tablecloth so much more on one side that it would slide off and carry her with it. Instead, she turned, almost shrinking even as she brightened.

“Oh, I… I couldn’t, I…”

“What? Hey, yes, you could, you totally could,” Maya moved up to her. “Watch,” she drew her hand over her head and down again as though she was slipping into a role. When she looked to Leona again and spoke, it was in the girl’s manners and voice. “Hey, Bishop. Would you like to go out to dinner sometimes? Maybe a movie?” Leona had to bite back a grin, while Maya ‘removed’ the character. “And scene. Then he gives a wholehearted yes, and you know how the rest goes,” she gestured. Leona still looked hesitant. “You both deserve this to happen, you know? And the guy’s got it bad for you, while you find new ways to bring him up, directly or not, every time we talk.”

“I do that, don’t I?” Leona bowed her head in humble admission.

“Little bit,” Maya smirked. “Look, at least think about it, okay?”

“Okay…” Leona consented, and the subject was left alone as they got back to work.

It was a busy day as a whole, which might have been a good thing for Maya’s friend and co-worker, with her need to think things over. Maya put the whole thing to the back of her mind as the hours went on, needing to focus on her tables and the people sitting at them. One of those tables, in early evening, welcomed a family of five she was starting to become familiar with. They were here, every other week, and she was kind of proud to say they were her first regulars.

“What do you guys want today?” she crouched down when it came time to hear from the three children. The girls were seven and five, the boy had just turned four a month ago, which she knew because they’d been here to celebrate. Being around most kids had a way of making her think about her siblings, both the twins back in Austin and the quartet up in New York, but these guys, with the dark hair and the light eyes, they just called up the thought of Nellie and Gracie most of all.

After much deep, deep consideration, the kids announced their choices, watching her with great interest as she wrote down their orders on her little pad.

It became a game of ups and downs as she would go from her regulars to another table holding a quartet that appeared to be bracing for an argument. Whenever she’d come up to their table, it would seem to her like they had been on the verge of launching into it but stopped when they saw her, and every time she left she wondered when it would finally happen. She’d have her smile on again as she approached her regulars, and then it’d be back to apprehension as she went to the tense table.

“Please let them find peace… or wait to be out of here before they go at it,” she muttered under her breath as she crossed paths with Leona. Her friend turned her head to see who she was talking about.

“Emergency buns?” she suggested, and Maya’s eyes went wide. Perfect defuse mode…

“Thanks,” she tapped Leona’s arm, taking a detour back into the kitchen, returning with a small plate loaded with four of Aunt Isabel’s infamous buns. Those things were not long for the world the moment anyone saw them, smelled them… She hadn’t met a single person who could bite into one of those and not end up with a smile. “Alright, don’t let me down,” she whispered, looking at the plate, before straightening up her face again so not to look like she’d just been talking to food.

The plate was put in the middle of the table, and with the explanation that these were complimentary, she went on her way, the better to find a spot to stand and observe, fingers crossing in her mind. It was like a wildlife documentary, and then… she saw a smile. Two smiles, and then… a laugh!

“Therapy by bun,” she took a breath. There was no telling whether this would hold, but it would hopefully hold until they weren’t her problem anymore.

The day turned into evening, and, as the hours rolled on, the end of her shift crawled ever closer. By the time when the last of the clients had gone and they were closing up, she was ready to go. She couldn’t wait to tell Lucas about the potential development that had happened with the Bishop/Leona slow burn. They weren’t in the habit of going into detail with the others, but between the two of them it felt appropriate. This wasn’t exactly their first time… assisting… in situations like this.

“So… did you miss me?” she asked with an innocent smile as she got into his car.

“As much as you missed me,” he countered, and she laughed.

“Wow, that must have been terrible,” she whispered.

“Absolute nightmare.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	18. Their Routine For Searches

“Maya… Hey… Wakey, wakey…” a whisper broke through and grabbed hold to pull her out of sleep. No matter how much she would have rather gone on dreaming, face buried in her pillow, she knew that whisper, that voice, and she had known it long enough to know better than to think it would go away before she submitted to its command.

“Why?” she mumbled, reaching blindly until her arm could hook around the nearby form of Riley and tug her down to join her. The surprised squeal out of her friend was all the satisfaction she could hope for. “Gotcha,” she hummed, squeezing her close like a human teddy bear.

“I told her to wait,” another voice sounded, possibly a few steps away – wise move – and sounding as though she might have said ‘see?’ Maya cracked an eye open to locate Sophie.

“Get here, Zvolensky, you did the crime, you do the time.” With a chuckle, Sophie crawled up to rest on Maya’s other side. “To what do I owe this visit?”

“That would be us,” said a new voice, and this one succeeded in getting her to open both her eyes, good and proper, because there was no way… She finally spotted the phone in Sophie’s hand and saw that there was Nadine’s face on it, laughing as she waved to her piled up friends. “Not ashamed to say, I once had a dream that started just like this,” she declared.

“I think someone dropped me?” yet one more voice came up, and at once Riley tried to reach her hand to the ground next to the bed, finally coming up with her own phone, where they could find Smackle staring back at them.

“Okay… okay, fine, I’m getting up,” Maya breathed out, as she and Riley and Sophie all sat up on hers and Lucas’ bed. Actually, now that she was a bit more awake, she had to wonder… “Where’s Lucas?”

“Work, he told us to let you sleep in,” Sophie replied. Maya gave her a look as though to say, ‘and yet you didn’t.’ “Dylan’s out at that catering gig all day today.”

“So, I thought we should try and get the others on a call, so we can finally talk about… you know… finding new people for the band,” Riley went on. They could hear plainly in her voice how she really didn’t want it to sound like they were replacing the girls on those two phone screens, who would always be at the heart of what TXNY would continue to be to them.

“We didn’t have too much time,” Nadine gestured from her screen as though she could see where Smackle ‘was,’ over on the other phone. “That’s why they woke you up.”

“Right, no, you’re right, let’s do this…” Maya nodded, running a hand through her hair, pushing it away from her face. “Can there be food involved… and coffee?”

The ‘meeting’ reconvened down in the kitchen, complete with laptops brought in to replace the phones. Sophie volunteered to make Maya’s breakfast, as this concerned the other four more than her, something that each member of TXNY contested. Much like Riley had been an unofficial part of the girls’ basketball team at their high school, so was Sophie the unofficial fifth member of their band, and never let it be said that she hadn’t been there before or wasn’t as important as whoever they recruited to join their ranks.

It really was as good of a time as any, wasn’t it? They were settled in everywhere, home, work, school… And it wasn’t as though they had been seeing any decline in their fans and followers, but it really felt like they needed to make something happen soon. They had been as transparent as could be about the fact that their geographical situations had led to their needing to take some time to figure things out, and that had been that. It wouldn’t hold forever, and neither would they.

They missed the band, missed making music, on stage or otherwise. It was time for TXNY to rise again.

“So, you need a drummer,” Nadine spoke from her screen.

“And a bass player,” Smackle piped in.

“Preferably singers, too,” Maya nodded.

“I think we should get at least three,” Riley spoke then, drawing all their eyes. She was just a bit shy to go on, but finally she gave her reasoning, because it did matter so much to her. “If there are four of us again, it’ll look too much like we’re just filling blank spaces.” The others didn’t speak, but they understood where she was coming from and they just smiled. “If there’s three, or four, I don’t know, maybe it’ll just feel like… a new chapter in our story as a band.”

“Second generation,” Maya grinned, leaning in her chair to bump at her best friend’s shoulder.

“Alright then, drums, bass, and… something else,” Nadine nodded along.

“Which we can figure out as we go along,” Maya went on, gesturing with her fork. “So how do we do this? Hold auditions?”

“We could,” Riley shrugged, not sounding terribly sold on it. Maya didn’t know that she was too far from her on it either. They had already discussed this.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen too many movies and shows to think you’ll get anything but a bunch of… well…” Sophie spoke hesitantly, stalling before she could finish her sentence.

“Weirdos?” Smackle guessed.

“Well, yeah,” Sophie replied softly, getting a smile out of the others around the table.

“What do you two want to do?” Nadine asked, looking to Riley and Maya. “We want to be a part of this, of course, but when it comes down to it you two will be the ones who will be working with whoever you bring in, so before Smackle or myself… it has to feel right to you.” Maya turned to Riley, who looked to her, too, neither of them knowing what to say, where to start.

Maya couldn’t speak for Riley’s side of it, but she knew _she_ had definitely been… on the prowl, which sounded weirder than it really was, though not so much that it was too far off. One day, nearly two weeks before, she’d almost run into a bench when she’d turned her head all of a sudden, after spotting a girl walking by with a guitar case strapped to her back. Another time, on her way to work, she’d stalled, listening to a busker on a corner near the restaurant with the determination of someone seeking something… someone. The poor girl kept looking at her like she thought she was doing something wrong.

When she’d finally told Lucas about these moments and several others that had happened in the time since they’d arrived in Houston, looking like she was just the tiniest bit embarrassed, he’d laughed. Once he had promised that it had more to do with that look on her face than with what she’d been up to, he had been the one to make her realize what she had been doing and why. She wanted, she needed to make TXNY move forward, in whatever way it would happen.

“What about you?” she’d joked, leaning to set her head at his shoulder. “Want to be in the band? I happen to have an in with the lead singer… and every other member.”

“Think about that idea. Think about it real good,” he instructed her, and she had to let out a breath. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Besides, I kind of like you guys being a group of girls out there being all amazing together,” he had gone on, and on that they did agree, too. Whatever direction they would go with their new members, it was clear to all of them that they were seeking three or four girls to join Maya and Riley.

Looking at her best friend now, Maya felt like she knew what she was thinking, because she was probably thinking the same thing she was.

Even though it felt like an invitation to possibly being stuck waiting a long time, the answer that felt most to fit them was that whoever would be the right people for them and the band, they would just… find each other. It might have been asking a lot that they would find three people that way, but who could say? The one thing that felt certain was that they would find them, and it wouldn’t be by putting themselves in some position like they knew better because it was ‘their’ band.

Before long, both Nadine and Smackle needed to go on their way, so the call ended, though the conversation carried on, between the two remaining members and their honorary fifth, sitting around the kitchen table. Sophie pulled her laptop to herself and opened up a blank document.

“What are you doing?” Riley asked.

“Taking notes,” Sophie shrugged. Maya got halfway up from her chair to try and get a look at the screen. There really wasn’t much to take note of so far.

_Drummer_

_Bass player_

_?????_

Maya looked to Sophie, who gave a shrug. It was something to do, wasn’t it? After a moment, Sophie sat up, looking to either of them.

“Do you know anyone who plays an instrument? Who sings? In your classes or at work?” Riley stopped to think, and Maya did the same. Who did she have that she might feel could fit in the band?

She imagined Leona, shy, quiet Leona, standing on a stage, singing and playing… It wasn’t impossible, she realized. Joey Garcia was so painfully shy when she’d first met him and now… now he was going to be on Broadway. Joey Garcia. _On Broadway._ So, what did she know, right? Still… nothing she’d seen of Leona Willis so far told her that she’d be interested in this, more to the contrary. She recalled one story about how people would point out her name sounded so close to that of the singer Leona Lewis, and how that would sometimes lead them to ask if she could sing, too. Even telling the story had made her face take on the slightest tinge of red, so she couldn’t say whether she could sing or not, but she certainly wouldn’t feel like sharing.

Then she had Franny and Kayla. On the one hand, she had Franny, who… well, she walked around day after day with stage aesthetic out the ears. She didn’t know whether she had any inclinations for performance, but if she didn’t then she could absolutely give them pointers. And then on the other end there was Kayla, and it was… complicated. Did she think that her being deaf would prevent her from being one of them? Honestly, she didn’t. She couldn’t say with certainty how it would or wouldn’t hinder her, she would have to ask. The only thing that might have stood in the way was that, if she placed this suggestion in her head, when she knew her to be such a fan already… What if it didn’t work out?

That night, after Lucas had come to pick her up from the restaurant, they arrived home to find Dylan in the kitchen, pulling together a late snack and now standing in front of Sophie’s laptop, still on the table and open to her notes.

“You should ask Willow,” he declared, munching on an apple. Both Maya and Lucas stopped at this, turning to pay attention to him properly for the first time.

“Sorry?” Maya asked.

“Willow, you know…” Dylan gestured with his apple.

“Yes, I’m familiar. What about her?”

“She sings at the coffee shop sometimes, with her ukulele.” Maya stood there for a moment, transfixed. “Her grandparents have a music store, with a little school in it, too. She plays like five instruments or something.” Maya exchanged a look with Lucas before turning back to Dylan.

“So, she’s good?” she asked. Dylan chuckled, nodding, and suddenly Maya and Riley’s choice not to audition was starting to feel more right than ever.

TO BE CONTINUED


	19. Their Routine For Weekends

While that Sunday had started with a wake-up call and several friends for Maya, for Lucas it had started with trying not to wake her up.

This hadn’t been so simple a task. On the whole, he loved how they would wake up, more often than not, holding to one another in some way, just as they did that morning. That was all fine and good when they had the option to wait for the other to wake up at their own pace, but this was not one of those times. He had to get to work, and he wanted her to get to sleep in. As much of an early bird as she could be, one of the best, on the weekends, especially Sunday mornings after a day at the restaurant, some bonus sleep was not out of the question.

With her being so prone to rise early on most days, Lucas didn’t figure her for so heavy a sleeper that she wouldn’t wake up if he wasn’t careful in his pulling away from her arms. Somewhere in the last several weeks of this though, he had figured out how to do it with primarily successful results. He called it the half-wake. It had happened by accident the first time, when, out of frustration, he’d said aloud in a low voice that he needed to get to work. And then she’d just nodded in her sleep and rotated away from him, settling again like nothing had happened. Later, when he’d asked her about it, she said she didn’t remember doing any of that.

In moments like these, getting up from their bed when she still slept, there were still times where he would turn back and look at her lying there, and he would continue to feel like… like it could only be a dream that he got to be here, with her, this way… Whenever he’d feel it all again he would just have to smile to himself, and go and crouch by her bedside, stroking her cheek or kissing her forehead and telling her sleeping form how much he loved her.

“Love you, too, Huckleberry,” she would mumble in her sleep.

Once he was showered and dressed, he went downstairs, grabbing breakfast on the go before getting in his car and heading off to the bookstore. He worked three nights over the week, like Maya, then a half day on Saturdays and full days on Sundays. Depending on what he had on his plate, he would sometimes bring some of his textbooks. His boss at the bookstore didn’t mind him reading if the occasion presented itself, so long as he knew that it should never get in the way of his duties to the store or its customers. Lucas understood and agreed happily.

He loved his job. The store was old, though the atmosphere this created was more one of homeliness than anything worn or decayed. His boss, the owner, had taken over running the place after her father had finally needed to retire, and she had been working in the years since to maintain the spirit her father had instilled in this place, even as she did her best to groom her own daughter to possibly carry on the family tradition someday.

Lucas knew all this from the girl herself, as she was one of his co-workers and one of two friends he’d made working here. Rosa was only sixteen, still in high school, but you could swear by looking at her that her heart or her soul had lived much longer.

“Do you actually _want_ to take over the store someday?” he’d dared ask her, one Saturday night as they stood at the back of the area where they’d set up chairs, now filled, for the guest speaker presently going on about his new book.

“I don’t know,” she’d shrugged, her voice halfway between the personification of an eye roll and a chuckle. “Bit early to be making lifelong plans. Not like she cares,” she threw a sidelong look to her mother, standing across the room and listening to the author along with the others. “Ever since my dad hightailed it back to Italy she’s been trying to sort me out.”

“She just cares about you?” he guessed, sympathetic to her as much as her mother, who’d been very good to him since hiring him.

“Oh, I know she does. I’m just not sure she knows how to show it sometimes.” It had reminded Lucas, to some degree, of his own issues with his mother, not so long ago. The two of them had managed to see eye to eye in time, so there had to be hope yet for Rosa and _her_ mother.

Walking into the store on Sunday morning, he greeted Rosa, working on a new display with her headphones firmly plastered over her ears, before joining his other friend, who was currently at the register, leaning on his elbows and absently reading the massive novel he’d been inching through all week.

“Hey, Pete, how’s it going?”

“Blood, everywhere…” he shook his head. Lucas blinked, and a moment later Pete looked up. “Lucas, good morning!” he greeted him like he was only now seeing who had spoken to him.

“Is it?” he asked, nodding down to the book.

“Well… for us,” Pete sighed, dropping his bookmark in and closing the book, slipping it under the counter.

Pete had been working at the store for nine years. He’d been in his first year of college when he’d started, same as Lucas, which had sort of been where the two of them had started talking. When he had finished, degree and diploma acquired, he could have gone on to bigger things, but he had decided to stick with the bookstore. He was in charge when Miss Tracy wasn’t at the store.

“Used to be I’d have to call her Mrs. Del Vecchio, but then _Mr._ Del Vecchio said arrivederci and so did the name, and it’s been Miss Tracy ever since,” Pete had told him one evening, whispering like it was some big secret. “And I’ve been Mr. Singh the whole time.”

Lucas had turned his head to spot Rosa, just out of earshot. Her mother may have removed the memory of her husband from her identity, but she still lived as Rosa Del Vecchio, and if she had ever felt the desire to separate herself from the name, too, she hadn’t said. He happened to be somewhat familiar with the effects of a father’s abandonment, though not from personal experience, so he wasn’t about to go and pry, but if she ever wanted to talk… He knew, from one day where some of her classmates had come into the store, that she was sort of a loner at school, didn’t have friends out there, so if he could be a willing ear to her here, he was more than available.

Truth be told, if ‘Miss Tracy’ wasn’t so locked in on having her daughter become the third generation owner of this place, she might see how Pete would be perfect for the job. The whole passing of the torch was a bit early to be considered, with Tracy Coleman being all of forty, and any number of things could happen between now and the day she’d decide to retire. Pete could end up having left by then, Rosa could suddenly find herself wanting the job after all, or someone else who didn’t work here yet could earn the crown. On this day though, if a choice had to be made, Pete Singh was her guy.

On the whole, they couldn’t say the store was ever overly busy. There were bigger stores out there, and those were likely drawing in more of a crowd. But Coleman’s Books more than held its own, enough that it would never be suggested they were the little guy struggling under the weight of the big guys. Rosa’s mother had been going around, referring to the place as an institution, and whether that was true or not, it was beloved by its clients enough that… well, maybe she wasn’t so far off.

“What do you think?” Rosa came up to Lucas around lunch time, indicating her newly completed display. Lucas followed her, so they could stand back and take in the whole visual. He had to hand it to her, really. Whether or not she saw herself making the store her own someday, she had an eye for putting their products in a way that would draw attention and curiosity. Even he found himself wanting to step forward and pick up some of the books she’d chosen.

“I think it’s ready,” he declared, knowing to pick his words with caution so not to leave space for doubt and nitpicking. Even now he could see her looking at the whole thing like there had to be something she could fix. “How’s it going with the Halloween window?” he asked, so she’d leave it alone.

At this, she moved back to the counter, reaching underneath for a notebook she opened and flipped through. Across the double page he could see various scribbles, doodles, ideas added or crossed out, all under a banner of twisted letters to spell out HALLOWEEN in black marker. Much as she tried to show herself detached from the store at times, she couldn’t hide her enthusiasm for this part of her job if she tried.

“Still working on it,” she showed him and Pete both, as he finished with a customer and moved over to join them. “But I’m almost done planning it out, I just need… something,” her hands gripped at something invisible in mid-air, her pen perched like an eleventh finger.

“Halloween’s her favorite,” Pete volunteered to Lucas, having known Rosa since she was seven.

“I wouldn’t have guessed,” Lucas joked, then, “Look, you have my number, you should definitely call and I can get you on with Maya, I’m sure she’d love to brainstorm with you on something like that. Halloween’s pretty big for us, too.” It made him smile just thinking about it. Halloween, and then the day after that… Four years together, and it had felt so much longer in the best way possible.

“Could I? Thanks,” Rosa blinked, smiling to herself. She always looked just a bit unsure, like she didn’t want to impose.

Lucas hadn’t really hung out with Rosa or Pete outside of work. Sometimes they’d go up the street together for lunch or dinner during their work day, but that was about it. Pete had his wife, his two-year-old, and a second baby on the way, and he _had_ talked about having him over sometime, though it hadn’t happened yet, much as he hadn’t been over to the house yet either. And then with Rosa, well… Sure, she wasn’t that much younger than the rest of them, and it might have been different if they still lived at home, but he wasn’t sure if it would be cool with Miss Tracy to invite her sixteen-year-old to hang out with a bunch of college kids living on their own. Much as she trusted him as an employee, he didn’t want to run the risk of doing something she disapproved of and losing his job for it. Until he figured out where the line was there… maybe it was best they kept things as they were.

Closing out on Sunday evening, it would be down to just Pete and him, with the others already gone on home. Lucas sort of liked those moments, where the book store got to be a little quieter, and he and Pete would switch up the music playing over the speakers. Once, he’d plugged in his phone and the music of TXNY had flooded Coleman’s.

They’d stuck around that Sunday, after closing, and then Pete had locked up and they’d seen each other off, while he went home to his family and Lucas drove off to pick up Maya from the restaurant.

TO BE CONTINUED


	20. Their Routine For Knowledge

Where Thursdays were the busiest class day for Lucas, that distinction went to Tuesdays where Maya was concerned, with a five-class schedule of her own. As small favors went, at least she didn’t have to go and put in a shift at the restaurant by the time she left from here.

“Hey, wake up, come on,” she turned her head to look at Lucas, only to find him staring back at her and clearly well awake. “Have you been pretending to be sleeping so we could stay here?” she gave the lightest of accusations, her face an easy grin.

“Guilty,” he admitted with a proud smile.

“Sneaky,” she approved before turning herself around and giving his chest a couple of taps. “Now, time to get up,” she instructed before scrambling off.

“What if I don’t?” he asked, and she turned back around to look at him, sitting up and giving defiant eyes. She could hardly pretend like the whole playful suggestion thing wasn’t working for her, but then she had to pull herself together and focus, didn’t she? Why did it have to be Tuesday?

“Then you’ll be late for class… And I’ll be so disappointed, so… so disappointed,” she shook her head.

“Wouldn’t want that,” he mimicked her, then, after a pause as he considered it, “Would we?” She laughed, moving back up to kiss him before grasping both his arms and giving them a yank. “Okay, alright, I’m coming, I’m coming.”

So, they got ready, went down for breakfast, and then it was off to school, with Riley and Sophie in the back, both of them with an early class, too. Lucas would drop them all off as close as where they needed to go before heading off to park and then make for his first class.

Maya checked her phone as she sat outside her first class of the day, wanting to see if there had been any developments that she might have been made aware of. She was juggling a few of those at the moment. There was her attempt to casually listen in on Willow Regan at the coffee shop, which should have happened the previous afternoon except that she hadn’t been at work, out sick. Dylan had told her he’d keep her posted on when she might get another shot. Then there was the girl from the book store, Rosa.

Lucas had put them in touch over the Halloween window display and Maya had been more than happy to help in what way she could, so they had been corresponding since yesterday morning. The girl was a trip, and she could see why Lucas had befriended her. And then there was Operation Slow Burn. She knew Leona was considering her idea of taking the initiative, to ask Bishop out herself, but so far nothing had happened.

The telltale clicking of heels announced Kayla’s arrival, and when Maya looked up to find her alone she asked where Franny was. It took them both a moment to realize this was the first time in weeks of knowing one another where Franny wasn’t right there and translating Kayla’s signs, and they just smiled briefly as Kayla sat next to her and turned sideways to look at her.

“Do you…” Maya started to ask, then paused, hesitant. In response, Kayla made what Maya couldn’t be sure was an actual sign or basic mime to make herself understood. Either way, Maya got it. “Speak, yeah,” she smiled awkwardly. Kayla smiled back, but she also shook her head. “You don’t… or you can’t?” she wondered. Kayla’s face seemed to say 'long story,' so for now they left it alone in favor of more direct questions. “Is Franny coming?” Kayla pointed to her watch and away, then to her teeth. “She’s at the dentist’s and she’ll be here later,” Maya nodded. After a beat, she looked to Kayla again. “Can you teach me?” she asked, adding the gesture she had seen enough to recognize as how she signed her name. Kayla beamed, and they spent the rest of the few minutes leading up to their first class in a short lesson of their own.

Franny was waiting outside their second class when Maya and Kayla arrived. One look at her suggested she was still riding the tail end of whatever they had put her on before working on her teeth. Kayla greeted this sight by launching in a sign speed round Maya didn’t even need to get translated to understand would boil down to 'what the hell are you doing here, go home, sleep it off.’

“Yeah, what she said,” Maya tipped her head toward Kayla.

“Hey, it’s cool, I got this,” Franny gestured, a bit too limply to suggest Kayla would have picked up on whatever she was saying. “Sure, you guys are a bit spinny, and my head feels full of cotton, but I made it here, didn’t I? I’m fine, really.”

One look to each other, and Maya and Kayla reached for Franny’s arms, pulling her to her feet. There was little to no resistance, and soon they were walking toward the dorms, where the two best friends shared a room. Maya had been there several times by now, the three girls often ending up there in breaks between classes. Franny was set down on her bed, where she was told to remain and get some rest.

“Yes, mommies,” she mumbled before curling up, tugging at her comforter like she planned to make herself into a wrap. Kayla pulled her shoes off while Maya wrestled her bag from her, and finally they left their friend to return to class. If they hurried, they wouldn’t even be late.

As they reached the room, Kayla signed 'thank you,' and Maya nodded with a smile. They stuck together through their second class, returning to the dorms afterward to check in on Franny, only to find her sleeping soundly. In equal parts to keep quiet, and let her sleep and to service the request Maya had made earlier, they spent the break sitting on Kayla’s bed, where she taught her guest some more about signing.

Her third class was not one she shared with the two of them, so Maya left Kayla to her charge and headed off again, though not before running an errand of lunch which she brought back to the dorms. She ate her own as she walked to her third class, which was the one she shared with her friends and roommates. She told them about the whole Franny/dentist situation, leading to sympathetic chuckles among the four sitting together. As the class started, they had to put the subject aside and focus on the professor’s lecture instead.

It was only after the class was over that Maya was able to ask Riley about Leona, knowing they would have seen each other in class that morning. Was Riley aware of any developments?

“Not exactly,” Riley shrugged. “I didn’t want to say that I knew anything, maybe she didn’t want anyone knowing… It’s so hard not getting involved,” she sighed in dramatic frustration, earning an amused pat on the head from Sophie.

“You hang in there,” Maya teased, and Riley gave her a look. The rest of them were done for the day after this class, while Maya had two more, so she had to leave them behind, trying not to picture them scheming to get involved… especially without her

Her fourth class already suffered for being the one where she had not one of her friends with her, but she doubted that even having them there with her would have made the period any better. At this moment, it was like a battle of will for her not to dig her phone from her bag to see what was going on.

She could just see the silenced thing poke out of the bag at her feet, and it kept lighting up every few minutes like a new message had come in. What was going on out there? When the class was finally done, she grabbed her things and she was out the door in a flash, taking her phone and moving to sit somewhere and take in the more than a dozen messages waiting for her.

_Riley: At the coffee shop w/ DSL (ha!) Leona is here too, and guess who showed up!_

_Sophie: OMG, Bishop is here and Leona's with us!_

_Lucas: I may have nudged, don’t tell? 366._

She bit back a laugh, seeing the time stamps showing the first three messages coming in almost at the same time. She could see them all there with their phones, which had to be as discreet as… Well, not discreet at all.

In the midst of all this, there were texts unrelated to Operation Slow Burn.

_Mom: Checkup went great, Shawn thinks it’s another girl, I’m not so sure._

_Dad: Baby says hey!_

She wasn’t an expert, but looking at the sonogram picture he’d attached, she tended to agree with her mother.

_Franny: You me b-ball rematch Hart!!!!!!_

_Kayla: Loopy Loop found her phone, I have now hidden it again._

Maya laughed at this one, picturing the scene. Meanwhile, the situation at the coffee shop was evolving. Imagining the lot of them trying to ever so casually commentate the whole thing explained the several minutes where it seemed like her phone couldn’t get to go dark again, for all the messages that had been coming in.

She had to read and walk at the same time, so not to get caught up and risk being late. It was like having four cameras on the scene, each feeding her the various angles and perspectives. What it all boiled down to however was that it had finally happened, and she hadn’t been there to see it, though it almost felt like she had.

Leona had worked up the nerve, she was going to ask him, that much they could all see… and before long even Bishop had picked up on it. From what the others wrote her, it sounded like he had been brought to want to finally do what he had wanted to do all along, to ask her himself, but then in the end he had taken what might be called a step back, like he could recognize she had been braver than him in this, and she deserved to carry it home and take the win. But he was happy, oh, they could all see it on his face, and it was, according to both Sophie and Riley, the sweetest thing ever.

Maybe for being too aware of the audience she had, Leona had excused herself to go and get a refill, and she’d asked Bishop if he might accompany her. He had been so happy to follow her he’d nearly knocked the table over when he’d gotten up. The four at the table had done their best not to appear too obvious about getting a look at the scene unfolding across the shop, but they had clearly seen enough to be able to understand that Leona had asked, and Bishop had answered with a bright smile that rebounded over the quiet girl’s reddening face as she tried to hide her blush.

The last message of all confirmed it for her, as though she didn’t have this play by play already.

_Leona: I did it… I finally asked him… Can you cover my shift on Friday?_

Maya was all smiles as she agreed to cover for her, and when she reached her last class, she showed the waiting Kayla the messages. She wasn’t as aware of the whole saga, but she liked a good rom-com when she saw one, and she got to the end of the messages with a giddy grin.

“How’s Franny?” she asked. She was sleeping and phoneless again, left in the care of the girl from the room across the hall from them. As much as Maya felt bad for Franny's having to take a day from her dentist’s appointment, she was glad that the side effect, for her part, had been that she’d gotten to know Kayla a bit more.

TO BE CONTINUED


	21. Their Routine For Ideas

The Saturday that followed had gone and shaped up, by pure chance and coincidence and a side of unfortunate turns, to be one for both Maya and Lucas to spend together in what she had been taking great fun referring to as ‘domestic bliss.’

In working out when they would get a day off from work on some weekend or another, they had made a conscious effort to make it so their respective days off happened on the same day. On this particular one, on Saturday, they were already looking to attend to their respective assigned tasks together. It was his week for groceries and her week for laundry. But then there was the house, too, and the cleaning of it. This week, it was to be the joint assignment of Riley and Sophie, while Dylan was off working all day. Whether or not they intended it on purpose, to do their part while he was out of the house, they would neither confirm nor deny.

But this was where the unfortunate turn came into play. They had been working on one class project together for the past two weeks, a project that was due in a very few short days. Then, the night before, as they’d been finishing up their first draft, something had gone wrong with Riley’s computer. They had all had a shot at trying to fix it, even calling in some of their friends, near and far, who were more computer savvy, hoping they might be able to fix the problem. There was nothing to be done for it however, and by the time the computer was working again there was no recovering the work they’d done.

Now, the following morning, Saturday, they were out at the library, hoping the peace and quiet would somehow enable them to recall everything and get it all down again. Riley felt most responsible for it, as it was her computer, though Sophie would insist it was on both of them for not backing it up anywhere. It was a mistake they were not likely to repeat. They had insisted that they would still do their chores when they got back, or on the next day, but both Maya and Lucas had told them not to mind it. They already had plenty to think about. It would be handled.

So, that was what was on the menu for them that day. House cleaning. Laundry. Groceries.

“Want to go for groceries first?” Lucas suggested. “Before you’re – as you insist but I don’t see _at all_ – ‘nasty sweaty’ from cleaning?” Maya chuckled, patting his arm.

“Points for the covert complimenting there, Huckleberry. But yeah, let’s go. I think we’re low on soap anyway.”

They left for the store, Lucas at the wheel while Maya inspected the list compiled on his phone and inquired after one thing or another and whether they had any left or if they just wanted some. It had been complicated at first, for all of them to not only be fully in charge of acquiring their weeks’ food but to do so for the five of them who were no more used to it being up to them as they were to figuring out how to balance it all between their household.

It was like some test to see how much they knew their friends. What kind of shampoo did Sophie use? What were Dylan’s favorite cookies? Were there allergies they needed to be mindful of? They had gotten the hang of it over time, though it was still something of a collaborative effort. If the person in charge of groceries that week wasn’t told in time what the others wanted, which was sometimes while the week’s shopper was already at the store, then it would be on them to go on their own time. The unexpected amusement that came out of this was to see, week to week, what the shopper had picked up on a whim. There wasn’t much space for that, what with trying to stay on budget, but there was always something.

“I will slip you a twenty if we can get some of those,” Maya told Lucas, pointing ahead of them. This was his week after all, his money. Lucas looked to where she was pointing.

“Go ahead, it’s on me,” he insisted, and she grinned, kissing his cheek and rushing off.

“Thanks, boss!” she called back, and he sped on to keep up with her.

By the time they were home and the groceries were put away – they had stayed about as on budget as they could hope for – it was not quite lunch time, so they got started on laundry. This began with a round of the rooms upstairs, to gather everyone’s bags.

The system had been implemented after the first week, where they’d started by just dumping everything together, regardless of owner, down in the basement’s hampers. Most of them were hopeless for remembering what belonged to who, even after seeing the clothes on them several times, and it had led to a lot of back and forth in returning everything to its rightful owner. After that, they’d gotten bags which they all kept in their rooms, and whoever had their turn would just have to get those bags… and make sure to pay attention as they emptied the bags. Some of them had resorted to taking pictures with their phones as they emptied the bags.

It was a much swifter task to separate everything, lights and darks and whatnot, with the two of them working together. That did not prevent Maya from seeing firsthand the sort of intense resolve that came over her boyfriend’s face as he worked through everything like he was intent on not reacting whenever any of the girls’ ‘unmentionables’ were fished out of one bag or another. It took a near equal amount on her part not to tease him for it.

With the first load in the washing machine, they went upstairs and worked together to get lunch prepared. As they sat at the table, in the quiet of the house, with all the others gone, it was near impossible not to get distracted by the thought of how much their lives had changed in the last few months. Here they were, nearly four years a couple – would have been near on five if things had started from the moment they had started to really acknowledge their feelings for one another, if the diner kiss had been a real one – and living together, in a whole other city than their families. Not long ago they had to go somewhere else to see one another, and now…

“Alright,” she breathed out, reaching to pull her hair into a ponytail before twisting it and fixing it into a lazy bun after they’d finished eating. “Cleaning,” she gestured around them, unsure where to start but knowing it had to be done.

“Bathrooms?” he suggested, and she bowed her head in defeat. She knew he’d say that, and no matter how it made sense to start with the thing they liked the least to get it out of the way, it didn’t make it any more pleasant, did it? “You do yours and I do mine?” he went on, and she took a breath, nodding at once. Not to say that Lucas or Dylan were particularly messy, but it still felt like much more of a favorable thing to do it this way.

“I’ll remember you well,” she intoned dramatically. “See you on the other side.”

They reunited – with no lack of dramatics here as well – when they had completed this part of their chores. Together they then started on the kitchen. This involved cranking on music, which worked as much to boost their energy as it did to distract them, as it only took one solid song to get Maya more devoted to playing out the music video that was clearly happening in her head, pulling Lucas into the scenario either as participant or audience. One way or the other, he could not be expected to remain indifferent, watching her move about as she did.

“I’m turning it off now,” would be all he had to say to ever get her to stop dancing and start cleaning again, though how long that lasted was forever up to whatever song came on next.

The laundry would be attended to whenever the machine beckoned with the signal that another load had finished its cycle and was ready to be taken out to either hang or end up in the drier. Once they did have a drier load going, it was one more thing to pull them away from whatever they were doing upstairs.

After the kitchen they moved on to the living room, to dusting and vacuuming and the likes. Everyone’s rooms upstairs were their business to look after, though now that they were in cleaning mode they went and saw to their room next.

“Do you think we should move anything?” Lucas asked, as they were clearing up their respective desks, both having grown cluttered over the week. She looked up at him.

“What do you mean?” she asked, and he motioned around them.

“We just moved in and put everything the way it is now. But now we’ve actually lived here a while, so… is there anything you think we should move?” She looked back around once more.

“Looks good to me,” Maya shrugged, turning to him to see if the question had come from _his_ wanting to change anything.

“Maybe we can find a way to sort of… move our desks so they’re facing each other,” he told her, and her eyebrow raised. “Not just so you can stare at me,” he joked, and she snorted. “I just mean, when we’re working on something together, it’ll make one big surface for us work on,” he mimed pushing the two desks together, making a big square.

“Huh…” she considered this.

“Later, when we haven’t been cleaning and stuff?” he guessed, and she pointed at him.

“Correct.” Still, she smiled and kissed him, appreciating the idea. “Dude, you stink,” she whispered before hurrying off toward the basement at the call of the washing machine.

Soon, they were left with only the final load out of the drier to tend to before they could officially call it a day on the day’s chores. Standing side by side, folding this and that, making piles, it was a satisfied sort of exhaustion that held them. Was it strange to be proud of how well they were coping with living on their own, away from their parents?

“So…” Maya started with a drawn out pull on the short word that told him she wanted to ask him something and wasn’t sure of the outcome. He turned to her, watching her fold a towel for a beat.

“Yeah?”

“Halloween’s coming up,” she started, as though he didn’t already know. Between her here and Rosa at the book store, it would be impossible not to know, even if it wasn’t creeping up everywhere else, too.

“Spookversary,” he intoned in some kind of zombie like drawl, which made her grin.

“Yes, that, _and_ a house of our very own…”

“Soon to be haunted,” he went on. If he wasn’t forgetting a previous mention, he was pretty sure the first time she had expressed her goal to turn the house into the best spot for trick or treaters and general Halloween enthusiasts (“you know, the best people”) was the very day it had been official that the five of them were headed to Houston to live together. They didn’t even have this house yet, and they could well have ended up in much different circumstances, but she’d already been determined.

“What if we threw a party?” she said then, and it took him a moment to connect the dots as to why she’d been so hesitant to bring it up. They had already been to a couple of parties since the start of their first semester in college, and they had proved to be much of what they had expected college parties to be like. Much as they could try to keep it contained, they couldn’t retain much hope that it would remain that way. Were they ready to deal with whatever might come out of that, to deal with the possibility of it getting out of hand?

“Did you ask the others about it?” he asked her. It had to be all of them agreeing or it wouldn’t work, they both knew that.

“Not yet,” she admitted. “Wanted to run it by you first.”

“Well…” He set the towel down, folded, on its pile, before turning and leaning against the drier and looking to her. “If the others are in, I think we should do it,” he declared.

“Yeah?” she asked, with a small smile on her lips.

“I think we owe it to ourselves to take that chance. When have we ever been the kind to hold back?”

“Us? Do you not remember the whole bit where I made you wait months and months before kissing you, et cetera, et cetera?” she gestured, and he gave a mock look of recall.

“But then we did kiss… et cetera, et cetera… So, we stopped with the holding back. And if my awesome girlfriend wants a Halloween party, here, in this house…” he straightened up, ramping up his declaration, only to hit pause on it for a beat. “And our roommates are okay with it,” he added, and she gave an amused nod. “Then my awesome girlfriend will get the Halloween party to end all Halloween parties.” He gave a sharp nod, as though to say ‘so there.’

“Wow, independence really looks good on you,” she hummed, stretching sideways where she sat to kiss him. He closed his arms around her in support, and they abandoned all awareness of chores or exhaustion or any stink and sweat sticking to them for the much more interesting ease of their hold. “Four years, soon,” she whispered as they paused for air, looking to all the world like they were ready for a lot more.

“Four more won’t be enough,” he smiled, rejoining into a new kiss.

By the time Dylan returned from work, Willow tagging along, and Sophie and Riley texted to say they’d be sticking around the library a while longer and not to wait on them for dinner, the laundry was done and put away, and the accomplished duo had gotten a turn at their clean showers for a bit of freshening up. Dylan and Willow were recruited in moving the desks in the room upstairs before they decided to just order a pizza and either watch some movies or pick some series or another to marathon, the four of them together. Now that the girl was here, Maya remembered she still needed to find a way to ever casually find out about her voice and her instrumental abilities.

“Hey, how about we watch a musical?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	22. Her Song For Spooks

The end of October snuck up on them as any good month of monsters and spooks and haunts had any right to. Before they knew it, the morning of October 31st was upon them, a breezy Sunday that was to play host to their very first party, their Halloween bash following on the heels of their handing out candy, of course. Maya would not so much own up to the thought that the importance of their doing this had anything to do with her missing her little sisters, but then how could she not? Both her parents had been sending her pictures of the twins’ costumes.

“They’re two years old, do they even understand what they’re dressed as?” Franny had laughed when she’d showed Kayla and her some of the photos of Nellie and Gracie done up as the twins from the Shining. Kayla asked something, and while her lessons were starting to pay off, Maya still needed Franny to interpret in asking whose idea it had been.

“That’s definitely Dad,” she’d laughed, trying not to have any sort of melt down for not getting to see them in person. Shawn had apparently taught the girls a few lines to spout every so often, although they hadn’t quite worked out how to speak at the same time, which was funnier than spooky, going from the video her mother had sent, showing him trying to get them to speak together while the twins just stood there, staring back at him with clueless smiles.

“There are some backup bunny rabbit costumes on standby,” she could hear her mother speak in a hush meant just for her eldest daughter.

There had been zero resistance from the rest of the Houston household as to their throwing this party, which had led to Maya’s heading up the planning process, whenever time allowed in the last few weeks, between classes, and schoolwork, and the restaurant, and everything else in between. It had been no surprise that she would take on Lucas as her ‘official assistant,’ though she had also come to exchange ideas with Rosa Del Vecchio from the book store, in the midst of helping the girl with her own Halloween preparations, for the window display.

“No, higher,” she called to Lucas and Dylan as they stood outside, putting finishing touches on the outside part of the house’s transformation, which had been happening over several days. “Bit more? Good, tack it, we’re done.”

“ _We_?” Lucas gave her a look from up on his ladder, pointing to the distance between her and Dylan and him.

“Supervising, aesthetics,” she shrugged, giving him thumbs up before moving to head back inside.

Inside, their house looked much different than how it usually did. They had moved loads of things out of the way in the living room, primarily into the basement, locking the music room door behind them, though only that one, as they needed to leave access to the bathroom. There was little they could do as far as the upstairs, except to try and keep an eye on who went anywhere near the stairs, but it had been decided quickly that they would have their guests use the bathroom below and not the one upstairs.

They had decorated inside, of course, though not so much that it would hinder their ability to move around, to sit, to dance… They had debated bringing up the instruments, but with the band reconstitution still being something of a work in slow, slow progress, they had finally chosen to leave them where they were, in the closed space of the basement.

It was almost an understatement to say things were going slowly. The only thing that constituted development was that Maya and Riley had finally heard Willow Regan sing and play her ukulele, down at the coffee shop. They could absolutely see why Dylan had suggested her, and the possibility that she might fit in the band was right up there.

They hadn’t approached her though, not yet. Maya wasn’t sure why they were taking their time the way they were. They knew Willow enough by now that they could say they really liked her, that they considered her a friend and not just an acquaintance through Dylan anymore. She was aware of TXNY by now, as anyone was bound to if they spent enough time with any of the five of them roommates, and she liked their music, had done some stripped-down versions of some of their songs at the coffee shop, which Dylan had filmed and shown them.

Were they just shy at the prospect of her turning them down? Maybe, a little? One way or another, they knew she was a possible fit and that was as far as they’d gotten, with her or with anyone. With school and work and everything, with preparations for tonight’s party, too, they could get away with their not having progressed, but that wouldn’t hold, not forever.

“How do I look?” Riley called, coming halfway down the stairs before stopping on the landing. Maya looked up, her face breaking into a grin.

“Like no one better try and mess with you,” she declared, and Riley sauntered back upstairs, her emerald green wig swinging about as she went. Right after the whole fiasco with the lost project, she’d gone and picked up a nasty cold that had kept her down for a few days and, as a remedy, Dylan had brought a box from his room to hers and gone about introducing her to some comics he loved and thought she might enjoy, too.

Ever since then, she’d been hooked, which had led to her costume for this year’s Halloween, and even Dylan’s, as she had convinced him – very easily – to pick something for himself that would be in the same world. Next thing they knew, she had convinced Sophie to do the same, and by the end, here they were, mutants all and mutants proud.

Little by little, it had spread to their friends, who would naturally be attending. Franny and Kayla would be there, and Willow, and Leona, and Bishop, Ellie from the bakery... and they had all gone along with the costume thread. They’d be easy to spot then, in theory. Each of them had opened up the invitation to several classmates, and though they had tried to make it clear that they didn’t want things to get too out of hand, they knew there would very likely be some unexpected guests. They didn’t expect to have any leftovers from their run to the grocery store, or the stack of boxes of cupcakes Sophie had provided from the bakery.

Actually, if they didn’t keep an eye on those boxes, there might not be any left by the time the others started to show up.

“Hey, shoo, go get dressed,” Maya tugged at Dylan’s arm when she found him sitting on the counter and stuffing the last of one more cupcake into his mouth. He tried to speak, nearly choked, then just motioned that he’d be upstairs before pointing to his face. “Yes, I’ll come do your makeup after you’re dressed, then you definitely won’t be touching the cupcakes,” she teased.

“Bishop just texted, he asked if we need him to pick up anything, before he goes to get Leona,” Lucas came back in from having put the ladder away.

“Uh, I don’t think so…” she looked around the kitchen, poked her head back out to inspect the living room. The candy for the trick-or-treaters was lying in wait, everything was set… “You?”

“No,” he shook his head before moving to the stairs and letting out a shout. “Hey, you guys need anything from a store?” Three shouted replies told him that no, they didn’t. “Right,” Lucas pulled up his phone and typed a quick response. Maya was smiling now, and to his credit she didn’t even have to say what she was smiling about. He already knew.

Operation Slow Burn had officially been rebranded as Operation Beauty and the Beast.

This wasn’t to say that Bishop was in any way beast-like. Mostly his height and frame earned him the moniker, while Leona easily earned hers for who she was on her own, even before matching her to the boy who was most absolutely her boyfriend now. Her moment of initiative had led to one date, which had led to another, and so on… It was impossible to see them together or to hear them talk of one another and not feel the happiness that emanated from them.

“We should go and start getting ready,” Maya moved out of the kitchen, pulling Lucas along.

“Hey,” he finally went from letting her pull at him to now pulling at her so she’d stumble back into his arms, once they’d reached their room and she’d shut the door.

“Hey,” she smiled, looking up at him.

“Just wanted to… check in, I guess… since today is not just special because of Halloween…”

“Yes, four years ago tonight, we came so very, very close, to…” she recalled in a low voice as she moved up to kiss him.

“We didn’t actually go through with it,” he pointed out as they parted again. “Not until the next day…” he set the scene by taking hold of the front of her shirt.

“You know, now that I’m seeing it from this side, I’m starting to see your point about it being damaging to your shirts when I do that,” she joked, though her smile disappeared in another kiss. As though they ever needed reasons for it, today it almost seemed like it was even more of a need, making up again and again for the kiss that wasn’t. She didn’t know about him… actually, she probably did… but for her part, she had been feeling all gooey and happy all day, with the magic of Spookversary.

“Can’t wait to see what you’ve got planned for tomorrow,” he told her, keeping her cradled in his arms now that he’d let go of her shirt.

“Oh, that’s right, it’s my turn this year, huh?” she nodded slowly. “I should really start thinking of something…”

“You’re hilarious,” he smirked.

“As I’ve been told,” she treated herself – and him – to one more kiss before giving his shoulders a tap. “Come on, it’s showtime.”

They went about ‘transforming,’ shedding their true identities for those of their characters for the night. They might not have had any sort of powers to match these looks, but they could play it up with the best of them, enough to make anyone believe they actually did have powers.

She had always loved Halloween so very much, and to find that he did, too, had been one of the best things ever. They had so many memories together that went back to one of the now more than a handful of October 31sts they’d had together. The one from four years ago had no chance of being beat in her heart, with the haunted house for Auggie’s class, and doing the makeup on Lucas, and then that whole night, and the end of it, with their cleaning up together and the almost kiss…

She thought of the year of her being the Wicked Witch to Rebecca’s Snow White, tramping around the Shelby house with her ‘poison’ apple ready to be sprung on unsuspecting classmates who mostly played into the game. She also thought of the one that had come not too long after the accident. That had not been the best of years, but they had held up their tradition as much as they could, even if it had meant working their injuries into their costumes, like her turn as Wonder Woman.

However the rest of this day went, she would channel every bit of excitement she had in her into believing that this would be a great night, the first of many more to come.

TO BE CONTINUED


	23. Her Song For Haunts

Their friends had been invited to arrive earlier than classmates and any others who might have shown up tonight. For some of them, it enabled Maya primarily to assist in their Halloween transformation, while for the others, it was just a matter of welcoming them and showing them around with the attention that their status deserved. Some of them were coming to the house for the first time, and it would be that much harder to make them feel welcome if they arrived to a crowded, loud place.

“There, you’re good to go, not-Dylan,” Maya was just telling him, the finishing touches of his transformation now applied, when the doorbell rang for the first time. By this point, it could be their friends… or it could be kids. All it took was the sound of Riley’s reaction from downstairs for them to look at one another and nod in agreement. Kids.

They came down to find both Riley and Sophie at the door, crouching before a trio, one girl about eight and two boys maybe six and four. Maya recognized them easily, costume or no, for being the kids from up the street they spotted playing outside on a regular basis. Catching on the talk taking place between her roommates and the kids, whose parents were waiting at the curb, this was the first house they had hit on their trick-or-treating circuit.

“Did you see them?” Riley asked after the kids had gone and she’d finally closed the door, to turn and find the others standing there.

“I saw them,” Maya smiled. Maybe she wasn’t the only one to be really excited about being on this side of the trick or treating experience tonight, their first Halloween in Houston. She had a feeling they’d all need to be watched so they didn’t end up stopping everything for five minutes every time another kid showed up at the door.

Of course, saying this, when the bell had chimed again and she answered the door to find a pair of tiny girls dressed like witches and holding up their ‘cauldrons’ to receive candy, she was pretty sure she would have given both of them every piece of candy at hand if Lucas hadn’t stepped in.

“I may have a bit of a problem,” she turned to him with a quiet smile as they watched the girls dash off to rejoin their father and continue down the street.

“It’s a good kind of problem to have,” he shrugged, in that most supportive boyfriend tone of his. “Also, I don’t think I even need to hazard a guess what’s behind that… generosity kick.” On that, he had a point. It always came back to her sisters and missing them, didn’t it? “From now on though, we really should pace ourselves with how much to give out to each kid.”

“My dear Huckleberry, when has Halloween ever been about being reasonable?” she declared, making him smile, nodding his head in ‘defeat.’ “Besides, I’d rather get to be memorable to fewer kids than just one more house to more of them.”

“That… actually makes a lot of sense.”

“Hey, look, here come Franny and Kayla,” she tapped at his arm with renewed giddiness as her friends came walking briskly up toward the house. They all spent a couple of minutes admiring one another’s costumes, turning this way and that, making Lucas turn around a few more times than he needed to, just to mess with him a bit. “Alright, thanks for playing,” Maya kissed him quickly before taking her friends and classmates upstairs to do Franny’s makeup.

The two of them had been here before, plenty of times, though Maya soon realized this was actually the first time she’d brought them up to her room. In the beginning, maybe she just didn’t know them very well yet and felt just a bit conscientious that she wouldn’t just be bringing them into _her_ room, but hers and Lucas’ together, and maybe she’d best wait.

At once, their focus went to the various drawings here and there on the walls, knowing she’d have been the one to make them. When they came upon the set of drawings, from six years ago, three years ago, and then last summer, of herself and Lucas, they became at once invested in the story behind those images. It was to Maya’s credit that they could recognize the progression of age in the subjects.

Even going into the basics, saying that the first showed them on the day they’d met, outside the principal’s office on her first day of school in Texas, that the second was from ‘Christmas’ on a crazy hot summer’s day three years later, or that the last one had been sort of a requested update to the series over the most recent summer, some of the story she kept to herself, to both Lucas and her. For instance, she didn’t mention the circumstances of her giving that first drawing to him, this boy who’d made all the difference in the world when she’d been feeling so lost and ripped from her whole world, unsure of who she was anymore.

“How long have you two been dating?” Franny asked as she finally took a seat in Maya’s desk chair. Lucas’ idea for them to push their desks together had turned out to be a very practical one, and its use showed itself here today, as the twin surfaces had been cleared and covered again with the various materials that she would need to get her friends ready to go.

“Uh, actually four years tomorrow,” she revealed, with a private smile, remembering that technically they hadn’t gone on their first date for days after that, though they would both maintain that November 1st was The Day, so technicalities need not apply.

When this revelation led to their wanting to hear ‘the story,’ she gave it to them as she worked on Franny’s makeup, though here again she kept some details belonging alone to Lucas and her. Her friends were none the wiser and they were sufficiently satisfied by what they got.

By the time Franny’s turn was done, they went down to discover that a few of the others had arrived. There was Leo Tobin, Sophie’s friend from class, and Ellie Beale, her friend from the bakery, who had shown up with another two boxes of cupcakes upon hearing of some of their supply ‘mysteriously’ disappearing. There was Teddy Lennox, who worked with Dylan down at the community center. Then, just as Maya was finishing up introducing Franny and Kayla to those three, the bell sounded again, and Lucas opened it to reveal Willow had arrived.

“Hey, thanks for inviting me,” she told Maya as she followed her up for her makeup session.

“Happy to,” Maya promised with a firm nod. In her head, it felt like someone was showing her that a door had been pushed open and all she needed to do was to walk through it, even though she wasn’t doing a thing about it. Willow was right there, and for the next several minutes it would be just the two of them, as Maya worked to complete her look. It would be so easy for her to go ‘hey, so you know the band Riley and I are in, would you like to join it?’ and that would be out in the open, needing only Willow’s response.

Instead, they spent the length of their time in and around ‘the makeup chair’ with Maya feeding funny Dylan stories to his co-worker and Willow talking about how she was looking to get into nursing school after spending the last two years, since finishing high school, just trying to even get that far into figuring out her future.

Last of those they had been expecting ahead of time came Bishop and Leona. Maya spotted their arrival, as she happened to be looking out the window, when she spotted Leona’s car coming up the street. She called Willow over and they watched together as Bishop emerged from the passenger seat and went around to open the driver’s door for Leona.

“They’re so sweet though…” Willow smirked, and Maya nodded in agreement. What she could see above all was how much Leona seemed to open up around him. She was a quiet person in general, delicately mannered, though once you got to know her enough, she would definitely start talking more. The way she was around Bishop though was something else. She was just really happy, and it showed in a vibrancy that was still wholly true to who she had been in the time Maya and Riley and the others had known her. And Bishop… Bishop walked around with hearts in his eyes, a little more every day.

“Hi, Lucas sent me up?” he poked his head into the room a couple minutes later, after Willow had gone back down to show the others her completed makeup.

“Step on up,” Maya smiled, indicating the chair.

In no time, they were chatting away in French. She liked getting these opportunities to use the language she’d been learning all those years. Now that she was done with high school, her chances to actually put it to use had grown few and far in between, except for some days where she and Lucas, upon identifying some kind of – unofficial – prompt, would then ‘go French’ for as long as they both managed to sustain it. More often than not it would end when one of them would say something that would make one or the other laugh, and then they’d give it up. But here, talking with Bishop, it became a lot more conversational, and as far as topics went, there was no surprise.

_“How’s it going with you and Leona?”_ she asked, then, _“Don’t smile so much, I’ll ruin your makeup.”_

_“Sorry, can’t help it.”_

_“Yeah, she’s the same way. Relax your face, please? That’s it, keep it like that.”_

_“She told me you were the one who talked her into asking me out before I got around to doing it.”_

_“I tried not to get involved, I swear,”_ she smiled.

_“I’m glad you did. She takes my breath away, my words…”_

_“I know the feeling.”_

By the time she completed his makeup, they had managed to diverge into talking about France, where he’d grown up, where she’d been… Somehow, they had gone and shared things with one another that neither of them probably thought they would. They ended up talking about their fathers, their birth fathers, the ones who had been out of their lives far longer than they’d been in them. She told him about Kermit, back in New York, and the times she had and hadn’t seen him since moving to Texas. He told her about how his father had never met him until he was seven, and this quite by chance, when a business trip to Paris had reunited him with Bishop’s mother quite by chance.

_“She would never talk about him before, when I asked. But that day I found out why.”_

His father _had_ known he existed, or at least that his mother had been pregnant, only long enough to tell her he didn’t want any part of it. Whether or not the child had been born had remained a mystery until that day in France. After that, his father had started out trying to get to know him, promising he had changed since then. For three years, they would talk on the phone, once a week, every other week… Then it became once a month, if he was lucky. From the time he was ten, until the past summer, they could go more than a year without talking.

Then, when his opportunity to go to college came, to go wherever he wanted to go, be whatever he wanted to be, he took a chance. He found himself aiming his sights toward Houston, and mentioned as much to his father, who went on to offer for him to come and live at his house. It was just the two of them in there. His father had been married three times in the span of Bishop’s life, though none had stuck and, as far as he knew, none had produced children except that summer with Missy Nicholas.

_“And how’s it been with you two since you came to Houston?”_ Maya asked him slowly. He just stared back at her, and he didn’t have to say. It had been about as he’d expected. _“Come on,”_ she motioned for him to stand. _“Let’s go find Leona and show her what we did to your face.”_

TO BE CONTINUED


	24. Her Song For Guests

“We’re out of candy!” Lucas had to raise his voice for her to be able to hear him. Maya blinked for a moment, like for a while she’d forgotten about the trick-or-treaters. They’d made it so one or two of them would be stationed at the door at all times, both to welcome guests to the party and to attend to any kids coming along in search of candy. They would alternate ever ten to fifteen minutes, rather than to keep any one of them away from enjoying the party themselves.

The party had been ‘officially’ going for just over an hour now, though it was hard to either be aware of the time passing or to really care about it once people had started to show up, and the music had been cranked up. It was a good thing they had advised their neighbors of what they’d be doing that night, though depending on how late it all continued on, who knew how long the noise would be tolerated. They may have prided themselves on some amount of responsibility, but the same might not be said of their guests.

They’d started pouring in, it seemed, in mass at the beginning. More of them would drop in as time went on, but still the whole thing went from being just the five of them and a few friends to having something like fifty people in or around the house all at once. The costumes were as varied in subject matter as they were in effort and coverage. Several of them were sitting or standing around, cups in their hands, talking with friends, or strangers, a few couples were kissing here and there, others looked keen on passing from strangers to something else…

Everyone was looking to have a good time, and none more than those on the cleared space in the living room presently known as the dance floor.

“Good, so come dance with me!” Maya laughed, tugging at Lucas’ arm and hurrying him into the huddle of dancing people. If anyone was looking for any slow dances, they had come to the wrong place. For now, it was nothing but wild energy and constant motion. The overall warmth might have threatened the stability of some people’s makeup, but no one seemed to care.

The two of them were off in a world of their own it seemed, dancing together and near one another, in a mix of what seemed to be attempts to make the other laugh and a growing happiness for just being here, in their house, in the middle of a party that was loud but in the right way, on the day they had declared Spookversary.

“Wanna skip a song or two?” Maya asked after a while, just winded enough to need the break herself and also guessing he was in the same position.

“Please,” he nodded, and they moved away from the dancing throng and toward the kitchen, where several of their guests were hanging about, some of them making a dent in what short supply of cupcakes remained. Riley handed them both something to drink. Like the candy at the door, they also had someone in charge of dispensing food and drinks. “Go ahead, we’ll take over for a while,” Lucas told her, and she skipped off at once with many thanks.

Maya didn’t ask about it, but he had been the one to suggest this position be implemented, and she had to wonder if it had anything to do with what had happened the night of Sophie’s party, the night of the accident, when Sophie’s cousin had slipped something in Maya’s smoothie. Lucas had been the one to drink it, yes, and it had led to his crashing the car, but he had never forgotten who it had been intended for, and what might have happened to her, and she knew it would still weigh on him deep down, enough that he’d want to at least try and prevent it happening to anyone else, especially under their roof. Their eyes couldn’t be everywhere, but on this end everything was safe.

“Night’s still young, but are you glad we went through with the party?” he asked her, and she gave a girl dressed as a ninja a cup before turning back to him with a smile.

“Am I going to be jinxing us if I say yes?”

“Depends. Do you believe in jinxes?” She considered this for a moment.

“Maybe I used to, but now… I don’t know.”

“Then you’re in the clear,” he declared, and she straightened up, nodding to him.

“I’m really glad we went through with it.”

For a few minutes more, they tended their duties, passing on cups and cupcakes, chatting along when the people who came looking for those turned out to be some of their classmates.

“Hey, I’ll be right back… Gotta…” she gestured without having to go on, and he nodded, so she moved away from the kitchen.

She wasn’t actually going to the bathroom, but in a split second it had felt like the thing to say, if only for the time being. She needed to make sure she had seen what she’d seen first.

“I didn’t know ninjas wore glasses, it’s a bit… conspicuous,” Maya gestured over her face as she came to stand before the girl sitting in a corner with her cup. She looked up at once like she was going to bolt. “Took them off so we wouldn’t recognize you?” she guessed. With a sigh, the girl pulled off the glasses again, tugged the mask away from her face and slipped her glasses back on. Maya smiled. “Hey, Rosa… Happy Halloween.”

“I like your costume,” she spoke awkwardly, like she was trying to steer the conversation away from where it might naturally go.

“Thanks. I like yours, too, although I’m not sure why you went to the trouble of hiding who you were if you wanted to be here so bad.” The girl shrugged, then, hesitantly, asked if she was going to have to leave. “Because you’re sixteen and it’s a ‘college party?’” Maya air-quoted. Another shrug, although this one showed she actually did know, and that was exactly the reason.

“We talked about it so much, when we were talking about the window for the store, I just wanted to see it,” she finally confessed.

“Where does your mother think you are right now?”

“At a party,” Rosa promised, then, “With people from my school. She… congratulated me on socializing.” Maya had to squeeze her lips tight not to laugh.

“Wow… okay…” she nodded in understanding. For a few seconds, neither of them said anything, as Rosa waited on her sentence and Maya considered their options. Finally, she came up with a solution. “Look, you can stay…” she started, causing the girl to sit up hopefully. “But,” she raised a finger, and in that moment felt very much like she was calling up some mix of teacher/mom/big sister mode that came off sounding a lot, of all people, like Mrs. Matthews. “We are driving you home when it’s time for you to go, and Lucas needs to know you’re here.”

“Right, no, definitely,” Rosa stood up. Maya would have ventured that, if they both stood at barefooted height, Rosa was just barely shorter than her. “Thanks.” Maya shrugged, slinging an arm around the girl’s shoulders.

“You know, if we’d been in the same year, I think you and I would have gotten along just great,” she told her with a smile, finding one returned to her. Rosa thought the same.

Lucas was startled to discover Rosa was here. Maya knew he had _wanted_ to invite her but hadn’t been sure it would be wise, with her still being in high school and also his boss’s daughter, but, after she pleaded the girl’s case, he let out a breath and agreed to go along with her plan.

“Just… stick around with one of ours, okay?” he asked, and again Rosa submitted happily to their guidelines, so long as it meant she got to stay.

So, leaving Lucas back in the kitchen again, Maya took Rosa around, introducing her to her band of mutants, dotted around the party as they were.

“Look, go dance with your boyfriend a bit, we got her,” Franny promised. Rosa looked happy to stick with her and Kayla for a while, so she made her way back to the kitchen, just as Lucas was walking out of it, having been relieved by Dylan.

“Dancing feet reloaded?” Maya asked.

“Cooled down a bit, yeah,” he caught up her hand, spinning her with a smile before they went back dancing amid the others. Some had left to take a breath or two, just as they’d done, some had finally stepped to the floor, while others looked like they’d never left.

“How are they still breathing?” Maya asked, amazed. Seeing Lucas looked just a bit distracted, she reached up to take his chin and make him look back at her. “You didn’t tell her to come, you won’t get fired, and I mean…” She had to pause for a moment, baffled as to how they could be ‘looking back on their youth’ when they were just a few years older than this girl. “You know what it was like at her age.”

The statement was enough to make him pause, too, before he had to laugh about it, making her laugh, too. He relaxed after that though, which was what she’d been hoping for. They allowed themselves to get lost in the dance and each other again. Their friends would join them now and then, sometimes splitting them off into new pairings for the span of a song, but sooner or later they would find one another again.

When they needed to take another break, they went out the back door to sit and get some air, discovering that the dance floor had expanded here into their small yard. Compared to the rising heat of so many bodies indoors, this might not have been too bad of an idea, although for now they much preferred sitting to dancing. They found a corner and they sat there, her head pressed to his shoulder for a time before, feeling her energy return some of the way, she turned about, slipping her arms around his neck to pull him into a kiss, which he returned as though he’d been on the edge of reaching for her, too. They remained locked in this embrace for some time, melting for a whole other reason than a crowded dance floor.

By the time they broke apart again, for air as much as thirst, he got up and helped her do the same and they went back into the kitchen, where Sophie was now handing out the cups.

“Having a good time?” she asked, with a smirk that suggested she’d only had to take one look at them to know what they’d been up to.

“I’m going to let that one pass, Zvolensky, because your girl is an ocean away,” Maya squinted at her. Sophie just smiled and tipped her head in agreement.

“Well, we’re running out of ice, any chance you two could go and get some?”

“On it,” Lucas raised his hand, and so they wove their way back out of the house, looking around momentarily to confirm that Rosa was still in sight and surrounded by friends. They didn’t take the car, deciding that the short walk to the store would do them some good.

“Want to go ring some bells? I could go for some candy,” Maya joked as they walked on.

“By now, I don’t think anyone’s answering their doors anymore,” he pointed out. “But if it’s candy you want, I can make that happen.”

“My hero,” she mock swooned.

“Have you seen us? We’re both heroes tonight.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	25. Her Song For Mysteries

Carrying the ice back from the store was as good of a cool down as they could ask for. Maya had been finding it very hard not to act like she was aware of the number of heavy bags of ice Lucas carried in each hand and how it was the tiniest bit impressive, and… well, the best way for her to counteract this was to keep talking… and not get caught up staring at him…

As they got closer to the house though, something came along to draw her attention elsewhere, and the same could be said for him. There were more cars on the street than there had been when they’d left, more cars with parking stickers they recognized for belonging to their school. And there were more people hanging out outside the house, which was soon confirmed to be due to the fact that the inside of the house had more than reached capacity and now spilled out on the lawn, both in front and back of the house and even on the sides.

“Woah…” Maya blinked, looking first to Lucas and then to the bags of ice in their hands. Would that even be enough anymore.

“We better get in there,” Lucas breathed for a moment before leading her around the side, deciding it might be easier to get to where they needed to leave the ice that way.

Some of the people they passed were familiar to them, from one class or another. Others were not, but they could easily have been from Sophie or Riley’s classes, or other waiters who worked with Dylan and Willow at the catering service… or they could be completely random people who’d heard about the party and decided to drop in.

“You’re back!” Leona sounded relieved when they stepped into the kitchen. She was now manning the food and drink dispensing.

“How many showed up while we were gone?” Maya asked, moving to get a look into the living room. She could just see Bishop, standing tall as he did, posted in front of the stairs leading to the second floor, cutting the very convincing bouncer figure. No one was going up there, and by this point of the night she was kind of glad for that.

“Riley thinks she’s counted about thirty-four,” Leona reported, and Maya’s head whipped back to look at her.

“We can’t be far to a hundred now…” Lucas was just as startled.

“Any complaints from neighbors?” Maya asked. She was not looking forward to have this night end with police showing up.

“I don’t think so,” Leona told her. At this moment, Sophie’s co-worker from the bakery, Ellie, came into the kitchen.

“Hey, I’ll take a turn,” she told Leona. “You can get back out there.”

Somewhere between her drawling accent – which to Maya had always seemed one of the thickest ones she’d heard in all her years in Texas, at least in someone so young – and her whole look – at least when she wasn’t in costume for the party – it was hard not to look at Ellie Beale and refer to her as Cowgirl Ellie. This girl was everything you might expect to find in Texas when you’d never actually been there before, though not so exaggerated that it became bad, far from it. She just seemed made for it… or _it_ seemed made for _her._ She was twenty-three, a graduate of their school, and she’d been a lifesaver in providing some dinner recipes for them to try which proved to be a hit all around.

“Thanks, but I think I’m okay in here right now,” Leona spoke in her usual soft tones, which in the midst of the party noise and the music was just barely keeping from getting lost on its way to their ears. They could hardly blame her for feeling apprehensive about going back into that crowded place, so Ellie joined Leona instead of simply going back to dance, which the shy girl seemed to appreciate.

“Come on, let’s go,” Maya nodded toward the living room, and Lucas nodded, following her.

The dance floor had expanded since they’d gone for their ice errand. Those who’d been standing or sitting along the walls had either joined in the dancing or gone somewhere else, because the dancers were pounding away at the ground to the point where it could almost be said the floor was shaking. Maya had a very real and sudden concern that the whole thing might collapse in on itself.

“This… this doesn’t have to be a bad thing, does it?” Maya asked, uncertain.

“No, I mean… I don’t think so…” Lucas replied. He didn’t sound so sure either. They moved toward Bishop, who resettled his stance as they approached, as though he thought they were a couple of random people attempting to escape away to quieter and more private ventures… Then he recognized them and his posture relaxed again just a bit. “Thanks,” Lucas told him, without having to say more. Bishop just nodded.

“Has anyone been upstairs?” Maya asked him.

“Not since I’ve been here,” he told them, and Lucas went up to get a look, just in case.

“Leona’s in the kitchen, she can’t really…” Maya indicated the crowded room.

“I know,” Bishop told her. “When more people started showing up, she went in there and I came here, we both figured it’d be easier this way. She wouldn’t have to be so anxious, and I could keep an eye for you guys.”

“Can I hug you right now?” Maya chuckled, and the big guy grinned.

Lucas returned from above to report that everything looked as it was supposed to, and there was no one in any of the rooms. Maya could see him looking at the crowd in their house from where he stood on the landing, and she knew how he was feeling. Were they going to get them all to leave when they had to leave? Sure, most of them would probably have class in the morning, but still… the party was not giving any sign of slowing down.

So, really, they had two choices. They could stand back and worry through the evening, which would make the whole enterprise of even having thrown the party a bit pointless, or they could allow themselves a bit more trust and go and enjoy themselves a while more with their friends and classmates and see where it took them.

“Dance with me?” she stared up to Lucas, and he smiled, bounding down the last steps before sweeping her away toward the dance floor, making her burst into giggles.

So, they danced again. The energy was infectious, and maybe… very likely… later on it would hit them like a ton of bricks with just how tired they would be, but for now they were good, they were dancing. Seeing him break out those moves a couple years of dance class had put in him was enough to keep her smile going without stop.

As they danced, they crossed paths every so often with some of the others. Sophie was bopping along with her classmate, Leo. The guy was all limbs, standing a head taller than her, and it might have come off as awkward and funny to some, but if anyone would make fun of him for it, he didn’t seem to care or notice. He was having a good time, and so was Sophie.

Further along they found Dylan dancing with Riley, and despite their actual costumes and borrowed personas, it looked as though Dylan had revived – if it could be called as such – his zombie walk from their haunted house days, and was now making his zombie dance. Riley had started to imitate him, and they were having a good time for it.

“No partner?” Maya asked with a smile as they came across Willow Regan, dancing by herself. Willow turned to her, with a look of mock cluelessness.

“What do you mean, can’t you see him? My pal here… Casper…” she grinned, waving her arm about as though to indicate a ghostly presence.

“My apologies, my dearly departed guest,” Maya played into this before both girls had a laugh over it.

“Why don’t you step in for the ghost boy, I’m going to see if I can find where Rosa’s gotten off to,” Lucas leaned in so Maya could hear him. She nodded, and he moved off as she reached for Willow’s hand and made her spin once before they started hopping around to the music.

“Who’s Rosa?” Willow asked.

“She works with him at the book store, Coleman’s?”

“Oh, yeah,” Willow smiled, nodding with familiarity.

“She’s sixteen, she snuck in,” Maya went on, and the nods continued.

“Been there. Junior year, I started dating a guy, he was a senior, so the year after that he was in college, in town, I wanted to go see him, surprise him…” She let the story trail off, and Maya didn’t need to hear the rest to know it hadn’t ended well. Still, she guessed Willow had gotten over it by now.

It wasn’t exactly the same story as far as Rosa was concerned, of course. She was just a girl hungry for friendship, and now she’d found it. Maya could hardly blame her for wanting to pursue it. And it wasn’t as though they were bad for her, far from it, but then the circumstances here could easily have led to problems, and not just for her.

“Can’t find her,” Lucas reappeared next to them, making them jump. He looked worried, and Maya knew right then he wasn’t thinking about his job and whether or not he’d lose it but rather about Rosa and whether or not she was safe.

“We’ll look for her, she’s gotta be around here somewhere and we can’t see her, I mean she’s dressed as a ninja,” Maya pointed out.

“Really?” Willow looked at her.

“It’ll be funny again once we know where she is,” Maya nodded.

They split off in search of Rosa, Lucas going one way and the girls going the other. Maya had her phone out, texting Rosa, although in this noise, if she was at the heart of it all, she might not hear the notification tone.

“Wait, do you hear that?” Willow stalled her, and Maya listened. “Call her.” She made the call, and they waited. Somewhere in the middle of the music blasting through the living room, they could just make out some notes that didn’t follow the rest. They followed that sound, until they came to find a frayed bag covered in patches and badges, from which the tone was ringing. Maya picked it up and fished out a phone, showing her name as the caller. Rosa’s phone, Rosa’s bag, and no Rosa.

“No, no, no, come on...” Maya muttered to herself, cutting around the dance floor until she reached Bishop. As they went, Sophie spotted them and, seeing the concern on their faces, excused herself from Leo in order to follow them. “Anyone try to come through here since last time?”

“No, why?”

“What’s going on?” Sophie asked, but Maya answered Bishop first.

“Did you see a girl, this tall, dark hair, glasses, dressed like a ninja?”

“Uh, yeah, well, she went down in the basement a little while ago, but…” They didn’t wait to hear the rest, moving toward the basement door.

“Lucas!” Maya shouted, letting their basketball call rip so he’d hear her and come toward her. Riley and Dylan were with him, apparently recruited into the search, too. “Basement,” she told him, holding up the found bag. He looked like he was about to faint. “Come on,” they moved toward the door, which had remained closed most of the time, far as they knew.

It opened just ahead of them, a couple of girls coming up from using the bathroom, far as they could tell, laughing along and paying them no mind. Once they’d moved along, the concerned search party started down the stairs, unsure of what they would find.

TO BE CONTINUED


	26. Her Song For Resolutions

It took going down a handful of steps, moving themselves away from the blast of the music above, to start catching on to the music from below. This one was much simpler, falling less along the lines of ‘let’s jump around again and again’ and more ‘let’s make some music.’ It took a few more steps down for them to establish that this wasn’t coming from some recording. There were people in their instrument room, using some of them, two that they could identify. Someone was on the drums, with a steady rhythm, and someone was on what definitely sounded like the bass guitar. And there was singing, one singular voice. Even with the soundproofing they’d done on the room, it was a wonder they could find enough peace to make something like this.

As the search party, momentarily thrown off from apprehension and into confusion, came around the bottom of the steps, they found answers to all their questions. Where was Rosa? Was she okay? Who was down here making music?

Franny was sitting on the couch in the corner, listening with a beaming smile, a captive audience to the duo at the heart of the room. Kayla… Kayla was at the drums, a happy look on her face and a deftness with the sticks in her hands that showed this was by no means her first time sitting to a kit like this. How had it never come up until now that this was something she did? Well, Maya supposed that she’d never thought to ask, and she felt sort of bad for it.

If this wasn’t enough of a surprise, there she was, the one they’d been searching for so frantically. Rosa sat on the ground, a few feet away and facing the drums, legs crossed, feet bare, and the bass balanced in her hands as she played and sang in equal measures of beauty. It was like watching her soul, finally open for them to see, even if they hadn’t so much been invited to look into it as they’d stumbled upon it. Even now, she remained oblivious to their presence. She just played her tune, her and Kayla both.

It was Franny who saw them all stood there, and she just smiled at them, grinned, really, with a wink and a finger to her lips. _Be quiet, listen._

So, they stood, and they listened, which was really not hard for them to do. You would have thought, by the way they played together, that they’d done this so many times before, the two of them, when in fact they had only met on this night. Maya could feel Riley gripping on to her arm, not saying a word and not needing to; she was way ahead of her. Halloween had found a way to make things move forward for her once before, and now maybe it was doing it again. Was it any wonder she loved it so much?

Looking to her other side, much as she could see her other roommates, Maya was also aware of Willow, who’d been her search buddy upstairs before following them down here. The way she smiled, listening to the two girls before them, the way her fingers moved at her sides, it was like she was imagining being out there with them, with some imaginary instrument in her hands.

The spell was broken, interrupted, when someone upstairs had the presence of mind to shut the basement door again. The sharp sound stalled Rosa, which stalled Kayla, and then the girl sat on the ground saw that first startling instant redoubled when she turned her head and saw the six people standing there, staring back at her.

“Sorry, I… sorry…” she blinked, looking at them, looking down to the bass in her hands, then back at them. “I…” She was at a loss for words to explain how she’d ended up down here, playing their instruments. The light she’d had about her just a moment ago went and seeped back into hiding, and she was the same girl they’d known before once again. She was looking to Kayla and to Franny for assistance, so Franny was finally the one to get up and explain.

“We were talking up there, and one thing led to another, we got into music, Rosa said she’d been teaching herself how to play bass…”

“You taught yourself?” Riley blinked, impressed. Rosa gave a very small nod, though her face seemed to have designs on relaxing into a smile. Kayla jumped in now, and Franny translated for the others.

“Since she told us about her and the bass, I told her about learning the drums. I’ve been playing since I was ten years old.” Here, Franny took up the tale for herself again. “I knew you guys had those down here, so I figured… why not see where it would take us,” she shrugged, with an innocence that betrayed at least _some_ intent, and the way she kept Maya’s eye, it wasn’t long that she understood what this was all about. “About the lock, well…” Franny gave a sheepish smile.

Maya and Riley and the others hadn’t exactly been advertising their current shortage of members and their attempts to recruit new people into the band, but a week or two back, in something resembling their very first meeting, Franny had come upon her in Professor Robinson’s class and she’d found her in the midst of some intense scribbling. Kayla had been off getting water at the time, so Franny had been the only one to see what she’d been up to. _Drummer. Bass player. ??????_ and then underneath these, a growing list of possible instruments, some a bit more out there than others as they got further down the list. Neither of them had gone into the subject, though Maya knew she’d seen the list. She hadn’t been sure whether Franny had understood what it was about, but now…

“We, uh… can you hold on just a second?” Maya told the three of them there, “I just need to… one minute, I… Riley?” She reached for her friend’s hand as casually as possible, pulling her away toward the guys’ bathroom, just ahead of a few of the guests who’d come down to use it, paying no mind to what was happening in the instrument room. “This’ll only be a minute,” Maya told the guests before pulling Riley into the bathroom and shutting the door. Now that it was just them, Riley looked like she’d been biting her tongue for a couple minutes and she was finally allowed to let it go.

“Maya…”

“I know.”

“Kayla…”

“Yes.”

“A-and Rosa…”

“With you so far.”

“What about…”

“Well she’s here, we can always ask…”

“What if they…”

“We won’t know unless we ask, so… _are_ we? Asking?” Riley didn’t have to speak, her head was already nodding rapidly and doing the answering for her. “Right, okay…” Maya breathed. “Why am I so nervous about this? Are _you_ …”

“Oh, I’m melting over here…” Riley confessed, and Maya just laughed, grasping her friend’s hands.

“Ready?” she asked, and Riley nodded again. “Okay, let’s go.”

They were no sooner back out of the bathroom that the first of the guests hurried in and shut the door. Maya and Riley both gave casual nods of greeting to those still waiting before moving back to the instrument room. While they’d been gone, as though further driving the point home, Willow had gotten Rosa to start playing again, and now the two of them were singing in harmony. The rest of them were packed on or around the couch, listening, waiting… The girls stopped now, looking back to the returning duo.

“Sorry about that, just had to… uh…” Maya frowned to herself, not sure where that statement was trying to go, so she paused, started again. “So, here’s the thing,” she stepped forward, ensuring that Kayla could read her lips, using what signing she had learned that could be used here. “For the last couple years, our band has been functioning with three of us in Austin, and one in New York. But now, our third here is off in Boston for medical school, which leaves just… us,” she indicated Riley.

“Last summer, when we were all together, Nadine and Smackle both gave their blessing for us to try and bring new people into the band, so that it can continue on. We’ve been going over how to make that happen, and we had decided to sort of just… wait to see if maybe we would find the people we needed, without having to hold auditions or anything like that, and well… What I’m taking a while to get around to asking is… Kayla… Rosa… Willow… would you like to be part of our… new lineup, for TXNY?”

Maya was not in the habit of finding herself so shy about asking something of people, friends or otherwise, and it was a strange sort of feeling that she was not looking forward to have repeated, especially in the moment after the request had been put out and they now had to wait and see what the response would be. She could see the trio she had called on was now reacting, first in surprise, now in consideration of what she’d asked of them, and waiting for the next part, for the one where they would either say yes or no… it was getting her heart beating ridiculously fast.

Kayla was signing away to Franny, and Maya picked up enough to guess that the girl was just wanting to make sure that she’d understood what she thought she’d understood, like maybe she had just totally misread what she’d been told, because had she seriously just been asked to become part of one of her favorite bands? Franny just laughed, confirming that it was indeed what she thought it was. At this, and after one more stunned demand as to whether she was sure or not, Kayla turned back to look at Maya with a grin and she nodded. Just like that, they had themselves a drummer.

“What would you want me to do?” Willow asked, curious. “What instrument, because I have a few.” Maya remembered this from the day Dylan had first pointed them in the girl’s direction, when he’d said she played ‘five instruments or something.’ When they asked her what those instruments were, Willow revealed that, along with her ukulele, she also played the violin, trumpet, piano, and had been learning to play the electric guitar. She was like a one-woman band, and that was very, _very_ interesting all of a sudden, even more than it had been before.

“Whichever one fits the song, I guess?” Maya suggested, a look in her eye like she couldn’t wait to get in touch with her song writing partner and go ‘look, look at all the new instruments we can incorporate into our music now!’ “What do you think?”

“I think… that’d be great,” Willow declared, beaming, and Maya looked to Riley again. Now they had a drummer _and_ a wild card… which left them with…

Rosa had been quiet up to now, and as everyone turned to her, knowing she was the last one still up in the air, she looked even more cornered. Maya had been feeling an easy bond forming with the girl since they’d first met, and looking at her now she could fairly say she understood what was going through her mind. She wanted this, oh she so wanted this, but she wasn’t sure she could trust that it would work out. Was it her mother? Would she say no? Or did she have stage fright?

“If you want this, the spot is yours,” Maya told her, keeping her eye with an encouraging nod.

Rosa took a deep breath… took another deep breath… and then she said yes.

TO BE CONTINUED


	27. Her Song For Aftermath

The whole thing had happened so fast, all of them in the basement together. Maya and the others had gone down there one moment, only to emerge again a few minutes later with the knowledge that they had just secured the future of TXNY. When they made it back upstairs, it was as though they’d forgotten the party was going on. The dozens and dozens of guests hadn’t forgotten, probably hadn’t even realized anyone was gone. The dancing was still going, people here, people there…

“Are there more of them again? I swear there’s more…” Lucas blinked.

It was hard for Maya to really get back into the party mood by now. Her mind was just racing too fast. They had the band… they had the band. So, she offered herself to ensure Rosa would get home without being in trouble with her mother in any way. They borrowed Lucas’ car and they were off. The girl looked like she might have protested, might have wanted to stay back, enjoy the party a little while longer, but then being aware of how late it was getting, maybe she figured it was best not to push her luck, especially now. She wouldn’t get to follow through too much with the choice she’d just made if her mother found out about her sneaking off as she’d done.

The ride was a short one. Rosa didn’t actually live so far from their house, and Maya quickly confirmed that her new bandmate had walked over. Under other circumstances she might have just walked her back now, too, but for tonight she preferred to drive the three minutes or so that it took to arrive at Miss Coleman’s home.

“Nice house,” Maya declared as they pulled up. Rosa looked up at it and, even without seeing her face, Maya could feel a disconnect from the girl on that statement. “Lived here all your life?” she asked.

“Half of it,” Rosa spoke, a beat before she turned her head to look at her. “Thanks for the ride… and for the band.”

“Sure,” Maya told her, even as the girl was already halfway out the door. She frowned to herself, wondering if she’d said something she shouldn’t have, but for the time being the best she could do was to wait and watch until Rosa had made it into her house before starting back for the house.

In the all of ten minutes she had been gone, it seemed as though the party had somewhat diminished. The front lawn was cleared of people, and she couldn’t see any along the side wall either. There were enough cars around to let her know it was all still very much going, but there were less than when she’d left with Rosa.

It would be a couple more hours before the guests properly started to clear out. Maya was happy of the fact that they hadn’t gotten to the point of noise complaints, or police intervention, and that everyone had more or less gone of their own decision, no stragglers needing to be convinced. And by the time they could say for sure that everyone who hadn’t been there before the party started was gone, the house was left so much space to breathe again that it was sort of like they’d forgotten that, this whole time, the party had been taking place in their house.

They all just sort of sat on the couch and the ground for a while after they’d shut the door on the last guests. All that remained were the five roommates, along with Franny, Kayla, Leona, Bishop, and Willow. It was just after two in the morning, and the temptation to just leave everything as it was and go to sleep was so very strong. Ellie, Leo, and Teddy had already left, having either early classes or early work shifts to think about, but then the other five friends had not been about to leave the roommates alone to a house in need of some attention.

They weren’t expecting to get everything back as it used to be tonight. The next day, in the time they could be at home, they would take care of bringing back everything they’d moved into the basement and set it all up again, but before that could happen they needed to clear away a ridiculous amount of cups, not all of them empty, and cupcake wrappers, again, not all of them empty, and any number of other items of trash that had found their way on floors and surfaces, along with spilled and stepped on items.

“Ten of us, we can get this done,” Maya declared with determination. They got some garbage bags, pulled out the broom and mop, and got to work, with the goal to be done by no more than three in the morning. Their friends were welcome to spend the night, and they gladly accepted it. All at once, they were hosting their first and impromptu sleepover at the Houston house.

The music was still going, if at a more reasonable volume, and so the group split up, focusing on one task or another. Lucas went trailing after Maya, holding a garbage bag open, while she grabbed things and dumped them in the bag. She dumped her shoes, socks, and jacket, and she pulled her hair out of the way, which made her feel like she was a bit more awake and better suited to their clean up efforts.

“You know what I just realized?” Lucas asked as they went. She made a noise as though to ask ‘what?’ “It’s after midnight.”

“You’re just figuring it out now?” she asked, smirking back at him.

“I mean it’s not October 31st anymore,” he clarified, and now she paused, standing back up.

“Oh…” she understood now. He smiled back, leaning in to kiss her.

“Happy anniversary.”

“Happy anniversary,” she replied, then, “Any chance we can use that as an excuse to stop cleaning?”

“Probably not,” he ‘apologized,’ and she made a mock disappointed face. “I swear we’ll make up for it tomorrow though,” he went on, and she had to press her lips together to prevent herself saying the first thing that came to her mind and instead give the next one.

“Wouldn’t that be later today?” she pointed out, and he nodded for her to get back on task.

“I guess it would.” They went on picking up the discarded trash for a few minutes before Maya recalled the bit in the car with Rosa and had to ask.

“You’ve been working with Rosa for a while now, do you know anything that might have happened like eight years ago?” Lucas turned back to look at her, and he could see the very small journey it required for him to get from her question to the answer he knew at once.

“Well, that’s when her father ran off and…” He stalled there, likely thinking to himself he might have said something that wasn’t his to tell, but he’d already said plenty now that there wasn’t any point in hiding from it.

Now Maya understood exactly what had happened in the car, and she could have kicked herself for letting it happen. They’d moved to that house after her father had gone away, and she had a good idea of the way she felt about it, even to this day. So many little things she’d seen or heard from Rosa herself, or indirectly from Lucas, had fallen into place, and all it left her thinking was that, along with the talent she carried within herself as a singer and bass player, maybe the band was just what Rosa needed on other levels.

“Won’t say a word,” she promised Lucas, no need to specify this went as much for the others presently in this house as it did for the girl who had every right to talk about it or not with her new bandmates and friends. Lucas tipped his head in thanks, though she knew he never doubted she’d know to keep quiet.

As soon as they’d get any sizable section cleared off of trash, those of them with broom, mop, and other cleaning products fell in and got to work. The whole thing advanced about as quickly and efficiently as they could have hoped it to go. They had all hit this sort of point where, between the time, and the party weighing in their limbs, and the sugar buzzing through their brains, they were caught up in a semi delirious state. There was a lot of giggling, a lot of singing and dancing around, as they carried on with cleaning.

When, finally, there was nothing left for them to do until the next day, they got their guests settled in. Franny, Kayla, and Willow were all able to claim a section of the reunited U-shaped couch. Leona would bunk with Riley for the night, while Bishop took to the instrument room’s couch down in the basement. With everyone dealt with, Maya found herself hauled up the stairs backpack style, arms locked around Lucas’ neck and legs around his waist.

“You keep doing that, I might drop you by accident,” he told her. She lifted her head up, pausing the chain of lazy little pecks she’d been pressing to his neck as he hiked up one step and another.

“You would never drop me,” she spoke with great confidence and just as much sleepy smiles. “And don’t pretend like you don’t like it,” she added in a singsong whisper. She waited expectantly for a few seconds and two more steps before he finally confessed that she had a point there. “I guess I _could_ wait until we’ve reached the top of the stairs…” she sighed.

When they finally arrived above, they went about getting ready for bed, removing what remained of their Halloween personas until they were once again fully themselves, able to slip into bed. And oh, how it hit them with all its power to finally be here, after a day and night like they’d just had. Maya took hold of her pillow with both arms, face buried into it, to the point where Lucas gave her shoulder a tap that translated into ‘and what about me?’

“One minute, please, you’ll have your turn,” her muffled voice emerged from the pillow.

“One minute and you’ll be sleeping like a stone,” he pointed out.

“Do stones sleep?” she countered.

“I don’t know, but want to know what I do know?” She turned her head slowly, never letting her face completely separate from the pillow.

“That’s a lot of knowing, but go on?” she told him, smiling.

“I know that I want to be holding you right now, about as much as you do with that pillow,” he revealed conspiratorially, making her cheeks bloom into an even bigger smile, turning over her options in her mind before setting about letting go of the pillow and scooting over until her head was somewhere between his shoulder and his heart, and his arms came to close around her.

“I think you may have had a point there,” she told him, calling back on an earlier confession from him. “Pillows are nice but they don’t hold you back,” she declared.

“Well, it _is_ Halloween, you never know,” Lucas told her, even as their voices showed how very near they both were to falling fast asleep.

“It’s not Halloween anymore, remember? It’s November 1st…” Maya told him.

“Great day, November 1st.”

“Right? We really need to do something about it… Oh, wait, I think we are.” His reply came in the form of a light kiss atop her head, and she huddled in closer to his arms. “Good night, boyfriend guy, whatever dreams you get, I hope they’re great and I’m in them a lot…” she mumbled before sinking into sleep.

“You haven’t been out of them as long as I’ve known you…” he promised, before he, too, fell asleep.

TO BE CONTINUED


	28. Her Song For Memories

It was just as well that they didn’t start classes too early on Mondays. When Maya opened her eyes and spotted the clock on the nightstand across from her, it announced that the time was presently 9:23 in the morning. It was less so fortunate that this left them little over a half hour to get Lucas off to his first class. Much as either of them might have been tempted to do it, even such a thing as an anniversary was not enough reason for either of them to skip classes for the day. She had switched her shift from tonight to at least not have to be working, but that was as far as it went.

She didn’t know how it had come to be, but somewhere in their sleep they had effectively switched positions. Where she had fallen asleep huddled in his arms, her head near his heart, she woke up to find herself the happy carrier of one tall boy, now low along the mattress so that _his_ head lay just about her shoulder, as her arms kept him near like a real live teddy bear. He still had one arm wrapped about her waist, fingers almost grazing at her side in his sleep, which tickled just a bit, though she bore it like a champ, in favor of getting to look at him like that for a few more seconds before she had to wake him up.

“Is this that infamous ‘bad influence’ I’ve been hearing about? Making me want to skip school?” she whispered near his ear. He stirred, though only so much so that his arms held her closer. “Actually not fair…” she sighed, looking to the ceiling before looking back down to him and nudging him with just a bit more intent. He made a noise of curiosity. “This is your second warning, Mr. Friar. Next one gets ticklish. You’ve got class in a half hour.” His head lifted up so fast she had to push her own back into the pillow so they wouldn’t collide. “Woah, hey…” she laughed, watching his confusion pull back before he turned to look at her. “Good morning.”

“What time is it?” he asked, yawning.

“Late, but if we hurry you can still make it,” she promised him. He briefly looked like he was going to jump out of bed and start running around to do just that, but then she could just about see his mind click and his speediness receded until he was looking at her again and he was smiling.

“First things first,” he declared before leaning in to share a soft kiss with her, which she happily received and returned. If he was trying to convince her he wanted them both to get to their classes today, he was making a poor showing of it right now, giving her much more of an argument toward staying right here like this. But, finally, they just looked to each other and shared a wordless agreement. _To be continued._

Most days they were neither of them too worried about how long it would actually take them to get dressed, pack up a quick breakfast to go, and get in the car. They could hear enough from the other rooms to know that both Riley and Sophie were doing the same and would be in the car with them as they usually were. The only among them likely still sleeping would be Dylan.

It was only as they stepped out of their room that Maya actually remembered it wasn’t just the five of them in the house that morning, or at least it hadn’t been. Willow was already gone, as they discovered, needing to head back to her place and shower and change before getting to work, and she had taken off with both Bishop and Leona, to get them to their respective homes to do the same before class. The only ones of their guests remaining were Kayla and Franny, both of them in the kitchen and looking like they’d been up since the crack of dawn, having already seen to feeding the three who’d departed and now packing up what remained for the others to eat on the go.

The six of them packed in Lucas’ car and headed toward school. As soon as they arrived both Franny and Kayla took off in a hurry so they could get to their dorm and grab a shower before class. Riley and Sophie took off to their first class, though it wouldn’t start just yet, leaving Maya to get Lucas off to his class – with thirty seconds to spare – before getting the car back in the lot where it would stay until that afternoon.

Classes went as was to be expected on the day after the party. Plenty of her classmates looked like they had partied as long as she had the night before, possibly some of them even more than she had. Many of them greeted her with a wave or a word to acknowledge their having been at her party and enjoying it enough that they already looked like they were anticipating a repeat the following year. As nervous as she’d been about having this year’s party, the first party, now that it had happened and turned out the way it had, she was fairly certain they _would_ repeat it next Halloween.

The day ticked on, minute to minute, hour to hour, getting them closer and closer to the time when they could get on with ‘the main event’ of the day. They would text each other between classes. He would over-dramatically declare how much he missed her. She would ever so casually tease him by dropping hints on what they’d be up to that evening, constantly suggesting that her hints may or may not be real clues.

By now, it would usually go that she would head to the coffee shop and wait for Lucas to come and join her when his classes were over. Today, she was peacefully sitting outside his final class so that he found her there when he walked out along with Bishop.

“Hey, guys,” she grinned.

“Hey, Maya,” Bishop held up his hand in greeting. “Thanks again for having all of us to stay last night,” he went on, a semi-apologetic look on his face as though to say he was sorry for not having been there to thank her in person earlier.

“Anytime,” she promised. He wished them both a good night, heading off to meet Leona, which now left just Lucas and her standing there, or at least one standing and one soon to be standing, as he offered his hands for assistance. “Hello,” she smiled, stretching up to kiss him.

“Hey,” he repeated with a similar smile when she pulled away. “So, where are we off to? Do we need to go home and change? At this point I’m not sure if you need me to go casual, formal, or in between. Your clues have been vague… misleading…”

“Just the way I like them,” Maya grinned before taking hold of his arm and leading him off to the parking lot. “So, here’s the first real clue, I swear it on the twins,” she told him as they went.

“Very serious then,” he nodded.

“The most,” she confirmed. “The dress code will be casual, so you have two choices. You can either stay like this or we _can_ go home and change, staying casual but not in the same clothes we wore all day,” she offered him his options, holding one hand out and then the other as she made her offers.

“Changing,” he decided. “And I wouldn’t say no to a shower first,” he went on, running a hand through his hair.

“Excellent, then let’s go.”

They got to the car and headed on home. The place was empty, although everything had been reset in the living room, which suggested Dylan had found a way to get things back where they belonged, somewhere between finally getting up and having to go to work. Lucas let her have a go at the shower upstairs first, so she could get to the task of drying her hair while he had his turn in the basement afterward. One hour after they’d left school, they were both refreshed and changed and ready for whatever came next in Maya’s anniversary plans.

When Lucas came down the stairs from getting changed, he found Maya standing over the back of the couch, where Riley and Sophie now sat. The three girls were whispering away in deep conversation, only to spring away in silence the moment they saw him coming.

“Ready to go?” Maya turned to ask him with a smile. He stared at her, more intrigued than ever, though he knew better than to expect her to spill a single bean. So, instead, he complimented her on her look for the afternoon/evening, for which she thanked him and reciprocated.

“Any clue as to where we’re going?” he asked, back in the car. She was driving, of course, leaving him at the mercy of wherever she might take him.

“Nope,” she raised her chin. “Oh, although… Can you close your eyes and keep them closed?” He looked at her. “Do it, go on,” she insisted, and so he closed them, facing forward but unseeing. “Thank you,” she laughed, driving onward.

Every time he would feel the car pull to a stop, he would ask if he could open his eyes yet, and every time she told him that no, no he couldn’t, not yet. They drove on for nearly twenty minutes before finally, when the car came to a stop, he asked again, and she gave him some good news.

“We _have_ arrived,” she started, before quickly moving to stick her hand over his eyes, knowing he was about to open them. “Wait! I said we’d arrived, I didn’t say you could look yet.”

“Sorry, sorry,” he held up his hands. “Keeping them closed,” he promised, so she removed her hand. She got out of the car, went around to his side, and opened his door, helping him out so he wouldn’t trip and faceplant.

“Okay, you can look now,” she told him.

“You sure?” he asked, and she gave his face a poke. “Hey, okay, opening them,” he insisted, opening his eyes. When he saw the sign over the entrance, he understood everything, and he felt a jolt of excitement. She’d brought him to the animal shelter. It was dog day… possibly dogs day. “Yes,” he breathed, grinning, which made her laugh. “Do the others know about this?” he had to ask.

“Oh, they do. Riley and Sophie came home and saw me and it was a good thing you were upstairs at the time because they just went ‘where’s the dog, did you get one?’ We have their blessing to bring home whichever one or ones we choose. We’ll have to go and pick up a few things after here, and then we’ll be heading home for the evening, I hope that’s alright?”

“Are you kidding? Let’s go,” he took her hand, and they made their way into the shelter.

She had been planning for this for some time already, been to the shelter, done everything she needed to do to ensure that, on this day, when they returned home, it would be with a new addition to the household. And, sooner rather than later, they found themselves the proud adoptive family to a pair of pups.

The first was one that she had seen on her very first visit, and each time again afterward. And she was still there on this day… so there was no question as soon as Maya saw her. Somewhere at the back of her mind she’d known, from her second visit, that if she was still waiting on a home when the day came, then it would be the last day she ever had to wait.

“Hey, sweetie,” Maya approached her at a crouch, “Hey, Trix…” The little cream-colored retriever lifted her head at the sound of her name, and maybe at the sound of a familiar voice, too. She got up then, trot-hopping her way up to the hand held in her direction. One of her front paws was notably shorter than the other, as it had been from the day she’d been born.

From what she’d heard, Maya knew that she’d been adopted as a pup by an old woman, the one who’d given her a name, and a home, and all the love she could hope to get. But she’d had to give up little Trix just a year later, when she’d had to move into a home that would prevent her being able to look after her. She’d been here at the shelter ever since.

“Want to come with me? Yeah? Okay,” Maya laughed when, after being picked up, the dog happily set herself to giving many sloppy kisses. By the time she tracked down Lucas to introduce him to the dog still in her arms, she found him sat on the ground with a small dog sitting in his lap and looking like it was very content there. “Who do we have here?” Maya asked, and Lucas looked up, just as the dog on his legs reacted to the new voice and looked almost startled.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s Maya, she’s with me,” Lucas hushed at once, running his hand down the dog’s back. He looked back up with a smile. “She’s shy.”

“Gotcha,” Maya smiled back, carefully sitting across from him. “This is Trix,” she nodded down to the dog still content to lay across her with her paws on her shoulder and peering behind her, though when she heard her name she turned her head this way and that.

“This is Lou,” he indicated the little corgi sitting calmly again over him. He told her what he’d heard about shy Lou, how she’d been left behind after her previous family had moved away. Between the way they had both become so instantly attached to each of the dogs they had found and how they had already decided that they might choose to adopt more than one dog, way back when they’d made this plan, it was not even a question whether they would take on one alone or both of them. If they didn’t leave soon, they could well have taken even more of them.

“Wherever we end up after college, when it’s just you and me, maybe we can foster some of them,” Maya suggested a little while later, back home after making a stop at the pet store that felt like they would need a whole other room just for the dogs’ things. The others hadn’t met Trix and Lou yet, having gone off to the movies, to leave the house to Maya and Lucas, just as she’d planned. “It’ll be hard to see them go, but if it means they end up finding a home for good after that… I mean, look at _them_ ,” she nodded to their new pets, discovering the back yard together.

Already Trix seemed to have taken a liking to Lou and was now trying to help her come out of her shell.

Lucas looked back at her, and his smile was so bright it reflected back on her face, too.

“I think that’s a great idea,” he told her, reaching for her hand. It might have been their favorite anniversary so far.

TO BE CONTINUED


	29. Their Reach to the Weeks

The turn through Halloween and the 1st of November had rightly been a moment of transformation and of transition. As the days moved on, deeper into the month, everything felt bigger, felt more alive. They had been awaiting these changes, hadn’t they? So maybe it wasn’t too surprising after all.

College had stopped being something new and unknown to them by now. It was just the school they went to, although to some extent that might have been short changing it. Neither Maya nor Lucas could speak to the others’ experience except for what they saw and were told, but here as well they were seeing only good things. As to their own time there, it was a powerful sort of feeling for the both of them to take a moment to take it all in and realize they were precisely where they wanted to be, building toward a future that made them all anxious to reach it.

Their first semester was fast nearing its end, which in itself was hard to believe. Hadn’t they just gotten started? How could it all have passed them by so fast? Before long they would be getting their first proper break, and that in itself was presenting them with choices to make. Obviously, they couldn’t just pack up and go back to Austin the whole time. They all had jobs here, they couldn’t just get out of those, every time they weren’t in school.

But they would go, more than they’d done since they’d moved out here, and that was all they could hope for. Maya in particular had something to look forward to. Her new sibling was to be born in less than a month, and if that wasn’t reason enough then she didn’t know what was. She had demanded of her parents that they keep her updated every day now, and they happily obliged. Already she had been treated once a week to her father’s pictures of her mother’s growing belly, just as he had done them when the twins were coming. This time around, the girls were often in the pictures, clearly intrigued as to why their mom and dad were taking pictures and not involving them.

How ever things went when they’d start going back to Austin more, they would have to account for one more factor. They would have to figure out what to do with Trix and Lou.

The dogs had been settling into the house and household about as well as they could hope to. It might have been uncertain how they would react to the rest of the people living in their new home, but as soon as they had come home the night of November 1st, it had been instant love all around. They’d sat out there, all five of them in the back yard, as the dogs moved about them, taking them in, establishing that, yes, these humans were good humans they very much wanted to play with and be held by. As to these new humans, Riley, Sophie and Dylan all took to Trix and Lou like they would gladly make it their mission to ensure they were both happy and contented for all of their lives.

Since then, they had developed something of a routine with them. They would have to alternate who got to take them for their walk depending on their schedules, the same went for seeing to their food and other needs. By night time however, they would go up in Lucas and Maya’s room, setting themselves in their little beds to go to sleep.

In the morning, if they woke up before their people, they would park themselves at the foot of the bed in wait. And if they took too long to wake up and pay attention to them, well, they would have to do something about it. Lou hadn’t quite mastered climbing on the bed, though she could get up enough to nudge her nose at whoever was closest to the edge. Trix, for her part, had mastered the climb, short paw or not, and she did so repeatedly, whenever needed, until she got those magical words, laced with laughter.

“Okay, I’m up, I’m up…”

Finding how they would both settle into their new home had been the primary concern, for Maya and Lucas as much as for their roommates. How would they do with being left alone when they were all either at work or in class or just not there? Little Lou was already so fretful, rarely found too far from any one of the five people in the house. They would say with confidence that they didn’t foresee her getting lost because she always stayed so close to them. They had been making extra sure to show her that she was loved, and safe, and that she wouldn’t be left behind. They could see it in her, in how she got whenever they had to leave, and when they returned, and it made them feel for her just that much more. She’d been getting better, but it was still a long way to go.

Them there was Trix, or Trooper Trix as they’d come to call her sometimes. It was easy to see how she would have gotten the name if anyone got to know her. On the whole she hardly seemed to be bothered by her short paw. There was the matter of the stairs, which had taken her a few days to get the hang of, but beyond that she would run around without a care in the world. For how much she’d been sort of miserable whenever Maya saw her at the shelter, it was night turned to day as she’d settled into the house. She could be a bit bossy, barking at and tailing whoever she needed something from, but by the end of it they would generally feel that she’d been right to insist.

“Is it weird she reminds me of GiGi?” Lucas had asked Maya one morning when they had been the ones to take the dogs out walking. Maya had laughed, thinking of Zay’s great grandmother.

“No, actually, I kind of see it,” she’d agreed. Maybe the old woman had left that much of an impression on the dog in the time they’d spent together. Trix was absolutely a caretaker and a determined one at that.

Trix and Lou hadn’t just been a hit with the roommates. Families and faraway friends had all been introduced over Skype, both of them greeted with smiles and a wish that they could be there with them for real. That chance had at least been given to the household’s Houston friends, whenever they were at the house, which was becoming that much more of a thing since Halloween, too, as much of a hangout as the coffee shop, and even more so. They would be there, just hanging out, or group watching their favorite shows, having movie nights, study sessions… and band practices.

It would have been impossible for any of the girls to pretend as though this wasn’t the thing that they had all been looking forward to the most. For Maya and Riley in particular it had been something they had needed, even though it had taken them so long to make it happen.

“It happened when it was supposed to happen,” Dylan maintained. “All the pieces had to fall into place.”

He wasn’t wrong. It did sort of feel that way, once the dust had settled. They had made their pitch and been accepted all in one night, and there hadn’t been much chance to stop and think about it for the rest of the night, or the day after that, with classes, the anniversary, and the arrival of the dogs. But the day after that, even as she woke up to spot the dogs sitting in wait, the thought was just there… They had their new bandmates, they could move forward.

She had sent out an email to both Nadine and Smackle, telling them both that they had recruited Kayla, Rosa, and Willow, asking them to let her know of a time where they could arrange a Skype call, all of them together.

That call had taken place the following Saturday. Already in the meantime there had been anticipation brewing among their new recruits. Maya saw Kayla every day in one class or another, and she had little to concern herself over where she was concerned as far as the songs. She had already been a fan before this had started and, the more time went on, she showed how much she already knew her way around the songs and her part in them.

“She’s been hating not having her drums with her out here, you should have seen her when we first went down to the basement on the night of the party,” Franny had told her one afternoon.

As to Willow Regan, their wild card, she had happily taken on the challenge of going through their existing songs and giving her input with regards to which of her instruments they might have been able to fold in, to heighten what they had. Maya had a good feeling about the potential results, all the more reason to come prepared.

Lucas had reported how he was sure he had seen signs that Rosa had been listening to TXNY while doing her shelving, or taking her breaks, to become that much more familiar, with the lyrics as much as with the bass elements.

“I don’t think I’ve seen her so upbeat for as long as I’ve known her,” he told Maya one night as they got ready for bed.

Maya was really happy to hear it. She had been waiting to see how the events of Halloween night would resolve themselves for the younger girl. As far as they knew, Rosa’s mother was none the wiser about where her daughter had really been. And though it had taken until just the day before the call to Nadine and Smackle, when she had finally told her mother about joining the band, her mother was actually okay with it. She knew Maya, Riley, and she knew Lucas of course, and according to Rosa, though she’d been the tiniest bit embarrassed to say it, her mother thought they would be a good influence on her. So, they were all set to go.

It had been just a bit odd to be out here, the five of them, the first ‘official’ gathering of the new band, talking to the others, not former members, no, just no longer active… But maybe they had really found the right people because, by the end of the call, they all felt so good about what was to come, all seven of them.

They would not take to the stage, not yet, not right away. First things first, they would practice together, as much as they could, to find their rhythm. Slowly they would reveal their new members through their online presence, with videos, songs… Most importantly, they were working on some new songs, songs that would herald this new chapter in the story of TXNY. And then, sometime in the new year, when they were ready, they would see about doing some performances.

In these last few weeks, the more they practiced, it really got to feel like they were becoming something great together. In some ways it was bittersweet, to be here and know they were really moving on from the way it used to be, but they had all made the choice together, and they really were okay with it. Soon, given time, they would adjust, and there would be no looking back anymore. Oh… She couldn’t wait to step on a stage again…

TO BE CONTINUED


	30. Their Reach to Austin

If it had been reasonable for them to do it, they would have brought Trix and Lou with them on their visit down to Austin over the weekend, but they knew it was best that the dogs stayed behind. However, all five of the roommates were making this trip, which would leave the house empty save for the dogs, so if they weren’t going to be bringing them along then they had to ensure they would be looked after. Both Willow and Rosa had volunteered to bring one or both of them to stay at their respective houses.

In the end, they had recruited Bishop and Leona to house sit for them. It would give the new couple some time on their own, which neither of them was about to turn down. So, after a few false starts, as though the dogs – Lou especially – had figured out that their people were all leaving for more than a few hours and they needed to give all the protests they could muster, the roommates had finally gotten on the road headed back to Austin.

This visit wasn’t a surprise like the last one, easily shown by the number of texts they got from this parent or that one as they inched ever closer, asking for whatever updates they could provide. After a while, they had taken to keeping count.

“If the winner gets a prize then just give it to me already,” Lucas chuckled. He was driving, so Maya had his phone, but it had chimed so many times already that, after a while, she’d turned it silent so it wouldn’t distract him. She responded to Mrs. Friar’s messages for him, alternating at times with her own phone to answer her parents’ messages.

“I’m going to get them mixed up,” she shook her head as she set the two phones together again, waiting for the next bell, knowing it was bound to come.

But they made it to Austin without any sort of incident and before any of their parents imploded with impatience for their arrival. Lucas dropped them all off one by one, Sophie, then Dylan, then Riley, and then Maya, before continuing on to his own house.

He let himself in with his key, needing only to turn to hear barking and soon have a very hyper Dash rounding his ankles, standing herself up on her back legs until he picked her up and she could kiss his face to oblivion.

“Missed you, too,” he laughed, giving her head a scratch. Even though he had Trix and Lou back in Houston, it would never mean he wasn’t thinking about his other dog, the one still living back here with his family. Dash kept on shadowing him wherever he went now, tail wagging like she was keeping beat to a very fast song. She had that curious way about her, too, which he took to mean she could smell other dogs on him and was now wondering what that was about.

His mother was not far behind Dash, and if it was possible, she had a reaction he equated as the human version to the dog’s greeting. He was soon locked in an air-restricting hug, as his mother told him about how she couldn’t wait for him to see how she had fixed up his old room for him in anticipation of his visit. She very nearly dragged him up the stairs to see it, leaving him to give what he could for a greeting to his father and grandfather who now stood in the hall, waving up to him in amusement at his capture up to the second floor.

It wasn’t so much that he couldn’t recognize the place for having previously been his room, but, when he walked in, there was one thing that became immediately obvious. After having allowed him to decide what his room looked like for the better part of his life, now she had been in charge of the décor, and she had prepared the room in consequence. She had not transformed it into a craft room – she already had one of those – or a gym – she wouldn’t have her house smell like a sweat box. No, this was still his room, for when he came to visit them. Even if he wasn’t there for weeks or months, even if his visit didn’t include sleeping over, he had a room.

“That’s a big bed…” was the first thing he could think to say, seeing the thing now sitting under the window, taking the place of his old bed and the one that had belonged in the guest room and had already returned there.

“Well, we are all adults here, and it would hardly seem fair to force Maya to sleep in the guest bed,” his mother declared with a tilt of the head that made Lucas feel his face grow warm.

He wasn’t blind. He knew what the bed was really for. It would be very unlikely going forward that either he or Maya would be headed down to Austin without one another, and when they _would_ be there, it would be equally unlikely that they’d choose to stay away from one another overnight, which would mean they’d have to decide where to stay – they still hadn’t made up their minds for this current visit – at his parents’ house or hers.

But now, so very conveniently, there was a larger bed waiting for them here, so they could be as comfortable as they wanted… here, near his mother. He would have sent a picture to Maya except he wanted to see her face when she discovered this.

Back at the now taller Hunter-Hart house, unbeknownst to him, a similar scenario was unfolding.

The estimate had been that they would have completed the work on the new second floor of the house and all associated decoration needs by the end of this month, and it looked like they had just barely managed to come in early. It was all ready, down to the nursery, up on the new second floor and near her parents’ new bedroom. The girls also had a new room, complete with beds to replace their old cribs. Much as she’d been aware of this transition taking place since she’d moved to Houston, actually seeing it, and finding her sisters in those beds – it was nap time when she arrived – did make her feel a slight twinge for a moment.

The second floor looked wonderful. It did feel very much like it belonged with the rest of the house, like it had always been there and she’d just somehow never been aware of its presence. She was partial to the presence of her art along the walls, of pictures taken by herself and by Shawn, too.

Going back downstairs, she was equally curious as to what had become of her parents’ old room (a guest room) and then her old room turned twins’ nursery, which she’d been told would be hers once again after they had moved Nellie and Gracie up into their new room, just above hers and also featuring a bay window. When she walked in, it felt like the place still bore signs of all of its occupants of the past six years, going on six and a half. The art on the walls was still there, from the night of the covert raising of the nursery, but it no longer held cribs and changing tables and toys.

It had everything she’d left behind in the move, and indeed, just like at the Friar house, it held a large bed. She’d been momentarily startled by it, and only seeing the shakily guarded look on her father’s face managed to make her blink and stifle a laugh. Like Lucas, she understood the motivation behind the purchase at once, and like him she waited until she could see him to let him know about it.

“What’s the basement like now?” she had to ask, to put an end to the awkward beat.

“Undetermined…” her mother declared. “Oh, although, the girls should be waking up right about now, so…” she moved to open the door, which came off like the crack of a bell, as within seconds they heard barking and clambering, and a moment later a trio of dogs emerged to very nearly pounce on their best girl. Maya laughed, dropping to her knees at once to greet them all, her Tuck, and Ghost, and Queen. How she had missed them, and how had they missed her…

As much as she had obviously missed the dogs, it was never going to compare to how she had missed her sisters. They were getting bigger every time she saw them, or it seemed that way, whenever they’d have a Skype call, which was most every day. Seeing them in person was just driving that point home even more. How had it been over two years already that they had become part of their lives, of her life? How had they turned into proper kids already? She would see them together, see how Gracie would hold her hand up in wait of Nellie’s even as Nellie reached for Gracie’s before they walked off and or ran off together, it felt like she knew exactly who they were to each other.

“I was thinking what the new nursery needs is something special to just… bring the walls to life a bit,” her mother declared as they sat at the kitchen table soon after. They’d just finished lunch and Shawn was clearing off the table with his favorite short-statured but greatly motivated assistants doing their part, much to their mother’s and their big sister’s amusement. Maya looked back to her mother, sitting there with a hand to her belly and a smile on her face.

“You know, I think you might be on to something,” Maya grinned. Sure, she had been absently sketching potential mural designs for a while, but of course she’d waited to see how things would look up there before doing anything more.

Lucas showed up in mid afternoon, looking as though he had needed to sneak out in order to end up here. Maya took his hand at once, bringing him to discover her new/old room with its star addition. When he saw the bed, the look on his face was enough for her to pause and understand that there might well have been a similar surprise awaiting her when she’d go to his house.

“So… heads or tails?” was all he could say, and she pressed her face into his arm to stifle her giggles.

In the end, it had come down to the knowledge that, in all likelihood, the next time they would visit their parents it would be in anticipation of the newest Hunter babe’s birth, which would mean they’d be sticking around Maya’s big little house. So, this time around, they returned to the Friar house to spend the night. Neither one of them mentioned the fact that there was a new big bed back at the Hunter-Hart house, wondering if Lucas’ mother knew about it, or vice versa.

“I mean it’s a nice bed…” Lucas spoke quietly, a few minutes after they’d slipped under the covers.

“Very comfy,” she agreed. A few seconds passed, half a minute… She turned her head to look at him. “Is it weird for you, too?” He sat up at once.

“So weird,” he admitted, as she sat up, too. They’d been sharing a bed for months now, had been coexisting without any sort of hesitation for all that time, but somehow, being here, back under his parents’ roof and sharing a bed just across the hall from his parents’ room, a bed _they_ had purchased for the two of them, made them feel like they were back to those days of sneaking around, only now it was just sort of… established reality… and it really was, as he said, so weird. “What do we do?”

“What do you mean, what do we do? I’m not going to make you sleep on the floor or anything, just… come on,” she tugged at his arm so they’d both lie down again, though it took a moment, with the both of them lying separately and side by side, before she’d move and motivate him to move and hold her close, as they would do most every night, back in their room, their house, in Houston. “Want me to sing you a lullaby?” she whispered, and he chuckled, relaxing enough that, soon, finally, they got to sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED


	31. Their Reach to Music

Figuring out when they would all five of them be able to get together and practice had required some amount of work in the beginning. There was school, there were jobs, and near or far there were families, friends, their lives… For Maya and Riley both, it was not too foreign of a concept. It was something they had been dealing with for as long as they’d been in the band. Maya especially was familiar with how important it could be to ensure they balanced everything, so no one was made to feel left behind or neglected.

Already with school they were put up against some amount of head scratching. Three of them were in college, their schedules leaving some empty periods here and there, though those empty periods had a tendency of filling up very rapidly with studying and assignments. Then there was Rosa, still in high school and automatically blocked out for daytime, five days out of seven. That left them with evenings and weekends, and from here it was their jobs that next came to feed on their free time.

Most them worked two or three evenings a week, and through big chunks of the weekend, which made it so that finding one particular time slot where all five of them were neither in class nor at work was more or less impossible. The solution then became to _make_ the time, by seeing to it that those of them who could change some of the days where they worked would do so. This finally left them with bi-weekly band practices, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Any additional moments they’d get would be… well, bonus.

Kayla would come home with them when they would finish class, while Willow would pick Rosa up from school after finishing up her shift at the coffee shop. Their young bandmate would quickly get into the habit of showing up while finishing some treat she’d been given by her ‘driver.’

Practice wouldn’t start until after dinner, which they would share on those two nights, the meal prepared by some or all of them and shared with the remainder of the household, right down to the dogs, who were never far at mealtime, in the event of some kind hand sharing something under the table. Those meals they all shared together were some of their favorite times, enough that they only just barely stood below the actual practices. Sitting around the table, even moving about the kitchen beforehand as they prepared the meal, they would talk, and share, and laugh… They got to know one another some more, become that much more tightly knit, and for their band it would be essential.

Once, Kayla told them about why she did not speak, how she had been learning, as a child, and how she had eventually come to a point where she’d just decided she didn’t want to do it anymore. It wasn’t something she felt was necessary to her life, and she could think of much better uses of her time… like drum lessons. If you spent any time at all with her, you would know Kayla was about as self-assured as they came, so it was no wonder that she could have reached this conclusion.

Another night, Willow told them about her ex, Lion. His full name was Lionel, though he’d started going by Lion when he was in high school ‘because it sounds way cooler,’ and it had stuck ever since. He’d gone to study in Japan after they’d graduated high school, and though they had sort of fallen out of touch in the last year or so, he had written to her a few weeks back, and she’d written back, and it had been going back and forth ever since, a few times a week. The way her face changed whenever she spoke of him, it was clear to anyone looking at her that however their relationship had come to an end, the feelings were still absolutely alive in her heart.

It had taken longer for Rosa to open up. Oh, she would speak, sure, and they could often count on hearing about something that happened at school, or at the book store, but after a while Maya had come to pick up on how nothing she volunteered really had anything to do with her. That was fine, sure, if she didn’t want to say anything, but knowing what little she did know of her, and recognizing where it could all come from, the way it had been for _her_ some years back, she saw it all as her still being very guarded. But she _wanted_ to talk to them; Maya could see that, too. She was coming closer and closer.

After dinner was through, they would retreat into the basement and the instrument room. They didn’t immediately pick those up and start playing, of course. They would sit a while, figuring out what they would do that day, set out some kind of set list, hang out… digest, basically, before they got down to it. When they did start, they got down to business.

There had been the slightest moment of nervous doubt in them, back before they’d had their first proper practice together. Sure, they’d felt this pull to one another, this feeling that they’d found the right people to step up and become part of TXNY with them, but what if it didn’t work out when they actually tried to play together, to be a band both in name and in… well, practice? It wasn’t just about being able to play one instrument or another, it wasn’t just about being able to sing, it was about being able to do all those things together and create a collective sound that made them stand out as something special. If they could be so bold as to say it, in their first incarnation, Maya, Riley, Nadine, Smackle… Oh, they’d had something alright, and the proof was in how far they’d gotten.

What would happen when it was Maya, Riley, Kayla, Rosa, and Willow? TXNY2, or TXNY… zero?

The way she saw it, Maya would say she’d known about eight seconds into the first song they’d done together. And by twenty seconds she couldn’t feel the slightest bit of doubt remaining in her. She knew, because the longer they played, the less doubt she felt, the better it all got… the better _they_ all got. They hadn’t even started with one of their songs. In a tradition that would carry on through all their practices, each one of them would get to pick a warm-up song, rotating from one day to the other.

They would start to play, or sing, or both, and the others would start weaving their way in, until it was all five of them. The first time, it had been Kayla, starting the beat on the drums. Rosa had recognized it, they all had, as it had been the song the two of them had been playing together on Halloween night. She’d smiled, and she’d started to play along, singing the words. Soon, Willow had joined her voice to hers, not yet picking up any of her instruments, which she’d brought along and mostly left here. Then Riley had jumped in, too, and lastly it had been her, Maya, rounding out the sound.

And TXNY lived.

“Your turn for warm up,” Maya told Rosa now, their first practice after their Austin weekend. The girl looked up at this, giving the distinct impression that she had forgotten it would be her turn and had no song in mind. For a few moments she stood there with her bass in hand, twisting lightly at the hips as she tried to think of what she might lead them into.

The longer this went on, they could see her grow nervous at their looking to her, waiting for her. So, she closed her eyes, took a breath, and after a moment she started to play. Maya listened, and, after thinking she knew what the song was, it took a turn that left her clueless all over again. Riley had the same look on her face, as did Willow. Kayla, who would usually take her cue from the rest of them, was looking at them, shrugging, wanting to know why no one was doing anything. But then Rosa started to sing, and they knew why the song was unfamiliar when they realized she was singing in Italian.

It was a soft sort of thing, could have been a lullaby for all they knew. Certainly, it felt as though it had been pulled from somewhere deep, they only had to see her face as she sang and played to know it. They could all have been gone for all Rosa seemed to be aware anymore, a trance fallen over her almost and, the more she went, and they watched, a little too enthralled to wonder what it was to her. It wasn’t until they noticed the thin trace of tears down her face that the thrall fell. Maya didn’t have to make much of a leap now to know what it really was about, to know who had taught her this song.

When the song _did_ come to an end, the spell broke from Rosa, too, and she blinked, remembering where she was, seeing them all staring back at her. Her hand moved to her face, slipping under her glasses, wiping at her tears even as she realized her face was wet. Right then, she looked like she was about half a second from running off and never showing her face again.

“You guys go on for a bit, okay?” Maya swept in first, lightly taking the instrument from Rosa and setting it back down on its stand. “Come with me?” she turned to Rosa, guiding her up the stairs without argument. Lucas and Dylan turned to look at them as they emerged from the basement, both with questions in their eyes as they saw Rosa’s spaced out face. Maya paid them no mind, instead leading her bandmate up to the second floor and into hers and Lucas’ room. She shut the door, just after little Lou managed to skitter in on her heels.

Rosa didn’t say anything as Maya led her to sit on the bed and joined her. She was looking at the dog sitting at their feet, though it looked much more like an excuse not to appear to be doing whatever she could to not actually meet her eye.

“Whatever you might want to tell me, it won’t leave this room if you don’t want it to, okay?” Maya told her. “It’ll just be you, me… and Lou.” The dog barked at the sound of her name. “See?” Rosa didn’t exactly smile, but her shoulders didn’t sit so low for a moment. “That was beautiful, the song you did down there,” Maya went on, hoping she’d say something.

“He used to sing it to me, since I was a baby, to make me stop crying, to make me smile, to get me to sleep… I sang it with him when I could,” she finally spoke, so flatly. There was no need to identify this ‘he.’ “Don’t know why I played it… it’s not like you guys were going to know it.”

“Maybe something in you wanted to come out bad enough that it found a way,” Maya suggested after a few beats of silence. Rosa didn’t look up, but she looked like maybe she agreed. _I swear, we could start a club, the two of us, Bishop…_ Maya sighed to herself at the thought.

Without agenda or expectation, she started telling Rosa all about her own story, about her birth father. She didn’t spare herself, sharing details that might have been kept back from just about anyone else that, to Rosa, would have been wholly understood, about how her father’s absence had affected her as she grew up, how it still did, to some extent, to this very day. As she reached the end of what she could tell her about it all, Rosa was now looking at her, listening in earnest.

“I never know how to feel about him,” she concluded. “Even when I think I do, I know that I actually really don’t.” Rosa gave a short nod; that was what she felt, too. “You don’t have to tell me anything now… or ever… if you don’t want to. But I want you to know that you can. And those girls down there, well I can only really speak to who Riley is, but I think the same would go for Kayla and Willow, too. Band privilege… friend privilege… You can tell us anything and it won’t go any further, promise.” Rosa let out a breath, heavy with feeling. She didn’t say anything, didn’t have to. Her eyes were shouting thanks. “Ready to practice?”

“Ready,” Rosa responded with a sniffle. “I think I have another warm-up song… You’ll know this one.” Maya chuckled, and they got up.

TO BE CONTINUED


	32. Their Reach to School

Not so long ago this entire place had been new. It had been massive, and imposing, and just a tiny bit scary. _College._ Not so long ago, it felt like such a huge step in their lives, and it was still that, sure, but time had passed. In that time, they had become so familiar with all of it, the buildings, the hallways, the classrooms, the people… the wonderful people they’d met as classmates and now called dear friends…

Before long, they’d be halfway through their first year here, and that… _that_ was the more astounding thing now. They were well on their way, and the life had become something real to them, every part of it.

When they drove up one morning, the four of them in Sophie’s car today, only to discover that classes had been unexpectedly and entirely cancelled for the day, they all looked like they couldn’t make any sense of it. Several students were clamoring nearby, inquiring about papers or projects they were due to hand in despite the fact that they were being told repeatedly that they would get to bring them in the next day, when classes would be on again.

“What do we do now?” Riley asked.

“Maya!” a voice called, and they turned to see Franny and Kayla moving toward them. Before they could even respond, they also spotted Bishop and Leona coming from another direction, none of them looking any less surprised by this turn of events.

Now with eight of them there, and no classes to get to, there were a few beats of debating what they might do before they decided to head back toward the house, all of them together. They could have opted for the library, but they could just as well get any work done that they needed to do from the comfort of somewhere they could lounge about, talk all they wanted, kick their shoes off, grab some food or order in when hunger struck… So, maybe this unexpected day off would be a blessing in disguise.

They got back in Sophie’s car, the others getting a ride in Leona’s. They pulled up just as Dylan was stepping out to meet Willow, who’d come to pick him up for a catering gig, and the both of them looked on, puzzled by the others’ arrival. When they found out about the cancellation, they both looked like they wished they could stick around and hang out with them. If nothing else, at least they’d get to do that later on, as it was band practice day.

“Rosa’s going to wish she could have been here, too,” Franny translated for Kayla, who, much like the rest of the band, had in some ways adopted Rosa like a little sister. After the false start of their practice two days ago, she had returned among them, trailing along with Maya.

Though she hadn’t told them anything on the spot, instead leading them into the proper start of their session together, once they had called it a day, they’d sat there a while. Rosa hadn’t gone much in detail, though she had confirmed what the others had more or less guessed as far as the song’s origins and its meaning for her. And she had let them in, if not the whole way, then deep enough that it made it clear she saw them as meriting that trust.

She told them about how, for as long as she could remember, she had always been closest to her father. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mother, that they didn’t get along, but compared to how it was with her father and her, then her mother and her might as well have been little more than roommates. And then one night, when she was eight, she’d woken up to the sound of someone talking next to her. Her father was sitting on the edge of her bed and he was talking, she figured, to what he believed to be her sleeping form. He’d been saying goodbye.

Little Rosa had not moved, had not revealed that she was awake, something she regretted to this day, like she might have been able to do something, to keep him from leaving. She hadn’t moved, and he’d walked away after pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She’d lain there, listening, and she’d heard him go, right up to when he went through the front door. She’d heard his car, and then nothing. She’d fallen asleep again so soon that, in the morning, for a moment, she’d been sure it had been a dream… until she’d gone down to find her mother in the kitchen, crying and raging.

Whatever had happened after that, beyond what Maya knew from Lucas, when Mr. Del Vecchio had gone back to his native Italy and Rosa and her mother had moved into the house they presently lived in, she hadn’t said anything, not after sharing what she had been ready to share, and the girls had not pushed her to say anything either. Already, they could see from the look on Rosa’s face that it had been something of a personal victory for her to even share this much. Whatever image she would put out there when talking about her father, here they had seen the more honest side of it.

The eight of them settled in the living room for a while, none of them able to just sit at the table and pull out their books or laptops right away, even though they would have been doing just that if their classes had been in session.

They ended up talking about the four of them who lived here (and Dylan) and how they’d come to be friends the way they were. For all the time they’d spent together in the months they had known one another, this was not a subject they were all that familiar with and, maybe for ending up here today instead of class, the others had wanted to know. So, they shared their story, which was really a handful of stories woven together.

Lucas told them about how he and Dylan had met, when they were kids, told them about Zay, and Asher, and then Nadine, and then how one day a new girl had arrived at their school. Maya, said new girl, also had a story of her own, shared with Riley, of how the two of them had met, how they’d been best friends all this time, and how it had been such a blow for them to be separated when Maya and her mother had moved away… only to be reunited a year later when Riley and _her_ family had also found their way to Austin. And Sophie had her story, too, of having found a band she had loved so much, and how shocked she had been to find herself attending school with three of its members. With the years to look back on, she could hardly recall that time in her life where they had been strangers to her; the feeling was mutual.

Eventually, they were forced – Maya would say she had ‘gently incited them,’ Franny would add ‘under penalty of bodily being moved’ – to get up and make something of this free day they’d been handed. They split off, the better not to distract one another by merely being there. Maya was granted use of their room by Lucas, taking Franny and Kayla up there while he and Bishop settled at the kitchen table. Riley took both Sophie and Leona up to her room.

“How are things with your dad?” Lucas asked Bishop as they were pulling from their bags, placing books here, pens there… Bishop looked up from where he’d been plugging in his laptop.

“He’s going away for a week,” he revealed. “House to myself…” he went on, though his tone came off less ‘party time’ and more like ‘won’t make much difference.’

Sometimes, Lucas would get it in his head that Bishop might benefit from getting different living arrangements, better arrangements… like right here in this house. It was the kind of thing he’d never actually vocalized, and the odds were that it would remain that way, with all the rooms occupied, but he couldn’t help thinking about it. The whole situation with his father, it was clear, was not going too well, made him sort of miserable whenever it came up.

Maybe in time, if things kept moving forward, the way they did between him and Leona, Bishop could leave his father’s house, move in with her…

Up in their room, Maya was finding herself fixating on the fact that they weren’t just in her room but hers and Lucas’ together, and that she was in it with her two friends. She didn’t know why today of all days it was rolling through her mind. It wasn’t as though this was the first time Franny or Kayla had been up here, but now all she could think about was being in here and either of the girls getting their hands on anything they weren’t supposed to, or something embarrassing…

It was enough that, by the time she snapped out of those thoughts, she found Franny had been talking away, sometimes interpreting for Kayla, too, and neither had realized she wasn’t paying attention.

“Mmm?” she just said, and the sound had been interpreted like a response. Kayla signed something to Franny, and Maya didn’t need translating. She’d been coming along pretty well with her lessons, to the point where Franny’s interventions were not particularly needed some of the time. _I don’t think she was listening to you._ “Yeah, sorry,” she admitted.

“I was saying how there’s a guy, lives down the hall from us in the dorms. We’ve been talking, just passing each other here and there, you know? Anyway, he asked me out this morning when we were headed out to class before we knew there was none.”

“That’s great, that’s… is it great?” Maya hesitated, waiting to hear Franny’s response before declaring this turn as good or bad. “Did you say yes?”

“I didn’t say anything, didn’t get the chance to, so now it’s kind of like the ball’s in my court, but I… I don’t know… and now when I see him, I’ll have to say something, so can I just stay here and never go back and have to deal with it?” she rattled off in one breath, turning some solid puppy eyes to her friend with the nice house. Maya looked to Kayla, who just shrugged and held up her hands, the international sign for ‘don’t look at me, I don’t know.’

“Do you not want to go out with the guy?” Maya asked.

“I…” Franny started, stalling almost at once. “I mean he’s nice, and when he asked it made my insides all bouncy and all, but he lives down the hall from us. If it goes bad, then it’s going to be uncomfortable for the next four years.”

“ _Or_ you’ll fall madly in love, get married, have a dozen babies…” Maya countered.

“Woah, ow,” Franny protested.

“I guess what it comes down to is… Do you think you like him enough to take that chance?” Maya redirected her argument. She knew a thing or two about being scared to move forward, to wreck a good thing. And here she stood, four years later and then some, living the proof that it _could_ work out for the best. She looked to Kayla, and she was just about sure she signed something to the effect of ‘He makes you smile like an idiot.’

“He does not…” Franny protested.

“You’re doing it right now,” Maya pointed to her friend’s face, which only made the smile barrel further out of control.

Whether or not Franny would take that gamble, it wouldn’t be decided here and now, and it certainly wouldn’t leave the room. They were merciful to their friend, letting the subject pass to the side as they settled with their books. But it wouldn’t be forgotten for long, not between the three of them.

TO BE CONTINUED


	33. Their Reach to the Faraway

The morning the e-mail came in, none of them, near or far, believed it was real, not immediately. It was Tuesday, the last day of November, and they were being informed that, this evening, Farkle Minkus was to wed Isadora Smackle.

Maya had been the first one to wake, as she so often was, though she had been perfectly content to pretend as though she was still sleeping, held snuggly in her boyfriend’s arms, while their canine friends had not yet assumed their daily wake-up call post, still curled in their beds. Neither one of them had an early class that day, so it was perfectly reasonable for her to enjoy this quiet beat. Except…

She could just see her phone on the nightstand near her, and she could just see the screen light up every few seconds, messages coming in. This was hardly an unexpected sight, with friends and family all around, who would keep in touch, but this early in the morning it was enough of a curiosity that she reached out, stretching her arm to the limit without disrupting Lucas before her fingers caught hold and she pulled her phone near enough to get a look.

Yawning absently to herself, she looked at the last message to have come through, in the group chat they all had going, the ones of them who’d gone on the trip last summer, the old group from high school. It wasn’t so much directed to her as to others who were at the moment wide awake and writing in rapid fire to one another.

_Nadine: I don’t think so, she would have said something if it was!_

Maya frowned to herself, until she started to read the messages preceding, which were being exchanged between Nadine, Zay, Asher, Ray, Joey, and Rebecca. It took two swipes down, allowing the messages to scroll back as her eyes scanned through, before she understood, started to understand, what they were going on about. The more she went, her eyes got wider and wider, until she caught the first one, from Asher to the others.

_Asher: GUYS?! Did you look at your e-mail????_

And Maya _did_ open her inbox now, finding the message in question, in between a notice from Professor Robinson regarding upcoming review sessions and an advertisement for an upcoming exhibit at a local museum.

_From: Farkle Minkus_

_To: Maya Hart, Riley Mathews, Lucas Friar, Nadine Zhu, Isaiah Babineaux, Asher Garcia, Joey Garcia, Dylan Orlando, Rebecca Fitz, Sophie Zvolensky, Ray Choi_

_Subject: Isadora & I_

_We wanted to let you all know about our plans for today, specifically that we are going to get married. It’s something we’ve discussed for some time now, and since neither one of us feels that a big ceremony is what we want or need, then that means there isn’t any need for us to wait until we have the time or the money to pay for it. All we do want is to take this step together._

_We did feel bad that not all of you could be around at this time, but we also don’t plan to have any guests, so that should make up for it. Our parents will be there as witnesses, and we will send pictures tonight._

_Have a good day,_

_Farkle_

She didn’t know when she’d started nudging at Lucas while she read, but by the time he did wake up she was on the verge of nudging him right off the bed.

“What? _What?_ ” he groaned, still waking. She practically shoved her phone in his face. He startled before taking it, blinking away sleep until he was able to read what it said. “ _What?_ ” he repeated now, suddenly sounding entirely more awake. Right then, there were rapid knocks to their door, which woke Trix and Lou into a barking frenzy.

“Are you decent?” Riley’s voice sounded from the hall, and Maya had a pretty good idea what had brought her over from her tone.

“Get in here!” Maya called, climbing out of bed even as the door swung open and her best friend of old appeared, hair dishevelled, eyes on maximum. She still had her phone squeezed in her hand.

“Did you?” she asked.

“I did, we did,” Maya confirmed. “What do we do?”

“I was hoping _you’d_ know!” Riley breathed like she was this close to hyperventilation, while Lucas, still in bed and now working to calm the dogs who’d gone up to him, had taken his own phone to jump in on the group chat.

Right then, Sophie was at the door, and far from looking stunned and clueless, she looked like she’d just activated Secret Beast Side Sophie. She also had her phone in hand, but they quickly learned she’d been putting it to a whole other use.

“Hey, pack your bags, we leave in half an hour,” she told the three of them now staring back at her.

“We don’t have class until…” Riley started to say, but Maya cut her off, figuring out much sooner that Sophie was not talking about leaving for school.

“Your mom’s plane?” she asked, and Riley gasped as Sophie nodded. It never came up once after this that they’d all be missing class today. A minute ago, there’d been nothing for them to do, but now future Officer Zvolensky had swept in, dealt with the crisis, and suddenly the only thing in sight for them was that they were headed to New York.

“I’ll go wake Dylan,” Lucas volunteered. “What do we do about them?” he asked, nodding to the dogs trailing at his heels.

“I’ll take care of it,” Maya promised, motioning for him to go.

Dylan was still fast asleep, sprawled in his bed, despite the noise of sudden activity nearby. When Lucas woke him up, it took him a few minutes, even as he accepted the summons to get out of bed and get dressed, even as Lucas moved ahead of him, digging a suit from his closet, shoes and all, to understand what he was being told. Even when he did, he looked gobsmacked, speechless, but he was on board. He’d have to call in to work, but there was no way he was staying behind.

Meanwhile, Maya had put in an SOS out to their friends, explaining the situation and asking if they could look in on the dogs today. When Rosa was the one to volunteer herself, promising she had the solution, Maya didn’t argue, instead asking for her to hurry over.

In the meantime, the house was giving off distinct airs of that scene in Home Alone when everyone was going through the house at hyper speed, trying to catch their flight. She could practically hear the music in her head, and it wasn’t the first time _that_ happened. Everyone was packing together one outfit for the wedding itself, along with anything else they might need. They also advised their Boston contingent that they were on their way, and that the two of them should see about getting themselves to New York. Nadine replied, promising it was already happening.

At no time did any of them question the fact that this was happening. To some extent, they could see their friends doing precisely this. That did not mean they were going to miss it… not for all the world.

Rosa arrived a few minutes after writing back that she was on her way, looking like she’d just thrown a coat and boots on over her PJs before taking the short distance between their houses at a run. She promised Trix and Lou would be well looked after, and she left with them. Later, finally at ease on their flight, they would wonder if the girl had designs on skipping school, too, but it would be too late to do anything about it by then.

As instructed by Sophie, they were out the door a half hour after she’d told them to get ready, and then they were on their way to catch their flight to New York. Lucas couldn’t help but feel like the whole thing took him back to that day, summer before last, when she had stepped in the way she’d done, to enable his reunion with Maya. It had all been a rush to get his things and go back then, too, although this time around he wouldn’t be on his own.

They soon were flying off from Houston, all five of them looking the tiniest bit bewildered that they’d made it and that they were even here at all, unexpectedly making their way to their friends’ equally unexpected wedding. Once the shock had worn off just enough though, they went about arranging other things, like updating Asher of their progress, while he did the same from his end. None of them had been able to get in touch with Farkle or Smackle, like both of them had gone off the grid until everything was said and done.

Upon landing, they made their way to the apartment shared by the Garcia twins and their respective boyfriend and girlfriend, for a speed round of showers and changing. Zay and Nadine arrived not long after them, and as a whole, they all had that same bewildered happy look about them, happy for their reunion, bewildered for the cause of it. They had managed to suss out the location of their friends’ simple and to the point union through intervention from Riley’s mother to Farkle’s father, and soon they were on their way.

“Down this way, I think,” Ray said, pointing, as they walked into the building.

“There they are, look,” Riley gasped, the first to spot the little group, the Minkus and Smackle parents standing in a small huddle and, nearby, the soon to be bride and groom standing together, patiently waiting.

As befit their intention for keeping things simple, the couple was dressed in consequence. Farkle had a suit on, nice and clean, though they had to say, maybe because of what they knew to be happening today, both Maya and Riley couldn’t help but think their little Farkle friend had never looked so grown up. Smackle, standing there and leaning to his arm, had a dress on, not a standard wedding dress, no, but her friends and bandmates could say with confidence this was her favorite dress, naturally the one she would choose to wear on a day like this.

Farkle was the first one to look up, as the group advanced in their direction. He stood up straight now, drawing Smackle’s attention in the process. Now it was their turn to look gobsmacked.

“How…” Smackle spoke.

“The nerve, really, not thinking we could get here when we have Sophie’s plane…” Riley started, her tone meaning to come like reprimand but sounding like joy.

“Access to a plane,” Sophie quietly corrected.

“Sophie’s access to a plane,” Riley resumed, hardly missing a beat. “To be here with you guys on a day like this?” The bride and groom were speechless. Whether or not they would argue over the whys and the why nots, a woman came calling for them. It was time. There was no need to ask if the two of them were sure, that this was what they wanted, that this was the way they wanted it. One look at them was all the assurance they needed.

“Hey, you wait just a second now,” Maya stepped forward, pulling the pair of them into her arms. “No keeping us out again, okay?” she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion, with happiness for her friends. They both gave quiet replies, and she pulled away. The others all took their turns, knowing better than to huddle in on them, especially on Smackle, whether or not she’d gotten more at ease with hugs. When they’d all had their go, they turned and walked through those doors, all of them, to stand witness to the young couple’s vows.

TO BE CONTINUED


	34. Their Reach to Home

They flew back to Houston that evening, walking back into the house shortly after midnight. They were all bone tired but also glad for it, if it meant that they’d gotten to do what they’d done today, flying off to be there on their friends’ very unexpected wedding day. If it wasn’t for having Sophie in their lives, and her ‘access to a plane,’ the whole thing would have been that much more complicated, but they knew deep down that it wouldn’t have stopped them. They would have gone one way or the other, because there were just moments like these where you had to go all in.

“Just gonna… right here… yep…” Maya crawled over the top of the couch and thumped on to its cushions. Soon, Riley piled on, too, and Sophie, and then the boys followed, with Maya ensuring that her boyfriend came to sit at her side, the better to employ him as her pillow. “So quiet without the dogs now…” she breathed. They were still at Rosa’s, where they would remain until morning. Their new bandmate and Lucas’ co-worker had been sending pictures and updates throughout the day. They had brought her back some souvenirs from New York in thanks.

“They’re married… actually married…” Lucas stated, still needing to adjust to the fact, as though he hadn’t been there to witness it. He wasn’t alone.

“Somehow never thought they’d be the first ones,” Riley added, and Maya nodded in agreement.

“Wait until your mom finds out she didn’t get to see it,” she looked up to Lucas, and he bit back a chuckle. His mother had practically adopted Farkle Minkus as a second son, from the first summer he’d come to stay with them, long before she’d done the same for Ray Choi, when they’d taken the boy in. She cared so much, about all of them, that after a beat he felt bad for finding it funny, the prospect of her reaction. If nothing else, the newlyweds should expect a sizable gift in their future…

None of them looked particularly prone to move from the couch any time soon, even if they had class or work in the morning. They all just sat there, half huddled together, half propped up over one another, like a giant snake along the U-shaped couch.

Maya knew she would certainly be breaking out her paints and a fresh canvas soon, her own gift to her friends on the occasion of their union. She couldn’t quite lose the image in her mind’s eye, the way they’d looked to one another as they’d stood up there, making their vows to one another. For having known them as long as she’d known them, for having seen who they’d been and who they’d grown into, there really shouldn’t have been any doubt that they would end up at this point in their lives. They looked to one another like… like they were looking at a part of themselves, like they had never quite fit around most people because the person they were shaped to fit was each other, and now that they’d found one another… they were whole.

“So, what do we call you now?” Nadine had asked Smackle, as the founding members of TXNY sat together, back at hers and Farkle’s apartment, which they were gathered in and seeing in person for the first time. Smackle frowned like she wasn’t following. “Well, are you taking his name and becoming Isadora Minkus, or is it going to be a hyphenate, like… Minkus-Smackle, or Smackle-Minkus.” Both Maya and Riley had to pinch or bite some part of themselves to keep from laughing; neither of those sounded entirely preferable.

“Or you could combine them, both of you, like… Sminkus… Minckle…” Riley volunteered.

“Not helping…” Maya muttered to her, even as her face was getting red from the effort of not laughing.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Smackle told them. She kept staring at the ring on her finger every few minutes, smiling to herself as though she forgot they were there for that time, and that happiness radiating off of her was just something to behold. “But maybe it would be time that you all start calling me by my first name instead, no matter what I choose.”

“Well, at least we get to say we had the privilege to know you when you were at your Smackliest,” Riley had declared, putting her arms around their friend and songwriter.

She and her new husband – who had very nearly lost his footing when she’d first called him that out loud – had started the day not wanting to make too much of a fuss over the event, the gathering/reunion, with their friends, their parents, food, music… But by the time the Houston contingent had to catch their flight home, it was clear that this small bit of fussing had been greatly appreciated. It had been just enough.

“When we were kids, he totally wanted to marry us,” Riley told the others, back on their couch pile-up. Lucas, Sophie and Dylan all stared at her, while Maya giggled.

“Which one?” Sophie asked, and the two old friends shared a look of agreement.

“Whichever one said yes,” Maya grinned, and the others laughed.

It was still just mad to think about it. Just when they had all settled into this change happening in their lives, moving away from home, going to college, here they’d gone and seen the first of their group off to be married. The way things were going, it did feel like any of them could be next. And then… then… They couldn’t imagine it happening for any of them until after they finished college, but sooner or later there would be kids added into the mix, and that would easily be the wildest step forward they could think of.

Everything was moving so fast, at a pace that might have been the tiniest bit terrifying but also one that made them curious to know… What would their future be? They’d been thinking about it all for a long time already, especially as they’d been getting closer and closer to the end of high school and their transition into college, and back then it had been looped into a feeling of unknown and the tiniest bit of anxiety. Now… Now they had crossed this great big hurdle, setting out on their own, and maybe it made it so that the next step didn’t feel so perilous to cross anymore. Now they wanted to experience more and more.

When they’d finally made themselves get up and start heading to their rooms to change and get to bed, Maya went over to Riley’s room, to show her the text she’d just seen, from her father. Somehow it had gotten back to him, not even from Riley’s parents, not only that they’d ditched their day and flown to New York, even as he’d found out the reason why.

_“To be fair, I would have done the same thing, but a heads up would have been nice that you were flying off to New York today?? Found out about the whole thing when MINKUS wrote to let us know his son was getting married. Wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t sent pictures, and then there you were, all of you. Your mom says to say you looked beautiful, by the way, and no argument there. But those two got married already? Really?? Are you back in Houston tonight? Call us whenever.”_

“I’m pretty sure he resisted the urge to say something like ‘don’t let it give you any ideas,’” Maya chuckled as Riley finished reading the text with a laugh.

“I got something similar from mine,” she pulled out her phone to show. “I don’t even have a boyfriend and my dad is just being…”

“Your dad?” Maya guessed, and Riley nodded. “Oh, Matthews,” Maya went on laughing, shaking her head to herself as she read the message, which definitely came off the slightest bit more frantic.

“I don’t even know what to write back.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t even try,” Maya handed the phone back and Riley bowed her head in agreement.

With just the two of them together now, there was this brief beat of acknowledgement. Farkle and Sm… Farkle and _Isadora_ had been _their_ friends long before they’d been any of the others’, had come into the others’ lives solely through Maya and then Riley’s move from New York to Texas. It didn’t diminish the importance they had in the others’ hearts, but it was still just a bit different, and that could not be ignored.

Their old friends were married. _Married._ Maya couldn’t think how many times she and Riley had looked at one another today, a quietly shared sentiment of awe flowing between them. Now they parted for the night with a hug, like a wish toward a full life of happiness for the newlyweds back in New York tonight, and Maya headed back to her room to find Lucas.

“Told your mom?” she asked, guessing, from the look on his face as he was looking at his phone.

“Didn’t need to, yours got there first,” he revealed, and she gave a sheepishly apologetic look before moving to sit behind him on the bed, the better to read over his shoulders. After a few seconds, with her arms gripped around his neck, he turned his head to look at her. “Don’t laugh,” he said, though his own face couldn’t help but split into a grin.

“Me? Never,” she assured him, pressing a kiss to his cheek before letting herself tumble back on the mattress and roll over to her side.

“Not changing first?” he asked, giving a light tug to the hem of the shirt she’d been wearing that morning when they’d left, and again once they’d changed back on the flight home.

“Meh,” she shrugged, face down into her pillow already and waving her arm at him to incite him to join her. He turned off the light and did as told, pulling her close until she turned over to look toward him. “Hey,” she beamed.

“Just how tired are you?” he asked, meeting her eye. Her eyebrow raised, intrigued.

“Why?” she asked back, the picture of innocence, even as her fingers started a teetering walk up the front of his shirt, intent for his collar. “Did going to a wedding today give you any… ideas?” she asked, twisting a dramatic edge on the last word. In the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but spare a smirk, thinking of her father’s message and his unsaid words. She doubted they were referring to the same thing right about here…

“Do you know, I think it might have,” he teased back, even as _his_ fingers, were lingering lazily just at her back, grazing at her skin. “It is late though…”

“It is,” she nodded slowly, even as she sidled ever closer to him.

“And we have class tomorrow,” he went on, rotating them just slightly, until he came to rest over her. She craned her neck until she could brush her lips over his.

“True, true. Then again, we did all skip today, flew off on a day trip, the way I see it, I think we might have space for… one more venture before the day’s over,” she declared, keeping his eye even as he grinned.

“Technically, it’s after midnight, the day…”

“You want technicalities or you want…” she cut him off, only to have him cut _her_ off, sitting back to peel off his shirt. “See, that’s what I thought.” Tomorrow they would get back to the old rhythm of life, they would, but today, tonight, it was still all about the unplanned and the joy. That was how it had started, and that was how it would end.

TO BE CONTINUED


	35. Their Reach to Pups

Every other week, for a while now, they had set out another routine, just the two of them. As ever, their weekend mornings were filled with chores, errands, and whatever school work required their attention at the time, but every other Sunday morning, they would ensure that they had nothing at all to do, leaving them all the time in the world – until they had to clock in to their respective jobs of course – to just hang out, to do whatever they pleased.

Now here they were, that Sunday after their flight to New York, after their friends’ wedding, and it was _their_ Sunday morning… and it was snowing. Actually, it was snowing a lot.

It might not have felt like a lot to people living in other places, but around here, to see actual coverage… or any snow at all… was absolutely noteworthy.

Maya certainly noted it. From the moment she woke up, she could swear there was a slight chill in the air, a scent, and it set her skin to tingling. She only had to turn her head, to look out the window, and she saw it, on the branches of the tree out there… snow. She ever so carefully moved out of Lucas’ arms and out of bed. The dogs, awake but still in their beds, trotted up to meet her at once.

“Hey, guys, let’s keep quiet, okay?” she whispered, crouching briefly to pet them before moving to stand at the window. When she looked, when she saw it, she just broke into a smile… and then into a grin… and then she was leaping, landing smoothly on to the bed without crushing or hitting, waking her boyfriend with a start even as she sat up with a triumphant look.

“What’s happening? Is the house on fire?” he groaned, looking around in a daze.

“No, no, no, my Huckleberry friend,” she leaned over him, kissing him. This, at least, he could comprehend and appreciate, unlike the rest of this abrupt wake up call. “No catastrophes here, just the opposite,” she declared, before sitting eye to eye with him. “It snowed. It’s _snowing_ ,” she informed him.

“For real?” he turned around, looked out the window as she’d done. “Dylan said it would, but I thought he was joking.”

“There probably won’t be enough for a snowman, at least not one without grass and dirt mixed into it, but there would be enough to see how those two will react,” Maya tipped her head to the dogs. Trix and Lou were both fretting near the window, looking up – even though they couldn’t reach high enough to see – and then back to their people on the bed as though saying ‘what’s going on, something’s going on, isn’t it?’ with a giddy swish of tails.

So, they got dressed. In time, they would get around to actually having breakfast, but for now… For now, the call of snow was stronger than that of hunger. They broke out their boots, pulled on their coats – which proved very much appreciated, for the noted chill in the air – and they headed downstairs with Trix and Lou. They didn’t believe any of the others were awake yet; someone would have reacted over the snow if they were.

When they opened the back door ahead of them, like always, the dogs were good and ready to go, like racers waiting for the signal to run. The moment the path would be open for them to go, they would take off, Trix first and Lou right on her tail. Today was no different, except… Within seconds, the dogs both realized something was different. Maya had pulled out her phone even as they were coming down, ready to record, and then Lucas had done the same, better for each of them to focus on one of the dogs… This was going to be good.

It was hard not to laugh, and certainly they could both be heard in the videos, laughing as they observed how both animals dealt with this discovery.

Trix was off like an arrow, in that shuffle she had mastered which managed to counter any issue born of her shorter paw, leaving a sweeping, zigzagging sort of trail in the fresh snow, the giddiness of the unknown showing in the frenzy of her movements. After several seconds of this run, to both Maya and Lucas’ amusement, they watched the pale dog as she lay down, twisting and rolling around, dragging herself around, discovering and feeling the cold wet stuff. She just kept going and going. There was more of it falling from the sky, she learned, and she tried to eat it.

Little Lou, for her part, did not take off at a run, no. She was much too fascinated, too confused, with what she found under her paws. She kept rising on her hind legs and then thumping forward again, breaking and rejoining with the unfamiliar stuff. She started to dig about, like she was searching for the stuff she usually found out here, uncovering one patch, and then another, and another, from the stone path surrounding the door, the patio table and chairs… only to become intrigued by the mounds she’d created and diving on to them.

“We’re going to need some towels on them before we can let them back in,” Maya pointed out, once the phones went back in their pockets. Looking at the dogs, covered in snow the pair of them, Lucas nodded and headed back in to get what they’d need to ensure Trix and Lou didn’t ‘redecorate’ the house once they went back inside.

The sound of barking might have been the cause for the others waking. Whether or not it was, when Lucas went inside, he crossed paths with both Riley and Sophie coming down the stairs, dressed just as he was, which told him they’d seen the snow, too. Soon, they were out in the yard with Maya and the dogs. A few minutes later, Dylan was there, too, their third, human sized pup.

By the time they convinced the dogs to prepare to return into the house – which involved a do-over for both of them as they skittered off all over again – and made it there, the delay on breakfast had gone on long enough. And since it was their Sunday, Maya and Lucas decided to head off into the snowy morning in order to get their meal.

They didn’t have Ma Maggie’s here, and it was sorely missed, but they did have the Nook, and it was a close second to fill the gap of their favorite spot back in Austin.

“I need to go to the store to pick up a canvas on the way back,” Maya told Lucas as they slid into their booth and she reached back to wrestle her mane of blond hair into a ponytail.

“The wedding gift?” Lucas guessed, nodding.

“Yep,” she confirmed. “I figure if I start now, I might have a shot of getting it done and shipped off in time for Christmas.”

Even as she said the word, and even though in this case it related to her gift more than anything else, the mention alone, as it had done as soon as decorations and other signs began to creep up, he saw a smile slide on to his girlfriend’s face, and not so much about the holiday itself but about what its approach signalled.

Her new sibling, set to make his or her arrival at the end of the month.

It had been an obvious curiosity, to know whether the baby would meet its due date – the 23rd – or if it would hold to the spot and be a Christmas baby, or a Christmas Eve baby even.

“So long as it doesn’t aim for _New Year’s_ Eve, we’re cool,” her mother had commented once, making her chuckle. She may not have any personal concept of what one more week after full term would feel like, but her mother’s tone had made it clear it was not something she was yearning for.

Despite the fact that they would be spending the holidays back in Austin with their families, it hadn’t been long that, as December had made its start, the Houston house began to show signs that the jolly season was upon them. They’d set up the tree in the living room just the day before, well aware of how it would pull the attention of Trix and Lou, even as they did their best to minimize the risks of anything or anyone being in trouble, once tree and dogs met.

They’d strung up enough twinkling lights around the place to make other lighting feel almost redundant, decorations sprouting here and there, too. It was their first Christmas in Houston, first Christmas living away from home, and, again, though they would actually be with their families for the holidays themselves, it _had_ been sort of important for all of them to raise that spirit under the roof they shared. This involved equal parts bringing along decorations from their own homes, their own trees, to mingle together here, and to share in the process of acquiring any other elements required, in order to get the decorating done. The result was pretty stellar, if you asked them, and others would tend to agree.

“We can swing past the book store on the way, so you can see Rosa’s Christmas window,” Lucas suggested, and Maya beamed, sitting up at once.

“Yeah, definitely,” she promised.

Just as their food arrived, Maya got an e-mail from Isadora, discovering it contained what might have been considered a veritable treasure trove. She had taken all of their pre-existing songs and gone back to adjust the music, weaving in Willow’s various instrumental offerings, the better for them to get a sense of what might or might not work.

“Damn… Married life sure doesn’t slow her down,” Maya joked, showing Lucas what she’d been sent, what they’d all been sent, seeing the e-mail had also gone out to the rest of the band, present and retired.

They spent the best part of their meal, their walk to the art supply store and detour to Coleman’s before returning toward home, with shared earbuds allowing them to listen together to Isadora’s work. Though it would of course be up to the whole band to decide together which way they’d go, they would listen and debate together which versions were best. The one time they paused this exploration was when they actually came to stand at the window, taking in Rosa’s handiwork. She really had a talent for making her displays draw the eye. With the snowfall around them, they really could not have asked for more.

When they arrived back at the house, while they still had some time to themselves, they knew they also needed to start thinking about when they’d have to head out again, him back to the bookstore and her on to the restaurant, for their respective shifts. So, as soon as they’d arrived, she hopped into the shower, while Lucas went in search of Trix and Lou to see if they’d gotten over the snow yet.

Finding the pair of them parked near the back door, he got his answer. They saw him walk toward them and instantly looked giddy, like they believed he was about to open the door and let them out to play some more.

“You liked it out there, huh?” he smiled, crouching and then sitting on the ground with them, as Lou came up and clambered into his lap. Trix remained by the door, looking at it, turning to him, looking at it again, then him… “Not now, Trix,” he had to tell her, though she only tilted her head and kept on staring at him. “Later, promise.”

Maya was stuck in much the same dilemma when, after she’d finished getting ready, she came down and ended up taking his place while he went and had his go at the shower. She was probably all of ten seconds away from caving in, too, when he came in, changed and ready to go whenever the time came. She gave him a look, holding to that dilemma boiling over in her head.

“I know,” he assured her. He’d been feeling it, too. It was near impossible not to feel that excitement radiating off the pups, not to want to give in to it. She had Trix in her arms now, petting the cream-colored dog, much to both their contentment, while Lou had taken up the post of Door Watcher. “Dylan will probably take them out later,” Lucas reminded her. The mention of their roommate and friend made her grin, recalling how he’d been all too happy to roll around with the pair of them earlier that morning.

“Can’t we call in a snow day or something?” she turned her eyes up to him, in what felt like a look inspired by the pups themselves.

“In Texas?” he smiled.

“What, the roads could be treacherous, they won’t know how to deal with it. I’m just being cautious, you know?”

“Your New York is showing,” he teased her and she squinted at him.

“Sorry, ladies, I tried,” she looked down to Trix and Lou with an over dramatic sigh.

“You poor thing.”

Whether they liked it or not, soon they had to leave the dogs to the care of Riley – the only one of them not working that afternoon – and head out. Lucas drove Maya, dropping her off at the restaurant ‘without incident,’ as he pointed out, making her chuckle before leaning over the seat to kiss him.

“See you tonight,” she told him before getting out of the car. After shutting the door, she tapped at the window and he rolled it down. “When we do get back, we take the dogs out for a walk, deal?”

“If you still feel like being on your feet.”

“Oh, it will sustain me,” she insisted, making him laugh as he drove off. The roads were not nearly as perilous as she would have attempted to convince him they were. Still, he couldn’t help but notice that, while it came and went, the snow was still falling, light but persistent. In all his life he had rarely seen it get to the point where it would actually be much of a problem, if any at all. It had always been quite the opposite, really. It was the kind of thing to make any day instantaneously and one hundred percent better. It certainly had been that way today, for them, for their friends, and for their dogs.

TO BE CONTINUED


	36. Their Race For Austin

The following week had seen the four of the five Houston roommates and their friends left to navigate finals in the midst of what was turning into possibly the most important and ongoing snowfall their city had seen. The short bit of a miracle it had been on the first day no longer felt entirely as miraculous as it had done in the beginning. Some still loved it, sure, while others had clearly had their fill by now and only wished for it to stop and disappear.

While the snow seemed in no hurry to stop, there was one thing working in their favor. They were now on break, all those of them who were in college. Sure, they still had their jobs, and some of them would be picking up more shifts thanks to those gaps in their schedules, but there were no more classes, studying, assignments or exams, not until January, and that was new for them. Their Christmas breaks were never this long back in high school or before…

Saturday evening, Maya was working, swapping snow stories with the people at her tables here, finding herself caught up in looking out the window to the snowy scene… It touched somewhere in her New Yorker heart, no matter how much that heart had filled out with Texas. She could see Leona sometimes, hypnotized by what waited outside the windows lined with lights, and she’d just have to smirk to herself.

It was coming on nine when Leona, standing at the window, spotted something, and moved to find Maya. She’d just gone to bring back someone’s plate, trying to hold her tongue over the client’s so-called ‘discerning palate.’

“Maya,” Leona reached her. “Lucas is here,” she informed her, and Maya turned back from her conversation with one of the sous-chefs. She moved back until she could see the door, and there he was, walking through, snow in his hair, on his coat, face flushed with cold, but for all that the thing that drew her attention the most was the look in his eyes. He needed to talk to her and it was important. Maya thanked Leona with a pat to her shoulder before sweeping back through the dining room as casually as possible.

“What is it?” she asked, cutting to the chase.

“Your dad called the house, he says he and your mom are at the hospital and it’s for real this time.” They’d had a few false starts throughout the week, one more thing for her alone to stress over. She wanted to be there to see her new brother or sister born, of course, and for a few days she’d had to talk herself into accepting the possibility she might have to stay back in Houston no matter how much she wanted to be in Austin. But now finals were over, and finally… finally…

Her breath caught for a beat, taking her ability to think clearly – or at all – along with it, but finally her thoughts knocked back into place.

“Be right back,” she told him, sweeping back through the dining room – taking _some_ pleasure in ignoring her difficult table – and into the kitchen to find her boss.

“Time?” Isabel asked, the moment she saw her face. She’d known about the whole situation, of course she did. “Go,” she simply said, pointing out the door. “Send photos!” she shouted after her.

“You got me?” she went to find Leona. They’d prepared for this, too, in case she needed to leave and someone had to take her tables.

“Heard,” Leona confirmed, pulling her into a quick hug. “Be careful on the road. And send updates.”

“I will,” Maya told her before rushing to get her boots, coat, and bag. A minute later, she and Lucas were back in his car, headed for Austin.

“Made you a bag so you can change,” he told her, even as she was working to release her hair from the neat bun it had been in while she worked.

“Thanks,” she breathed out. “The others…” she thought out loud.

“Dylan’s staying back with the dogs. Riley and Sophie already took off in Sophie’s car,” he replied. “We’ll meet them there.”

There… Austin… It was happening… A new sibling, newborn… Her heart wouldn’t stop ramming in her chest, and she had to do something, pulled her phone from her bag and turned it back on. Her feet were jittery under her, waiting until her screen would light with the image she’d put there, of all of them in their mutant costumes from Halloween. Sure, Christmas was coming, but she couldn’t make herself part with it just yet.

Finally, she was able to put out a call to her father’s phone. The way he answered so quickly, he must have been sitting there with his phone already in his hand, likely the picture of a nervous wreck, if her memories of the twins’ birth were any indication.

“Hey, where are you?” was his greeting.

“In the car with Lucas, we’re on our way,” Maya promised. It sounded a lot prompter than it actually was, with how long it would take for them to actually reach their destination. “How’s she doing, is everything…”

“Why don’t you hear for yourself,” her father told her, and then a moment later her mother’s voice came along.

“Hey, baby girl, everything’s fine here. I’m not in an elevator this time, so already it’s a win.” Maya laughed, relief flooding her at the same time as she recalled how the twins’ arrival had started, down at the mall. “Listen to me now, I don’t know what it looks like out there, but I don’t want you rushing to make it, take your time if you have to, do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, no, I know, I promise,” Maya told her, letting out a breath. “Are the girls with you?”

“They’re with Cory and Topanga in the waiting room. We figured it might be less confusing for them until it’s over and they get to see the cute part.”

“I’m going to tell the new one you called it ‘the cute part’ someday,” Maya grinned to herself.

“Well, I’ll tell it you called it ‘the new one,’” her mother countered. “I really need to not have to call it an it,” she sighed, then just as soon, “Alright, I’ll let you go now.”

“Contraction?” Maya guessed.

“They don’t get any nicer on the fourth baby… Be careful, okay?”

“I will. Now, breathe. I love you, Mom.”

“Love you, too, baby girl.”

After they hung up, she sat there for a little while, breathing quietly, like some part of her was reaching out from a distance, seeing her mother through the contraction. She had never felt the distance between their two cities as vividly as she did on that evening, everything in her telling her to hurry, to get to that hospital, to be with her family for the moment when they would go from a family of five to a family of six. But no matter how deeply she felt that need… it didn’t shorten the road, and it didn’t make the conditions any better.

All they’d been hearing throughout the week was that a lot of people around them just didn’t know how to cope with this amount of snow, and it wasn’t long that it showed. They’d been on the road for all of a half hour when they were brought to a stop, the road ahead blocked off by what they discovered to be a pile-up. And it was bad. There was no going through, not until the paramedics and the fire department had done their part, and not until they could clear even some of the way.

They couldn’t back their way into a new route, they couldn’t rush whatever was happening ahead of them… They were stuck.

“No, no, no, no…” Maya muttered to herself, hands seizing in her lap as she figured it out, that they could be stuck here for a long time. Of all the days…

Lucas reached over, wrapping one of her hands in his own. _I’m here._ A moment later, she wrapped her other hand around his, too. _Thank you._

He felt helpless, too, if on another level. He wanted nothing more than to be able to make this problem go away, to get her to where she needed to be, to make sure she would arrive on time, to be with everyone else when her new sibling came into the world. But he knew, just as she did, that there was nothing for them to do, not now, not until they were allowed to get through. It wouldn’t matter that she needed to get to Austin for the delivery, no special treatment.

“Want me to call them back?” he asked after a minute of silence. “Tell them we don’t know when…”

“Not yet,” she told him, and right then he could see that at least some sort of plan had come into shape. The next thing he knew, she’d let his hand go and started to climb between the seats to get to the back.

“What are you…” he frowned, helping her get through even as he asked.

“We’re stuck here, I might as well get changed,” she explained. He looked around and, indeed, she was pulling the clothes from the bag on the back seat, nodding to herself as though to confirm she was satisfied with his selection. A moment later, she’d gotten her coat off and she was undoing the buttons down the front of her work shirt.

“Uh…” he blinked, looking around to the cars on either side of them. Sure, it was dark, and she was keeping low in the seat, but it still felt a little too exposed. She didn’t seem to mind, but then if this was what she needed to do to keep herself focused… “Okay,” he spoke blankly. With the car stopped as it was, everything she did to first remove her work clothes and then put on the things he’d brought, all the while half sitting/lying in the back of the car… He could just hear her, feel the car rock ever so slightly… He just sat there, casual as ever, waiting for her to be done.

“There,” she grunted, emerging again from between the seats before dropping into the passenger side once again. She was changed, and now she reached into her own bag, finding something to get the makeup off her face. When she was done, she turned to look at him as though to say ‘ta-da.’ He smiled, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear.

As much as her getting herself changed had managed to clear her mind a bit, one look out ahead of them was as good as a pin pricking a balloon. Nothing had advanced, not really. They were just as stuck as they’d been before, only now she was casual and fresh faced. After a few more minutes of wait, she sighed, taking her phone again and calling her father. She explained about the accident ahead of them, told him to try and keep it to himself so her mother wouldn’t worry too much. She promised they would make it as soon as possible. She also called Riley, to let her and Sophie know. They’d been far enough ahead of them that the accident had not slowed _them_ down. They’d be there much sooner…

“I wasn’t even supposed to be working tonight,” Maya sighed, when it was just her and Lucas again. He looked over, with deep sympathy in his face. She’d picked up one of the other girls’ shifts at the last minute. If it hadn’t been for that, she would have been at home when Shawn called, and they would have been out there, ahead of the pile-up… Now she might miss the birth… She tried telling herself that, even if she did, it was just one moment, that her brother or sister would never know she hadn’t been there if they didn’t say it. But _she’d_ know, and she really, really wanted to be there…

“Want me to put on some music?” Lucas asked. He was going to do his best to cheer her up, as long as it took, she knew. And, somehow, just knowing that… it achieved part of the task.

“No,” she shrugged. “Just talk to me?” He smiled.

“That I can do.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	37. Their Race For Time

Sitting in a car, stuck on the road and unable to move forward, would have been difficult at any time. But today… tonight… It felt like time had gone down to a crawl, and they could feel every minute, every second that went by, as they sat here while in a hospital back in Austin her mother was getting closer to giving birth.

Lucas could see just how much it was playing with her head, to have to wait and to be unable to do a thing about it. All the time he’d known her, as much as she could shoulder stress, there were just certain times, certain situations, where even she couldn’t get through it unscathed. And when those times came, well… He would make it his mission to set her back on the course of a calm breath and steadily beating heart. For all that…

This might have been the roughest yet. He had this clear image in his head of her just getting out of the car and… walking… all the way to Austin if they sat here long enough. So, he needed option number two and fast.

“There’s something I haven’t told you about,” he started, fifteen minutes after she’d climbed back into the front, after she’d changed out of her work outfit. She’d been absently tugging at the cord on her jacket’s zipper, tugging until it left her hand and then grabbing it again, her eyes fixed on the road ahead for any sign of change. “Maya?” he tried again, seeing that she had been too distracted to hear him. He put his hand on her arm and she turned to look at him.

“What?” she asked, before realizing he might have been talking to her… and she hadn’t been paying attention. “What is it?” she asked then, with an apologetic look in her eyes for her distractedness. He just smiled back, no need to call her on it.

“There’s something I haven’t told you about,” he repeated.

“There is?” she asked. “What is it?” He had her attention now, which he guessed was what he had been hoping to have happen. Only now that he was here, with her undivided attention, there was the slightest concern that maybe this wasn’t the time or place to bring it up, in case she didn’t react favorably and they were stuck here, but… it was something to talk about, a topic that would give her something to think about, and… and she did deserve to know, whether it was given as a surprise later or as a distraction now.

“I sort of have… Or _we_ , or… Well, maybe I don’t exactly have it already, not that…”

“You’re supposed to be the steady one right now, not the rambly one,” she reminded, the small smile at the corner of her lips suggesting that to some extent she plainly found it adorable.

“A house, we have a house. A-and land.” She blinked, confused.

“What do you mean, we have a house?” she asked.

“And land,” he nodded. “Pappy Joe’s, actually. He kind of signed it all over to me… as a graduation present,” Lucas went on to reveal.

He could see her processing it, sitting speechless for a few beats. Even then, she still looked like she didn’t understand what was happening.

“It’s not like anything has to come out of it, not for a while, and even then… Whether we decide to keep it or not, depending on where we end up after we finish college, it was so far away that I figured I could just wait and surprise you, but while we’re in here, I just… surprise…”

She let out a baffled sort of chuckle, running a hand through her hair as she pondered what she’d just been told. She wanted to say something to him, but really the magnitude of what she’d just learned, the potential for it… For a couple minutes, it occupied her entire mind.

It was like he said, neither of them knew what they would do after they finished college, specifically _where_ they’d be doing any of it. They might go back to Austin, like they might choose to remain in Houston. They could end up somewhere else entirely. There was no telling, and he… He had made it clear enough so that she knew he was not holding this over her head. If they didn’t end up returning to Austin, that’d be that. They might sell the place, use that money for a place of their own where they needed it to be. Or they _could_ be back in Austin, just somewhere else, and again it was the same.

The house, the land, it was a possibility, in more ways than one, and it was theirs to do with as they saw fit. And from everything she’d known, from today and before, it was theirs to decide together, for _their_ future.

“I kind of wish you hadn’t told me now…” she finally stated, and immediately she went on, seeing the instant rise of concern in his eyes. “Not like that, it’s just… Now I’m going to be spending the next three and a half years picturing what it might be like if we lived out there.” His face relaxed into a smile again, and hers mimicked his. “Someday, you could be some hot shot veterinarian…” she started, which made him cringe/smile. “That’s a thing, hush,” she raised her finger defensively. “But you could have like… your own clinic, somewhere around the house.”

“That…” he blinked. “That’s actually… I kind of like that idea,” he had to say.

“Right? And the dogs, think how much space they’ll have to just run and run.”

“And you can have a gallery room,” he added, and she patted his arms a few times.

“Yeah, I can, maybe even…”

“A studio,” they both said at once, and they had to bite back a laugh, looking to one another. They sat there for a few moments, the images of that would-be future just blooming away inside their heads.

“We shouldn’t be doing this, should we?” he frowned to himself then. “Thinking about the house, making plans, like you said… three and a half years…”

“Yeah, no, we shouldn’t,” she nodded with a sigh. “Then again… it’s Austin… And right now, I can’t help but think that’s where I’d want to be. Near my parents, and _your_ parents, and Pappy Joe, and… and my siblings.” Her eyes trailed back ahead of them, and he looked, too.

Well, so much for that. On the one hand, he’d had her thinking about something else for a few minutes, and he’d taken her into the secret of the house, but now they were back where they’d started, waiting…

“Want to discuss Christmas presents for everyone?” he asked, and she smiled again.

In all, they’d remained stuck where the car had stopped for just over an hour and a half, by which point Maya had a pretty substantial gift idea list scribbled out in the back of her sketch book, which was littered with many an idea or note in need of writing down. When the cars finally started to move, it took them a split second to realize it was actually happening, after which Lucas scrambled to get them moving right along with the others. They were on their way again…

As much of a relief as it had been, it didn’t change the fact that they hadn’t been _that_ far into the journey when they had stopped. It would still be another ninety minutes or so before they even made it into Austin, and then they’d have to get to the hospital. But they were moving, and that was the important part, which Lucas made sure to remind her of whenever it was needed.

Maya called Riley to get an update even as she gave one. She and Sophie had only just arrived at the hospital, joining the group that sat in wait of any news. The last they’d heard, things were progressing, but not so much that it was out of the realm of possibility that the much delayed pair would arrive in time. With that small nugget of reassurance, they kept going onward, closer and closer.

It was into the early hours of December 12th when Lucas’ car pulled into the hospital lot. He offered to let Maya out at the door and join her but she insisted they would go in together (precisely, ‘you are not leaving my side right now, Huckleberry’) and so they went to park the car and then hurried off toward the maternity ward.

“Maya, over here!” Riley’s voice directed the two of them toward their people. Maya very nearly tackled her best friend of old, for how glad she was to see her bright face. “You made it,” Riley quietly told her. “But you should hurry, I think it won’t be long now. Uncle Shawn said to go on ahead, it’s room 324.” Maya felt a rumble in her throat that rose like oncoming tears, her heart back to beating out a mad caper of a race.

“Thank you, I…” She spared a look around, to Sophie, sitting there with a sleeping Gracie in her arms, to Topanga holding a not at all sleeping and otherwise undisturbed Nellie, to Cory who appeared the nervous wreck as he waited for his best friend’s new baby to come along. And there were Tom and Melinda Friar, presently hugging their son and looking like they’d been in quiet distress – in their own ways – over the delay caused by the accident on the road. And there was Pappy Joe, who she could swear had a look about him like he knew she’d just found out about the house.

“I’ll be here?” Lucas told her, asking without asking whether she wanted him to follow.

“Don’t go too far,” she moved to kiss him briefly, squeezing his hand before dashing off toward room 324.

Two years ago, almost two and a half years ago, her sisters had nearly been born in an elevator, nearly had to be delivered by her, and tonight… tonight, her new brother or sister came in the middle of a snowy Houston night, when she’d very nearly been kept away by fate. She dreaded to think what would happen if her parents had another baby after this…

Her hand came rest on the handle to her mother’s room when she heard it… the shrill cries… a baby… It could have been another one, in this ward, but no, she knew whose cries those were, and for never having looked on the babe just yet, she already loved it fiercely. She’d made it just in time.

She walked in, hardly to be noticed in the activity, as the baby was given over to its mother, crying just as much as it was, and not far behind from its father, coming close to see its face. The smiles on Shawn and Katy’s faces, mingled with happy tears as they were, could have lit up the night.

“Maya…” Shawn finally looked up, tearing his eyes away from the baby for a heartbeat before he’d registered her presence. Katy looked up, too, breathing out like some of the exhaustion momentarily left her body.

“Baby girl…” she reached out a hand to her eldest, to beckon her forward, which she did. “Come say hello to baby boy.”

Her heart jittered at once, at the answer to that long held question. A brother… she had a new baby brother. And when she saw him, lying cradled there in their mother’s arms, still coming off the first event of his brand-new life, her tears were renewed, smiling as she extended a careful hand to touch him, to greet him. He looked at her, for the first time, and in all likelihood, he might not have really registered her presence, but she chose to think that he did. And she smiled at him.

TO BE CONTINUED


	38. Their Race For Love

When her father placed her baby brother in her arms for the first time, her instinct was to let him keep on holding on to him for a while, more than just passing him from her mother’s arms and into hers, but he insisted he wanted it that way. He very much wanted to take in this moment, this encounter of two once impossible dreams.

“Next to your mother… very… very far next to your mother,” he turned to look at her sitting up in her bed, “You had quite the night, so I insist.”

“Okay…” she breathed, finding the process very difficult all of a sudden, as her emotions wrestled together, joy and overwhelming tears… love… so much love for the little guy now resting in the crook of her arm. He’d looked like he would start to cry in the hand off, but then he was pressed against her and he calmed right back down. “Hey… hey, bean… Welcome to the world,” she spoke, her voice all of a whisper.

Her father had a point, it _had_ been quite the night. By now she didn’t even know how she was still awake except for the drive she’d had to get here, to be part of this moment, and now… now, looking into her brother’s face for the first time, really seeing him, no Sandman had any pull on her. She could just keep looking at him. Her instant impression was that he’d look very much like the twins in a lot of ways, look a lot like their father, but if she was to go by the fuzz on his head, he was pulling after their mother and her, golden-haired.

She took a seat with him, as Shawn came and sat on the small couch’s armrest, looking down at his son. Maya looked up at him for a moment, the two of them sharing a knowing smirk. They didn’t even need to make the joke now; they both assumed their happy tears, and proudly so.

“Do you know what you’ll call him?” she asked him, looked to her mother, too.

“We never _could_ make up our minds,” Katy admitted. “Couldn’t even agree on if we thought it was a boy or a girl, although… not to brag, but I totally had it,” she gave a humble shrug.

“Please, brag away, you deserve the crown. You deserve an actual crown,” Shawn insisted.

“I do have the head for it,” she patted at her hair, as messed up as it was at the moment. Maya was pretty sure her father didn’t notice any of it; he just smiled at her, down to the baby…

“I think I know now, if… if we agree,” he told his wife, his daughter. He wanted her opinion, too, because, as he told it, she’d know exactly where it was coming from for him.

A few minutes later, leaving Katy to get some rest, they stepped out of her room, the three of them. Maya still held the newborn in her arms, Shawn moving alongside her as they made their way to find the people who’d gathered to meet their new family member. A small selfish corner of her heart wanted to keep the boy as only theirs for a little while longer, but no… This was the time, especially for all that he represented in their family.

Later, Lucas would insist he’d known she was coming because he’d recognized the sound of her boots, her steps, even as she was walking ever so slow, keeping the now sleeping babe undisturbed. Either way, he was the first one to see them coming, and he told the others, who moved to stand at once. As soon as they all saw the bundle in her arms, they were taken in a hush, all of them smiling, several of them welling up…

“Hey, Cor, you got them on there?” Shawn asked, nodding to the phone in his hand.

“Live from Philadelphia,” Cory confirmed with a tip of the head, holding up the screen so they could see the video chat in progress. Sitting in the Matthews’ kitchen were Amy and Alan Matthews, in pyjamas and robes as though they’d been woken up in the middle of night with the news of the impending birth and stayed up in wait.

“And New York,” Topanga held _her_ phone up, where they could see Jonathan Turner, in much the same situation, although _he_ had dressed, the better to accommodate his guest on this morning’s wait. Jack Hunter sat at his side. All of them were supposed to have been here for this, when it was meant to happen in a little over a week, and they would be, staying over the holidays and everything. But when the baby had started to come the night before, there just was no way except for this one… Physically or no, it wouldn’t matter, not anymore. They were here.

“Shawn, he’s beautiful…” Amy Matthews was the first to speak. “It _is_ a boy, isn’t it?” she inquired and, when it was confirmed, she turned a look to her husband, who pulled a folded up bill from his pocket and placed it in her waiting hand. On the other screen, a similar transaction took place, with the bill being handed from Turner to Jack.

“What’s his name?” August Matthews asked, peering down at the baby. Maya was hit with the surreal thought of just how much taller he was than he’d been the day the twins were born. She blinked it away before turning to her father. It was really up to him to tell them what he had come up with. Both she and her mother had only needed to hear it to understand its meaning, and to know that was absolutely the new Hunter’s name.

“Well…” Shawn started, reaching to take the sleeping boy from Maya’s arms before facing the collected audience, near and far. “When the girls were born, we…” He paused for a second, looking around until he located his young daughters, finding them bunched up together on a couple of the waiting room’s chairs, sleeping, with Sophie keeping a vigilant eye on them. “I named one of them for Katy…” Grace, her middle name. “And _she_ named one for her,” he turned to Maya. Penelope, _her_ middle name. “And now, this guy…” he turned back to the boy. He still had that look in his eye, as he’d had, when the twins were just born, like he couldn’t quite believe he’d helped make this person.

“His name had to come from somewhere, too,” Maya jumped in, giving him that beat to carry on.

“Yeah,” he nodded, turning a smile toward her in thanks. “Thing is… somehow, over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to have… a lot of incredible people come into my life, a lot of people who changed my life for the better, who I would be honored to get to name my son…”

It was the first time he actually said the words, and oh they’d gotten stuck in there. Maya put her arms around one of his, inciting him to clear his throat and keep going.

“Cory, I know once upon a time we got it into our heads to name our kids after each other, even though you didn’t exactly hold up your end. It wouldn’t have convinced me to call my kid Cornelius anyway,” he teased, as a way to steady himself. Laughter rumbled across the group. “But then it got me to think… Yeah, you changed my life, maybe more than anyone else had done before… or since. But you weren’t the only one. There was your father, there was your mother,” he looked to the screen, to the couple in Philadelphia. “Your brothers, your sister… your wife, your kids,” he looked to Topanga, to Riley and August. “And if that wasn’t enough, you kept on being those people, not just to me, but to her,” he looked down to Maya at his side, beaming away for knowing what was coming.

“All of you,” she spoke, looking to her best friend of old, her old teacher… “The Matthews family.”

“And if you hadn’t done all that, then he wouldn’t be here. So that’s him… His name is Matthew. Matthew Jonathan Hunter,” he turned to the screen in Topanga’s hand. If any of them had managed to hold back tears up to now, they swiftly lost that battle, feeling the weight of that name, catching so many of them into the position of namesake. He turned back to Cory now, moving forward to pass the boy into his arms. “I’m still counting on you to be his godfather,” he told his best friend, who had so much pride bursting from him he might have glowed.

As everyone came closer again, eventually taking their turns at holding the newborn, Maya slipped sideways until she could reach Lucas. He opened his arms to receive her, knowing she’d be an emotional wreck right about now. After the night they’d had, to have it end this way, in a bright morning with her new brother and all this mad joy, it couldn’t be anything but incredibly overwhelming.

“Thank you…” she told him, looking up. “Thank you for getting me here in time.”

“All I did was drive,” he shrugged.

“You did a lot more than that and you know it,” she smiled, stretching up on her toes to kiss him before turning to look at the gathering, still in his arms.

If she couldn’t feel her heart beating so fast, she might have thought it was all a strange and beautiful dream. But it was real, no denying that. Matthew… She had a new brother… the first one she’d get to know from the start, even if she lived a couple hours away. They’d really learned how far it could really feel tonight, but that wouldn’t stop her from being in his life.

“Hey…” she chuckled, moving to hug Riley when she came toward her, those big bright eyes spilling over with happy tears. The girls embraced, Maya giving as much of a squeezing hug as she got. “Like you didn’t know how much you meant to us?”

Much as she would have wanted nothing more than to stay at the hospital with her parents and her new brother, Maya agreed to take the twins back home, along with Lucas, Riley, and Sophie, so they might get some proper sleep. The others could all have gone back to their own parents’ homes, but they wanted to stay with her. They’d all made the trek down from Houston for her after all, and they were going to stick by her.

Riley and Sophie claimed the couch. Rather than to take the twins upstairs to their room while the two of them were down here, Maya and Lucas simply decided to bring them along and station them in between themselves on the big bed her parents had put in her old room/visiting room. Still fast asleep, Nellie and Gracie just rolled with it, curling up to either Maya or Lucas as they lay down with them, turned on their sides to face each other.

“I’ll head back to Houston later, grab whatever we’ll need to be out here the next couple weeks,” Lucas told her, whispering.

“Are you sure about this, I mean your job…” she whispered back.

“I’ll go see Miss Coleman while I’m out there, explain what happened. I’ll make it work, better that than the alternative, which would be you here and me back there until my vacation.” That much was true. She’d already talked with Isabel, made it so she’d have time off from whenever her mother gave birth through to just after New Year’s, even if it did come earlier than expected. And now, thanks to Mr. Matthew J. Hunter – MJ, as he would quickly come to be called – it looked as though the holidays were starting early, too.

TO BE CONTINUED


	39. Their Race For Starts

Before they all seemed to have so much as the chance to realize it, ten days had gone by since the newest Hunter had come into the world, and since his big sister and her boyfriend had taken up temporary residence in the house in Austin. And for as much as they were all looking forward to and preparing for Christmas, now only a few days away, the presence of the baby boy in their midst was the very naturally expected focus, pulling at their attention.

As promised, Lucas had driven back to Houston to get whatever they’d need for their time in Austin. It had been both him and Sophie making that drive back, though in their respective cars, while Riley remained with her family, which was as good as to say that she was remaining with Maya, as the Matthews family was a constant and always welcome addition to their numbers when they’d visit. Only Lucas had returned from that round trip, as Sophie would be sticking in Houston, working at the bakery through the holiday rush, until Christmas Eve.

By the time he had come back to the Hunter Hart house, he’d found that Katy and baby Matthew had been let out of the hospital and they were home again, with Shawn, and the twins, and Maya, and of course the Matthews family. Maya had her brother in her arms once again, and he knew it was sort of like an unspoken understanding between all of them that she’d get to spend as much time with him as possible while they were home.

Before long, much sooner than she’d like, Maya would be back with Houston, in her house, with her roommates, and far from the newborn. Long before they’d ever moved away from here, she’d been so affected with the prospect of being away from the twins, of becoming something more distant to them because they didn’t see her very often. Those fears had lost their bearing by now, as far as the twins went, but he could see it right there on her face, how it was all becoming a new reality to her, now that she faced the prospect of this little one not getting to forge that same bond with her once they were gone.

Those first few days, with the two of them living at the house, sharing her old/returned room, had really been a whirlwind. After having seen to not one but two newborns at the same time not that long ago, both Shawn and Katy as much as Maya had gone into now caring for just the one baby as something they could absolutely handle. That they were now seeing after a baby boy instead of two girls, well… they’d get the hang of it sooner or later, wouldn’t they?

For how much Maya had been looking forward to seeing her brother, to get to discover him as a brand new person, what she’d been looking forward to, possibly just as much, was to see how the twins would react to him. On that, she wasn’t alone.

They’d been asleep when Maya and Shawn had brought the baby out to meet the others, and then they’d been taken home with their big sister, so the first time they actually got to see little Matthew was when he came home with their mom and dad. In all these months, they’d been preparing the toddling two for his arrival, getting them excited for a new brother or sister. They had interacted with babies before, where Gracie had shown herself infinitely gentle and Nellie would be curious and just the tiniest bit territorial, not wanting to relinquish it if one was placed into her arms.

As to this baby that would be coming into their lives in a matter of months, this baby who would be there to stay, who would be their brother or sister, who was growing in their mom’s belly… Maya knew, from what she’d seen, from what she’d been told, that they had been looking forward to it in much the same way. Shawn had sent her a picture he’d snapped, one day back in October, which now sat in a frame on her desk back home.

It showed her mother, sitting up on her bed with the twins. Gracie was curled up under her arm, her ear and her little hand pressed lightly to Katy’s belly while, on the other side of their mother’s legs, Nellie was sitting up on her knees, both hands pressed on that belly, which she stared at with great intent, as though she was attempting to uncover the mystery of this tiny human inside there. It was all just so _them_ , that picture, she was so happy that her father had been able to capture it and that he’d sent it to her.

After Lucas and Sophie had taken off for Houston, it had left just Maya and Riley to wait with the twins until everyone came home and the big meeting would happen. They’d done their best not to hype them up too much, waiting for the moment they’d finally arrive, not wanting them to be too all over the place… well, mostly in Nellie’s case. Riley’s parents came along, ready for Matthew’s arrival and soon aiding in the girls’ attempts to keep the twins entertained. Gracie had always been particularly enamored of Topanga, trailing after her, sitting near her, whenever she was around, while Nellie…

“She’s like both of you,” Cory had been known to say, in a sort of exasperated/amused way, looking to his best friend and his former student. Maya had found it particularly funny because he was sort of right. The way she would interact with Cory Matthews, they could just see the start of a spark in her eyes like she’d start messing with him before long. At almost two and a half, that spirit tended to resolve itself in her asking the man a question and responding to his answer with another question, always the same. _Why?_ The longer this went on, the more it would get him worked up, which only made her start to giggle.

When the car finally came, Maya scooped up Nellie, rather than to let her run around like a giddy pup, while Gracie stuck quietly to her side.

“You guys remember what we talked about, yeah?” Maya asked her little sisters, looking from one to the other. “You’re going to be careful? You won’t be too loud?” Both girls nodded at once.

Their eyes followed the car seat in their father’s hand with unwavering curiosity as soon as he walked in. When Shawn saw this, he just chuckled.

“Right, you two ready to meet him?” he asked, and they both nodded as one, looking to their father now. Gracie went up to Katy when she spotted her, holding up her arms to be picked up even as she kept looking back to the car seat; she wanted to see him and she couldn’t do it from the ground.

“I have missed you…” Katy breathed, pulling her littlest daughter close, kissing the side of her head. She went and moved closer, just as Maya did with Nellie, and together the four Hunter Hart girls peered down to the sleeping Matthew.

“That’s my brother?” Nellie whispered pointedly to Maya.

“That’s all of our brother,” Maya whispered back, laughing. “That’s Matthew,” she went on, and Nellie turned a puzzled look back toward her, looking over to Cory. “No, not Matthews, just… without the… You’ll get the hang of it.”

“He’s napping,” declared Gracie, turning her head up to her mother.

“Yeah, he’s going to do that a lot… hopefully,” Katy nodded.

They got the twins to sit up on the couch together then, so they might get to hold the baby. Deciding which one of them would go first, like in any other situation where they had to make that choice, tended to go the way that, being more patient, Gracie wouldn’t mind going second, so they’d be tempted to let Nellie go first, but then at the same time they were entirely aware of the concept that, if they kept letting Nellie go first at everything, that expectation might turn into something else as she grew up. So, they’d switch it up. Only now, when the thing in question was ‘who gets to hold the baby?’ they figured erring on the side of caution would be wiser. So, they let Nellie hold him first.

Much as they’d refer to her as being ‘territorial’ when she’d been allowed to hold babies before, it was easily accepted that this came solely out of her being protective, and kind, and loving. When they put little Matthew in her arms, she had this look about her of total focus on the boy, as though the rest of the world didn’t exist. She was smiling, her face very close to his like she meant to kiss him, and then she whispered ‘hi, brother.’

The whole time that Nellie held the baby, Gracie remained peacefully at her side, looking at him with a smile of her own. Whenever he fussed, just for a second, she’d gasp, like they’d accidentally woken him up. Then he’d settle, and she’d do the same. Eventually, having talked Nellie into the hand off, Shawn pulled the boy up from one daughter’s lap and placed him in the other’s. Her eyes went a little wide and she looked back up at him with that look they knew very well to be her ‘help me’ look. She had been told so many times how careful they had to be with babies, and she’d translated that into their being so fragile they could break. What if she broke her little brother?

“You got this, bug, you’re doing great,” Shawn promised. “See, I’m right here.”

And she did just fine, holding him and humming a little tuneless song as he went on sleeping. Maya recorded the whole thing, for her parents, for family and friends near and far, and for herself, too, of course. Her phone had been near to bursting with pictures and videos following the birth of the twins, and she didn’t see things being any different with her brother.

Looking in her phone’s gallery now, one could see much of those first ten days chronicled there. Many photos of Matthew alone, of him and Katy, him and Shawn, him and Nellie and/or Gracie, the Matthews, the Friars, their neighbor… with her, with Lucas, and Riley, and now Sophie and Dylan, who’d made the trek down from Houston together, as well as Franny and Kayla, who weren’t about to say no to a ride back to Austin to be with their families at Christmas. They’d been over to see the baby, too, and to meet their friends’ families.

It was actually from Kayla, upon being introduced to ‘Mr. Matthew Jonathan Hunter’ that they’d come to call him MJ. That was how she’d come to sign his name, the two initials, and then it had just stuck.

Every night before going to sleep, without fail, Maya would end up browsing through the pictures and the videos on her phone, the ones from that day, some of the ones from before, too. He was still so new, to all of them, and still she already felt like MJ had always been one of them. It made the prospect of leaving him behind, the day after New Year’s, as undesirable as was to be expected. What didn’t help was just how wonderful it felt to be back here, day to day, with her family… that, and getting the distinct impression that her little sisters might have gotten the idea that, for having been here again for all this time, she might have actually been back for good. Sooner or later they’d realize she was leaving again, and if they were remotely distressed by this… How was _she_ going to be?

TO BE CONTINUED


	40. Their Race For Santa

The new morning started, Christmas Eve, with many arrivals, with reunions and introductions. Riley was awaiting the arrival of her grandparents, both of the Matthews and Lawrence sides this time around, which was an event in itself. She didn’t know which of her father’s siblings would be making the trip this year, but she expected at least her uncle Eric, while Maya waited on her uncle Jack, and her… well, Turner. None of them were still too sure of how to refer to one another except that, blood or no, they absolutely were family.

Maya _had_ been expecting her siblings out of New York to make the journey down to Austin for the holidays. They’d had the whole thing planned, and everyone was excited, especially with the prospect of meeting little MJ. But then, just a few days back, Sam had called her and revealed that they wouldn’t be coming after all. She’d been shocked to hear it, though seeing how much her brother was disappointed, too, she’d willed herself to store her own feelings aside in order to see to it that it wouldn’t weigh on him so much. They’d get other opportunities, wouldn’t they? Right then, she put out the offer, for him and even Cara to come and spend the summer with her and her friends, down in Houston.

After they’d hung up, now it was _her_ turn to deal with the disappointment. She just didn’t understand. They’d had the whole thing worked out, Turner and his wife would be picking up Sam, Cara, and Eliza, and they would accompany them to Texas, leaving their littlest sibling behind with his mom and dad. They would be here from Christmas Eve on to the 28th of December, and then head back to New York. They had all these activities planned, they were all excited, but then… Sam had been vague in telling her _why_ it had all come undone, like he either didn’t really know or he didn’t want to tell her. Had their father decided they wouldn’t go? Would he do that?

While she’d been dealing with all of this, Lucas had been seeing to a scheme of his own. Even before their rushed journey from Houston and back to Austin, he had been discussing Something Very Important with his grandfather.

He wasn’t going to be Santa this year.

For as much as he had recovered from his accident, he simply wasn’t up to the task this year. Maybe, by next year, this would have changed, but that was next year, and right now… As far as the mall went, well, that was what it was. They had hired someone else, and life had carried on. But at home, for the family gatherings… He would have been there, to be his jolly self for the sake of Nellie and Gracie, and a few other kids who would be there at the party, including, until those plans had fallen through, Maya’s other young sister, Eliza.

They had started out trying to get Tom Friar to take over for his father. But even without actually asking him, both grandfather and grandson had considered the man in question and, while he was great with kids in general, they couldn’t say that he really… felt like Santa. They could slap on a fake beard and fake belly on anyone, but that wouldn’t be what made them into jolly old Saint Nick. Lucas had been just the tiniest bit concerned that, once his father had been set aside as a possibility, his grandfather would turn his attentions to him. As much as he knew Maya would have gotten a kick out of it, he didn’t feel he was up to the task either. He wanted those kids to get a really great Santa, not just whoever was available.

Thankfully, it never came to that, and even more thankfully… he soon came through with a stellar candidate who was both willing and available. Now he just had to hold on to the surprise until the time of the great unveiling.

The families were not the only ones to descend on Austin for the holidays, and Christmas Eve kept on providing for them, bringing their friends off studying in New York and Boston back to Texas. Though they had all seen one another at the start of the month, it hardly felt like enough, those few hours they’d gotten. Now they would have days, whole days! It wouldn’t be exactly the way it used to be, but it would be about as close to it as they could get, and that was pretty good.

“Well, if it isn’t Mrs. Minkus,” Maya beamed happily as she welcomed Isadora that morning. Apparently, she had finally made her choice, taking her husband’s name for her own. As she said it, she chose to wear it, with great pride. And as _he_ said it, he would have gladly taken _her_ name for a change, except she had insisted that ‘Farkle Smackle’ would have been plain too distracting, even to her.

They hadn’t changed so much in their being married, the only truly visible sign being Isadora’s name change and then the rings on their fingers. Beyond that, they were still exactly the people, the friends, they had always been. Still, whenever someone would bring up the fact that they were married at all, they would get this look about them, this internal smile that shone off of them, and that might have been the sweetest thing ever.

Isadora’s being back in Austin, her and Nadine, too, led to another goal for them all over this visit. They wanted to get the whole band together, the new members along with the original, present or former. Kayla was here already, of course. As for the others, Willow would be driving down with Rosa the day after Christmas, staying for a couple days once they’d be here.

“Hey, little man, that is a nice hat you’ve got,” Zay declared as he was the first of the group of friends coming into the Hunter Hart house to get to hold MJ in his arms. The baby, all of twelve days old, stared up at him, and Zay made a funny face that took all of three seconds to provoke a look on his face that was either a smile or gas. Either way, Zay counted it as success.

“Riley’s grandmother made that for him,” Maya revealed. There had been some doubt whether or not he would accept the knitted thing, as he’d fuss whenever they tried to put anything on his head before. But he’d been the picture of calm the whole time so far, which made Amy Matthews beam and promise to keep those hats coming.

“He looks like a little elf…” Zay declared, just as he looked down to find, like the others, that Nellie now stood right next to him, staring up intently. “Miss Penelope,” he greeted her before stealing a quick questioning glance over the intense look on the small girl’s face.

“Baby guard,” Maya whispered, doing her best to pull her smirk back in. Zay nodded, understanding.

“I see you got a hat, too,” he deflected. “And there’s a bell on it?” Well, guarding her brother or no, Nellie wasn’t about to deprive Zay or herself of giving her head a shake that sent the small bell hanging off the top tinkling and ringing. “Nice,” he declared, and Nellie grinned before dashing off to find her twin. “Kid whisperer right here,” Zay announced proudly.

“Yes, very good,” Nadine patted his shoulder even as she and Maya shared a silent laugh. “Come on, now, my turn, hand him over.”

They all got their turn, as the day advanced. Some of them were treated to him awake, others asleep. Katy would come for him and take him away when it was time to feed him, while Shawn handled him if he needed changing. When they did have him, everyone got their turn, and they were all in agreement that he was one cute baby and not overly fussy.

“Hey, so, how are we doing with… you know…” Maya went seeking Lucas after dinner was through. It wouldn’t be long that the kids would be gone off to sleep for the night, so if they were going to surprise them with the man in red and white, it had to be soon.

Lucas didn’t say a word, just stared back at her with a look on his face that seemed to translate into ‘you’ll see.’ The look she gave back indicated something more like ‘you sure?’ Then, almost in response, there was the doorbell and, she could swear, the sound of many bells and… a jolly laugh.

“It’s him! It’s him!” the twins cried out together, scurrying toward the door, their matching hats joining two more bells to the sound. The other kids ran after them, the taller ones better equipped to pull the door open, and so they did, revealing on the still just barely snowed over doorstep, a tall, impressive looking man, suit on point, beard clearly fake but good enough to appear real, and a laugh that would have gotten even the most skeptical Scrooges around believing in…

“Santa!” Nellie was the first one to pounce forward, only to be scooped up into his arms.

“Is that my friend Penelope?” he asked, and only then did Maya gasp, her hand quick to cover her mouth and stifle it as she recognized the voice and the person it belonged to. If his stature and overall personality weren’t enough, it was even in his name… Their jolly Nick was none other than Bishop Nicholas.

He was a perfect Santa. All the kids were at his mercy, even those who, by their parents’ own claims, had always shied away from those mall Santas they’d tried to take them to. Pappy Joe, hearing this, would inquire over what mall they’d taken their kids to, whether _he_ was one of those Santas they spoke of. Lucas tried not to look so amused at how much his grandfather was caught up between approving of his replacement and being just a bit uncomfortable at how good he was.

After the kids were safely put to bed and asleep, the twins up in their room, the baby in the nursery, and their guests’ squeezed in together in Maya’s room, their guest from the North Pole disappeared and reappeared back in the guise of Lucas’ friend and classmate. Maya and the others of the roommates who hadn’t known he’d be there were quick to go and say hello, thanking him for making the trip. He’d be spending the night at the Friar house tonight before heading back to Houston to spend Christmas with Leona.

Once the guests had gone on home and the party was over, Maya said good night to her parents, promising she and Lucas would be back the following afternoon. It had been decided that they would be spending Christmas morning at the Friar house, and Christmas night back here with her family.

“This is what it’s going to be like from now on, isn’t it?” Lucas told her as they settled into his old room. “Yours or mine, every year.” She grinned at this.

“Looks that way. I’m kind of scared to see what our moms are going to turn into… competing,” she intoned. He tried to look like it wouldn’t be that way, but then here they were, standing at either side of that big bed which had materialized in both of their Austin rooms.

“Swear you won’t leave me when my mother starts to play dirty?” he begged jokingly.

“Oh, sweet Huckleberry… Wait until you see how _my_ mother plays dirty,” she countered, laughing at how his face seemed to grow pale all of a sudden. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	41. Their Race For Siblings

There were countless reasons for her to be happy to be in Austin again, to be in her family’s house, these past couple of weeks. As those days went along though, she was almost sure her very favorite one came in the form of a lightly creaking door, and clumsy whispers, and then The Struggle of a pair of two-year-olds working to climb up on her bed to get to her. This had become a daily thing now, to the point where both she and Lucas would expect it. They would awaken, bright and early, and they would wait like good, unsuspecting sleepers, though they would open their eyes from time to time, smirking to one another until they had to ‘assume the scenario’ and pretend all over again when they heard the door.

Nellie would always be the first one up and on, at the foot of the bed, only to exercise her tiny girl muscles and help Gracie make the trip. Finally, when both had made it up, they would set to crawling up to their targets, filling up the not-at-all-purposeful gap between the two ‘sleeping’ bodies. The first couple of times, it would go that they would just slip under the covers and go to sleep as they had done it the morning MJ was born, like they’d discovered they really liked that and they really wanted to do it again.

Lucas had been the first to wake, that first time, and he’d been confused, then startled, to discover the two little bodies curled in on themselves and on to their big sister, who’d managed to turn in her sleep and drape her arm over the pair of them, like she hadn’t needed consciousness to know what to do. When he’d very quietly woken her up – as the twins had gotten back to sleep – she’d blinked for a moment before seeing their guests there and looking so happy to find them that she’d given him a look as though to say ‘it’s all good, sleep.’

As the whole thing had repeated again and again though, Maya had no longer been satisfied to simply play clueless. Oh, no, she had better ideas. One week into these daily visits, that was when they’d started being awake ahead of the twins’ arrival, when they’d been ready. They would lie there, as though genuinely asleep, their eyes open just a sliver. Then, when the first of them would be close enough (Nellie, of course), Maya’s arms would shoot out and capture the small girl, pulling her close and causing a fit of squeals and giggles. No sooner would she have been nabbed that then her twin would in turn be captured by Lucas.

“Gotcha, sneaky sneak,” Maya grinned maniacally as Nellie giggled on, giving no resistance at all when being close to her big sister was clearly what she’d been after.

“You’re awake!” they could barely make out within the laughter.

“Who, me? No, this is my asleep face, can’t you tell?” Maya told her, pressing a squishy kiss to the round little face stuck near her own.

And that was how every morning started. It never got old, not for the toddlers and not for the visiting couple. No matter how many times they were caught, the twins kept on coming, and they would all just sit up there on the big bed, talking away, playing around… That she could now carry on conversations with her little sisters was still something Maya could hardly believe sometimes. The conversations didn’t always make much sense, but they were never boring. And their voices… She could hear they were very much alike, but then their personalities would not be shaken off, and Nellie’s would be sharper, louder, while Gracie’s would be softer, sweeter.

This morning was that of the 30th of December. They would only have three more after this one before they said goodbye to their families and started back for Houston. As they lay awake there, waiting for their daily visitors, Lucas could see Maya was off in her own world, thinking. He didn’t have to be a mind reader to know what she was thinking about. She’d already expressed her concerns over her sisters possibly thinking she was staying, that she wasn’t going away again, and looking at her now he knew it still weighed heavily on her that, soon, they’d have to take that rug out from under them.

He reached for her hand, and his fingers had just had time to weave with hers, to close over her hand, that the door creaked open, and it was show time.

Today would give them plenty of time to hang out together, just Lucas and Maya and the three little Hunters. Shawn and Katy were headed out for errands that would likely keep them away for several hours, and so it was up to Big Sister and her companion The Boyfriend to look after baby MJ and the twins.

“You waited until they were gone and it was just us, didn’t you?” Maya turned ‘accusation’ down to her brother when she discovered he needed his diaper changed. “One day, I’m going to have so many interesting stories to tell to anyone you bring home, it’ll be so funny,” she whispered as she got up from the couch where they’d been sitting, the twins on the ground with their eyes plastered on the television.

“Do you need me to…” Lucas called after her.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve gotten the hang of it, haven’t I?” she turned back to the baby in her arms as she started up the stairs.

Lucas watched her go before turning back to look at the girls on the ground, the dogs Tuck, Ghost, and Queen not far from them and seeming to have dozed off. Gracie remained as she’d been, plopped down on her tummy, watching the cartoon dogs run around. Nellie, who’d been watching, too, while perched up on her knees, now turned to stare back at him. She never looked so much like Maya as when she clearly had an idea in the back of her mind.

“Want to sit up here?” he asked, tapping the empty space next to him. Like the words had reached them and they’d gone under the assumption that he was talking to them, both Tuck and Ghost got up and scrambled to jump on the couch, barking and wagging their tails as they stared at him. When he jumped in surprise, it made Nellie start to laugh, drawing her sister’s attention and making her smile.

“Tuck, down!” Nellie commanded, standing up. The dog turned to look at her and obeyed at once, moving to sit in front of her for the petting she would give him. “Ghost, down!” she followed, and the other dog did the same. Queen, who hadn’t moved from her spot, yawned and set her head back down.

“Did Maya ever tell you about where their names came from?” Lucas asked Nellie, and the girl shook her head. “You should ask her when she gets back, okay?”

“Okay,” Nellie nodded happily, then, after a beat, took off for the stairs. “Ya! Ya!” she called, starting up the stairs. At her departure, Gracie got up at once and hurried after her. And with both girls hurrying off, Tuck followed, and Ghost, and because everyone else seemed to be going, Queen got up and trailed along.

“Wait, that’s…” Lucas called, fruitlessly, letting out a sigh as he followed. The last thing Maya needed as she worked to clean and change MJ was two toddlers and three dogs underfoot.

“Hey!” he heard her voice from above and arrived to find she’d just stepped back out of the nursery when Nellie and her followers were about to reach the room.

“Where do the names come from?” the girl inquired at once. Maya looked to Lucas for assistance on the rest of that question and he indicated the dogs.

“Right! Okay, uh… let’s go in your room, yeah? We can sit and I can tell you all about that.” So, they went into the girls’ room, where they sat, all of them on the ground. “Can you…” Maya asked Lucas, and she handed MJ over, the better for her to be able to use her hands as she told the tale. “Okay, so, the dogs…”

“What about her?” Gracie asked, pointing to Queen, sitting flush against her side and at an easy distance for petting.

“Ah, the Queen, yes,” Maya nodded. “Well… Grandpa Matthews has been showing you those magic tricks with the cards, right?” she asked, and the girls confirmed that he had. The amount of ‘magic’ required to stun two-year-olds aside, the tricks did their job. “He does that one where he goes ‘Queen of Hearts, Queen of Hearts, where’s the Queen of Hearts?’” she mimed. The girls giggled.

“She’s the Queen of Hearts?” Nellie asked, looking to the dog.

“In a way. Who is Hart though?” Maya asked.

“Mommy!” Gracie beamed. Both girls had been taught to know their parents’ names in case they were lost, and also… “You!” she went on.

“That’s right,” Maya chuckled. “So, that’s why this one was called Queen.”

“What about him?” Nellie now asked, pointing to Ghost, presently paws up on his back like sooner or later some kind soul would rub his belly.

“Ah, this nerd,” Maya scooted over to attend to him. “You know what a ghost is?” The twins looked to one another, then to the dog. “Right…” Maya looked to Lucas. What were they supposed to say? They were so little, they didn’t even have an understanding of death, much less spirits, and the last thing they needed to do was to introduce the concept of dead people being able to come through the walls and into the house.

“Well…” Lucas started, thinking it out. “There are some that are nice, and some that are… not… nice.” Maya bit back a laugh. “There are some of them who go where they’re not supposed to go, and when they do, you call someone that will come and make them go away. You call a ghost hunter.” At the sound of the name Hunter, they looked up knowingly. _They_ were Hunter, and so was their dad…

“And that’s why he’s called Ghost,” Maya carried on, passing a thankful glance on to Lucas. “Queen for Mom, Ghost for Dad.”

“What about him?” Gracie pointed to Tuck, who sat to attention next to Lucas, staring at the baby in his arms. Maya smiled again, contemplating this last one. Thankfully, Shawn had been showing them a lot of old cartoons, ones he’d grown up with, from his time or before.

“Remember we watched a movie once, with Robin Hood?” The twins nodded at once; they’d liked it very much. “And there’s that guy, the big guy in the robe, I believe you call him the nice rat man?”

“Pretty sure he’s supposed to be a badger,” Lucas intervened, though none of the girls heeded this. Nellie and Gracie just nodded, knowing who she meant.

“Right, well, do you remember what his name actually is?” They didn’t. “His name is Friar Tuck,” she told them, and at the sound of his name, Tuck turned his head to look at her a moment before resuming his guard of the infant.

“I don’t get it,” Nellie declared, while Gracie shook her head to express the same.

“Well, like me and Mom are Hart, and you and Dad are Hunter, him right there, Lucas… He’s Friar.” The twins looked at him, then back to her. “And that’s who Tuck is named after.”

Having abandoned the puppy cartoon they’d been watching before, once the group returned downstairs to the living room, motivated no doubt by the conversation, they had changed the movie and put on Robin Hood again, the girls and the dogs resuming their positions as Maya and Lucas took to the couch again, MJ handed back to his big sister.

“It’s totally a badger,” Lucas whispered when the character in question came along. Maya just reached out her free hand to shush him.

TO BE CONTINUED


	42. Their Race For the Year

The countdown to the turn of the year had not started out nearly the way they would have hoped it to. Everything had been going fine, and then, as she was discussing what time they wanted to hit the road, the morning after next, to return to Houston, Maya spotted a pair of tiny feet from somewhere behind Sophie and Riley. A moment later, those feet were dashing off and she watched as Gracie hurried to her twin. Just like that, and in no way how she would have wanted it to happen, her sisters had learned their assumption had been wrong. She was leaving them again.

The resulting reaction had been enough that Katy had escorted the pair of crying toddlers up to their room for a time out, leaving their big sister to watch them go like she could use a good cry herself. Lucas had been with her at once, wrapping her in his arms as he stood behind her.

“It was going to happen sooner or later,” he reminded her. “No matter how they found out.”

“I know,” she breathed, trying to convince herself and waiting… waiting… for relief that seemed difficult to call forth.

Maya went to busy herself by helping in the kitchen. The seven of them about to head back to Houston, the roommates and Franny and Kayla, were all there at the Hunter Hart house that day, along with their families, for what was as much a New Year’s Eve party as it was a chance to have this time together, all of them, before the kids went away. That made her help more than welcome, and she gave it fully.

His father told him to leave her be for a while, to let her work through it on her own, and Lucas would have done so whether he’d told him as much or not, but he still felt there was a way for this to get better, and for that he just couldn’t simply stand by. So, about an hour after the girls had been taken up to their room, Lucas had gone up to pay them a visit.

They were over on Gracie’s bed. Whether they’d started out that way when their mother had brought them there or Nellie had just gone over to be with her sister, there they now were. Gracie was curled around her old pal Hortensia Hippo, who had been hugged and tugged in the past two years to now be fairly worn, but heaven help the poor soul who’d try to take the cheerful critter away from its mistress. Nellie, meanwhile, was staring up at the ceiling and restlessly kicking her little legs along. It left Lucas with the distinct curiosity of what Maya might have been like at that age and thinking this might not have been too far off from it.

The light streaming into the mostly darkened room as he opened the door quickly drew the twins’ attention, as they looked up to see who was there. Lucas closed the door again behind himself before moving to crouch next to the occupied bed.

“Mind if I hang out with you guys for a bit?” he casually asked. Gracie needed no convincing. She’d always liked her big sister’s boyfriend very much. At his request, she responded by crawling off her bed, hippo still firmly in her grasp, and as he sat on the ground she sat in his lap, leaning against him as he put his arm around her to ensure she wouldn’t tip back and fall. “What about you?” he asked Nellie, as she came up to the edge and let her legs dangle over the side of the bed, staring at him.

Her face still showed the marks of her having cried herself red earlier, even as she sniffled. Even then, the most prominent thing about her face was the look in her eyes. Maya was going away, _he_ was going away, and she did not approve.

“Back when the two of you were still very small, as small as MJ almost, Maya knew the day would come where she might be going away from you guys when she went to college. And it made her feel very sad, to think she might not get to be near you for all this time.”

“She was sad?” Gracie turned her head up to look at him.

“She still is,” Lucas told her, told Nellie. “When you love someone the way Maya loves you, and you love her, it makes you feel the way you’re feeling now, when you can’t be together. But you learn to live with it, you have to. And you find ways to make up for it.”

“How?” Nellie asked. Lucas smiled at her.

“There are a lot of pictures of you guys in our room, remember when you came and you saw it?” he asked, and they nodded. “And there are more now. Like there are here,” he pointed to the pictures on the walls of the girls’ room. “And when we all call each other, it makes you happy, doesn’t it?” More nods, firm ones, with smiles attached. “You know, I think… maybe we can continue our little game every morning, when you two come creeping up to say hello,” he gave them both a squinting look that got them giggling, like they’d been busted. “You can call, every morning, and she’ll be thrilled to get to talk to you for a little while… Me, too,” he added, tapping Nellie’s swinging foot.

“Every morning?” she asked, and he was quick to establish some understanding, to prevent future tantrums.

“If we don’t have time to talk, because we have to be somewhere, then we’ll make sure and call you again later that day. Sound good?”

“But when are you going to be here?” Nellie asked, climbing off the bed to sit on the ground next to him.

“The last few months, we’ve been figuring some stuff out, but now I think we could work it out so that we go see you or _you_ come see _us_ more often, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Gracie chimed in from around the thumb stuck in her mouth. They could try and get her to stop doing it all they wanted, sometimes, there was no working around it.

“Yeah!” Nellie nodded, and it was settled. “I wanna tell Ya!” she went on, looking to her twin to find she wanted to go, too.

“Right, well, I should go see if your mom or dad is okay with you two…”

“Well, I am,” a voice startled him, and Lucas looked back to find Shawn stood at the door, open only so far as to admit him.

“Hey…” Lucas hoped he didn’t sound too much like he was the one who’d gotten busted this time. The twins didn’t have to be told twice, as they scrambled to get up and run to find their big sister, stopping only so long as it took for the stuffed hippo to be deposited back on Gracie’s bed. They went past their father and were gone out of sight while Lucas got up and turned to him.

“I wanted to see if you’d mind going out to pick up a couple things and couldn’t find you,” Shawn told him. “And you’re right, we _will_ have to work out these visits. I’m thinking every other week and alternating, yeah?” And that was all. Lucas headed out on those errands, feeling perhaps he’d earned some points with the man who could one day be his father-in-law.

Down below, Maya had been busying herself with chopping vegetables and now cheese, until she heard the sound of a couple of high voices calling her name as one did when they were looking for someone. Setting the knife down and wiping her hands, she just made it to the doorway out of the kitchen before very nearly colliding into a pair of brunettes, as their arms locked around her. For being not quite two and a half, they were surprisingly strong.

“Hey…” she laughed, putting a hand to either of their heads. “What are you doing down here, did you get sprung out?” They looked up at her, confused. “Mom or Dad said you could come down?” she reiterated, and they nodded. She crouched down to get at their eye level, and to see them smiling again, she could only guess they’d gotten past the fact that she was going away.

“Lucas says we can call every morning,” Nellie informed.

“Did he?” Maya smirked.

“And we can see you more,” Gracie followed.

“When did he say all that?”

“Before, up there,” Nellie replied, as they both pointed to the stairs. She took a breath, nodding to herself. Of course, he had. “He said… he said we feel sad because we love you a lot and you love us a lot.”

“That is _very_ true,” Maya promised them, tapping both their chins and making them giggle. If she cried now, would they get that it came from a good place? “So that means we’re all going to be brave, yeah? Sister promise?” she held out her hands, and she received one from each of the twins in return. Gracie used her free hand to grasp Nellie’s, and then there they were, in a misshapen but completed circle.

“Sister promise,” they both repeated, and Maya scooped them near in a solid hug, peppering their little heads with kisses. Suddenly, her heart felt alight again, and she knew what would turn this whole day from any old party to one where they could make memories together. “Do you know what happens tonight?” she asked her sisters.

“A party?” Gracie guessed.

“Cake,” Nellie declared, and Maya laughed.

“Right, and right, but more than that. Today is the last day of this year, so tomorrow will be a brand new one. You guys will be three before it’s over,” she told them, holding up three fingers. Back in August, when they’d turned two, they’d been told they had turned ‘this many’ by being shown two fingers held up, and they’d spent a great part of their birthday party going around and showing everyone ‘how many’ they were.

“Looks like they’re going around to give everyone the peace sign,” Shawn had said.

“Oh, you wait, there’s nothing peaceful about two,” Katy had retorted, stealing a glance to her eldest, who’d almost choked on her lemonade before throwing her mother an innocent look. “I’m never forgetting,” Katy had told her with an intense whisper.

“What happens tonight?” Nellie asked now, as it must not have added up to her, if the New Year was tomorrow, then what was this thing her big sister wanted them to know would happen today?

“Well, usually, you guys are asleep by then, but in the last seconds of the last minute of the old year, everyone comes together, and they count down those seconds, until there’s no more, and then it’s midnight, which is when the new day starts, the first day of the New Year,” she explained, pressing all the importance and excitement of the event into her voice. Her sisters stared at her with great big saucer eyes. “So, here’s the deal. When Mom and Dad say it’s time for bed, you go to bed, like normal.”

“Will you tell us a story?” Gracie asked.

“Of c…”

“Will you sing a song?” Nellie chimed in before she could finish.

“A story _and_ a song, I promise,” Maya smiled. “We’ll do all that, and you’ll go to sleep, _but!_ ” she held up her finger. “When midnight is approaching, I will come and wake you up, so you can count down with the rest of us. And you’ll get to see the _fireworks_ ,” she whispered. Gracie gasped. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s not like actual fire,” Maya reassured her at once. They’d both been told about fire, and things they weren’t supposed to touch, after a close call with a barbecue over the summer. “Fireworks, they’re big and bright and colorful and they’re in the sky. You’ll see, it’s like magic. Now, do you know how to count down from ten?”

They’d been learning to count to ten, which was all fine and good but, as she discovered, introducing them to the concept of putting the numbers in the other order was very far out of their reach. Still, Maya and some of the others, including Lucas once he returned, made it their business to instruct the Hunter twins on how to count down from ten to zero. It took them nearly until dinner time.

In time, as they’d known it would happen, the twins were taken up to trade their sparkly dresses for pyjamas. Katy went away with a smirk when she was sent away from the task because ‘Ya is doing it!’ Indeed, Maya got them changed, and while she finished with Nellie, the first born of the twins made a dash for the low book case where their growing library sat, and she pulled out the one she wanted her big sister to read them, recognizing it by the spine. She showed it to Gracie, who was having her footie pyjamas snapped shut, and she gave a nod.

“An excellent choice,” Maya declared, as the twins climbed on to Gracie’s bed and sat in wait until she sat in the space they’d left in between. She read the thin book, keeping her voice steady, the better to lull the girls closer to sleep. When it was over, they were nearly there, and she finished them off with a lullaby. Pulling free of the pile-up was the hard part, but she managed it, settling the girls together under the blankets of the one bed. Even now, they tended to sleep better when they were near one another.

The hours that followed were as much of a party as they could all ask for, and all of them soon to return to Houston would leave it feeling both happy and sad, knowing they had to leave their families again before long. Before that departure though, they had something to do… they had the turn of the year.

Maya recruited Lucas to help her wake up the girls with fifteen minutes to spare, the better to give them time to shake off the ‘waking up crankies.’ When they remembered _why_ they were awake, then they got excited. They were taken down the stairs, and while most of the others stayed indoors for the countdown, Maya and Lucas and the twins and some of their friends went outside, until they could stand where they would see the big show when the time came.

“Now?” Nellie asked, several times, and each time she was told that it would be a little while longer. But then, finally, she was told to be ready. To be on the safe side, they had decided to start the count from fifteen, leaving the little girls time to fall into the count. _Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…_ By ‘five,’ Nellie was shouting the numbers, which had the others laughing more than counting. And when she hit zero, they all shouted…

“Happy New Year!” Within seconds, the sky erupted in light and in color, just as promised. Gracie, in Lucas’ arms, slammed her hands over her ears and hid against him. Nellie, in Maya’s arms, sat bolt upright in the hold, and she stared at the sky, speechless and smiling.

“Happy New Year, little sun,” Maya kissed her sister’s cheek.

TO BE CONTINUED


	43. Her Band of Returnees

Lucas had gone on ahead, first to his parents’ house to say goodbye, then to the Banks, Matthews, Orlando, and Zvolensky homes to pick up Kayla and Franny, Riley, Dylan, and Sophie, before swinging back to the Hunter Hart home to pick up Maya, the better to give her more time with her parents, her little sisters, and her baby brother. It took copious amounts of kisses and hugs and promises that they would all do exactly as they’d promised they would before the twins agreed to let go of their big sister, waving her off along with their parents as she got in the car and they left.

The drive back started off on the quieter side, all passengers weighed down by how good it had felt to be home with their families and how much it still hurt to have to leave them behind. The further they went though, it was as though the life they had been building for themselves in the past few months started to beckon them onward, and their spirits started to lift again. Eventually, the radio was turned on, and with music to carry them onward as much as the car did, they rolled on toward Houston and their homes.

Having never been away from the neighborhood and the house for so long, now that they did return, they were certain they had never felt so at home as they did in that moment. When they pulled up on to their street, there was anticipation in them, even more so as they reached the house… and they found they had a small welcoming committee.

Rosa sat on the front step, with Lou sat primly in her lap, while Trix sat at her side. They’d been satisfied enough with the care the girl had provided on the day they’d all left in haste to fly to New York for the Minkus wedding that, when Lucas had driven back to Houston after MJ was born, he’d taken the time to call on Rosa, asking whether she’d be able to take the dogs for the many days where all five of the roommates would be away in Austin.

Having the dogs with them had done something good for Rosa and her mother. They had never had pets in the house while Rosa was growing up. Miss Coleman was allergic to cats, and her husband had been allergic to dogs. This was unfortunate – and perhaps a point of some petty frustration upon his leaving them – as Tracy Coleman was a great lover of dogs, a ‘repressed dog lover,’ according to Rosa. When it had become just the two of them, the possibility of their having one in their home had somehow never come up, like they’d become used to their lot in life, that they were not meant to have a dog.

The morning they had called for Rosa to come and get the dogs with haste, she had returned home, maybe expecting to have to explain herself to her mother… only to see the woman melt at the sight of Trix and Lou. The next day, the dogs had been returned to their people, but the spark was still there. And then, when Lucas had asked if they might look after the dogs again, they had been wholly welcomed. Mother and daughter had spent the holidays with those two and it had been the best holidays they’d had since… well, since the days when they’d both worn the name of Del Vecchio.

“We’re getting a dog!” she announced with maybe the biggest smile they’d ever seen on her. “Maybe more than one, we don’t know yet. Mom said we’d wait until you guys came back before she’d go to the shelter with me and we’d see. I have to go now, but let me know about when’s our next practice!” she called to them, already dashing off back toward her house.

On this bit of cheerful news, they’d walked through the door and into the house. Along with the dogs, Rosa had brought them their mail, which she’d diligently picked up for them while they were away, all of it split off by its recipient, so the piles were handed off to each of them before they took their bags up to their respective rooms to unpack. Sophie had two letters and a package waiting, postmarked from Italy, and she was the first one up the stairs.

“Okay, who’s up for groceries?” Lucas asked as the rest of them marched on after her.

“I can go,” Dylan volunteered. “Riley, do you…” he turned to look at her.

“Sure!” she happily agreed.

The two of them left their bags in their rooms, leaving the unpacking for when there was food in the fridge. Sophie would be a ghost until she was through not only opening her letters but penning a reply, which left Maya and Lucas as the only ones who actually got around to their unpacking and settling in. The dogs trailed after them, moving to curl up in their beds in the corner of their room, looking like they were pleased to be home again, too.

“How much do you want to just drop and do nothing right now?” Lucas asked as they pulled their bags open.

“So much, don’t even bring it up,” she shook her head with a chuckle.

“Don’t bring what up? The nice comfortable bed?” he asked, motioning to it.

“I _will_ smack you,” she held up one of her shoes, which she’d just pulled from her bag, even though her voice had nothing of threat.

“I’d like to see you try,” he countered, _his_ voice telling he actually would be fine with _not_ seeing her try, thanks.

“I’ll give you a pass. Once. You did just drive us all the way here,” she sighed, grabbing the shoe’s partner and returning them both to their place in the closet. “You probably need that nap more than I do.” He said nothing, but his stance said plenty. “Unless it wasn’t a nap you were thinking about…” she ventured, and his barely hidden smile grew. “I mean I know with us being at my parents’ house… and your parents’ house… the last few weeks, we haven’t exactly been… at ease,” she went on, with a pointed look. He just took a deep breath. “Yeah…” she nodded slowly, getting back to her unpacking with a grin she couldn’t quite chase away from her face.

Dylan and Riley returned from the grocery store more than an hour after they’d left. They had been joined by Sophie at some point, dashing to join them so they might buy a few other things. Among the things Chiara had sent her, she had included a handmade book of her favorite recipes, and Sophie was determined to start making them. They arrived to find Lucas, Maya, Trix and Lou lounged out on the couch and flicking through channels on the television.

“Hey, you guys are done unpacking?” Riley asked.

“We are,” Lucas called back in reply.

“And you changed, too,” Sophie commented, the turn of her voice suggesting she knew full well the reason why, as she’d left a while after the other two. Lucas became very focused on the remote. Maya was sure he was glad no one could see their faces from where they stood.

“We did indeed, Officer,” she called to Sophie, laughing quietly.

The girls banded together, in mid-afternoon, to put together the evening’s meal with a couple of Chiara’s recipes. Maya and Riley had the occasional laugh, seeing how intent Sophie was on reading and rereading the instructions. Her Italian had been sounding better and better over the last few months, which was just as well, as the recipes were written in the language of her girlfriend’s home.

They planted Riley’s laptop on the table, keeping an open video call going with Rebecca up in New York, declaring that they needed their ‘culinary expert’ on board to prevent incidents. They had all gotten much better as far as cooking went, a far cry from what they might have been able to do a few years ago. Sophie had picked up some things from working at the bakery, too, like Maya had done in working at the diner in Austin and the restaurant here in Houston. Still, as far as they were concerned, Rebecca Fitz was the ranking authority as far as the kitchen was concerned.

“I’ll do what I can, but I do need to read this before the new semester starts,” she’d held up a large book when they’d called.

“Don’t worry about it, keep reading, we’ll let you know if we have questions. It’ll be good to have you there, like you’ll inspire us to greatness or something,” Maya had told her.

“Flattery… I can take it,” Rebecca had smiled.

And she _had_ been helpful, here and there. A few times they had asked for her input. A few _other_ times, she would just overhear them talk as they worked and she’d quickly call out to them to prevent them from doing something they shouldn’t do.

“And the dessert now…” Sophie breathed.

“That’s going to be harder,” Rebecca told them. “If I was there with you, I…”

“Oh, I know, I know!” Sophie moved to take her phone and make a call. Twenty minutes later, they were joined by Cowgirl Ellie, her co-worker from the bakery and their local authority as the kitchen went. When she saw what they were attempting to make, she was at once intrigued and excited. She and Sophie had enough of a running shorthand between them that Maya and Riley soon found themselves unnecessary to the task, allowing them to sit at the kitchen table and watch, like a cooking show audience. The perks, where they got to taste the components as they came together, were excellent.

“We should share with the guys, shouldn’t we?” Riley told Maya at one point. Maya craned her neck to where they could see the guys sitting on the couch, watching a movie they knew none of the girls had been interested in seeing.

“I guess we should…” she turned back to Riley. “The more important question is _will_ we?” Riley chuckled. They let the question hang for about half a minute before they sighed and ‘decided to be nice,’ moving to share their ‘samplers’ with Lucas and Dylan.

By the time the preparation of the meal turned into consumption of it, the five roommates – and Ellie, who of course was invited to stay and eat with them for the assistance she’d provided – the house smelled so good it was a wonder they hadn’t inhaled their food the moment the plates had been within their reach. They had waited long enough to take pictures, to send to Chiara (and to Rebecca), before they got around to eating. To say it had all been worth the work would have been the greatest understatement. Right then and there they decided they needed to work their way through that cookbook in the weeks to come. Every new year deserved new projects, didn’t it? This could definitely be theirs.

“Didn’t think I’d miss it this much,” Maya told Lucas, that night, as they got ready for bed. “The house, the five of us like this…”

“I know what you mean,” he agreed. It was easy then to fall into the trap of lamenting how, once they all graduated college, that time in their life would be over, the five of them in this house. But they wouldn’t go there. It was the kind of line of thinking they fell so easily and so often into, as their lives continued to evolve and change, the transitions following one another over recent years. No, they’d just had a great visit back with their families _and_ a wonderful first day back here in Houston… There was nothing for them to think about now but what the new year would have in store for them. Whatever it was, they were excited for it.

TO BE CONTINUED


	44. Her Band of Siblings

The Houston house and its occupants all slept a quiet and peaceful night, the first one they all spent there since the roommates’ extended visit over to Austin to be with their families over the holidays. The start of the semester wasn’t on them, not yet, but it wouldn’t be long now, not long at all, so if they could enjoy these mornings while they had them…

Maya woke up to the sound of the telltale bell of a Skype call coming in, that and the dogs’ grumblings, the kinds that preceded some solid barking. Even barely awake as she was, she still had the presence of mind to know that waking everyone so abruptly would not have been good.

“Trix, Lou, it’s okay,” she spoke, yawning as she sat up and reached for her phone on the nightstand. Lucas, at her side, was starting to stir. Even though her words had managed to return the dogs to peace, she knew very well that once she connected the call there would be noise enough that her boyfriend would wake up anyway, so she reached over and shook him awake as gently as she could manage before tapping her finger to the screen. A promise was a promise, right?

The screen was quickly filled end to end with the faces of her baby sisters, both of them squeezed ear to ear to the point where it was impossible to say for certain – though it was probably Nellie – which of them held their mother’s phone, the originator of this call. Either way, the appearance of their bright little faces, and the happy smiles on those faces when they saw _hers_ , made Maya forget all about how she’d only just woken up. They were cheerfully talking (shouting) over one another, and Maya could see Lucas still so startled next to her.

“Morning Miss Penelope, morning Miss Grace,” Maya turned back to look at her sisters. “Did you take Mommy’s phone or did she let you have it?” she had to wonder. In response, their mother’s face appeared, in the very small corner of screen not yet occupied.

“They haven’t cracked the p-a-s-s-w-o-r-d yet,” Katy informed her, and Maya saw she had MJ held in her arms as she moved out of view.

So, the sisters talked, for a few minutes. Mostly Maya let the twins tell her what they had to say, and she happily listened, throwing a word in here and there where appropriate. When they finally hung up, after more than a few false starts on the goodbyes, she breathed out, letting herself fall back on to her pillow. Lucas, who’d been staying quietly out of sight, turned over and tugged her closer. She smiled, turning on her side to look at him.

“Work today?” she asked him.

“Work today,” he confirmed. “After lunch. You?”

“This afternoon,” she nodded. “Which means we have all morning to ourselves.”

“Whose turn is it for laundry?”

“Dylan, I think…” Maya tried to remember. Lucas made a face. “I think Riley said she’d help him this time,” she reassured him. Much as he tried, their friend seemed to lack in the ability to perform this one task without at least one unfortunate incident or another. They were one shrunken pair of pants away from simply exempting him from the chore altogether.

“So, what do you want to do this morning?” he asked.

“Well… it’s been a while since we’ve gotten to take Trix and Lou to the park…” she declared. If there was any debate on whether the dogs could understand them when they spoke… No sooner did she make the suggestion that Maya and Lucas both were joined by the pair in question. Even Lou had learned how to climb on to the mattress by now, and it was a frenzy of paws and kisses. “Okay, okay, I said we could go!” she laughed under Trix’ attentions.

One stroll to the park and back later, they returned home to start and get ready for their respective work shifts, the first ones they’d have since before they’d left on that snowy night to get to the hospital in Austin, to MJ Hunter’s birth.

Lucas arrived at Coleman’s to find that the Christmas window display had been replaced with one that called to the celebration of this new year just starting, the best way they knew how to, with new books to read. By now, Lucas had seen enough of Rosa’s displays to recognize her personal touches. By all accounts, the next display would be over Valentine’s Day, although he wasn’t sure how that would shape up. From what he’d heard from Pete Singh, their designated decorator wasn’t big on the ‘so-called romance’ of the February love fest.

“She’ll need help on that one.”

Which was fine, no matter the fact that Rosa was all of sixteen. It would have been easy to say ‘oh, she just hasn’t met the right person yet,’ but that just made it sound like she was somehow incomplete for her dislike of the holiday, and she wasn’t that at all. Still, if he needed any proof that her clash with and the approach of Valentine’s Day did spin through her thoughts, even now, with over a month to go, all he had to do was spot her when she’d pull out that planning notebook of hers, coming in for her shift after her first day back at school. The frustration just radiated off of her.

“Hey,” he approached her now, with the slightest bit of apprehension, the way you would when approaching a growling animal. She looked up at him and, though she did not growl, she did look the tiniest bit annoyed. At the very least, he wasn’t the source of that annoyance.

“Hey,” she replied, her voice flat, her pen scratching something out with sufficient force that he feared the page would tear. Instead of calling her on it, he decided to change the subject.

“So, when are you guys going to the shelter to look at dogs?” It was like flipping a switch. At once she slapped the notebook shut, set her pen down, and she looked up to her friend and co-worker with revived excitement.

“Friday after school,” she informed him. “And I’m getting the weekend off from here so I can be with the dog… or dogs…”

“Helps when your boss is also your mother,” he smirked.

“We might have gone today, she wanted to, but then if we did that then there’d be no one at home all day once I went to school or she came here, so Friday.”

“Good thinking,” he agreed. “And if you guys ever need us to look after whoever you bring home, just let us know, okay?”

“Thanks,” she nodded.

Maya had predicted that he would be requested to share whatever pictures or videos of MJ he could provide his co-workers. He’d insisted they wouldn’t, seeing as he wasn’t in fact _his_ brother, to which she had responded by giving him a knowing look.

“Isn’t he though?” she’d told him, and he sort of had to stand there and realize what she was getting at. Them, him and her, on that track toward ‘til death do us part…’ He’d gotten to the point where he would think of how Katy and Shawn would be his in-laws someday, but up to that point he hadn’t really thought about how this would apply to her siblings, too. The twins, MJ… and the four in New York… As close as he’d always been, to the twins especially, now he felt that bond thicken… So, yes, in a way, MJ _was_ his brother, too. His very small brother-in-law to be.

And she’d been right, of course. Rosa’s mother wanted to see it all, and so did Pete. Rosa had already seen plenty, thanks to the band’s group chat, and she’d met the infant and held him in her arms. She still stood there, peering around their shoulders as they browsed through Lucas’ phone.

Maya was met with the same request as soon as she was seen by anyone as she walked into the restaurant. Aunt Isabel welcomed her back with a warm embrace and an immediate click of her fingers for her to hand over her phone.

“Alright, alright,” Maya laughed, pulling up the already substantial album loaded with whatever bit of cuteness and randomness she had managed to capture in her baby brother’s first three weeks of life, before she’d left for Houston. She didn’t need to fear her falling behind on ‘events,’ as both her mother and father continued to send her new goodies as they became available for sharing. She could just imagine what that would be like once she was back in school…

“Have I told you how glad I am that you’re back?” was Leona’s greeting as the two of them worked through their routine tasks before they kicked off the day’s work shift.

“Who’d they get to replace me?” Maya asked, sensing this to be the cause of Leona’s ‘distress.’ The whole time she’d been away, her friend and co-worker had insisted that she wouldn’t tell her anything about the restaurant, going so far as to insist that she didn’t try and inquire through any of the other servers. The way she saw it, she didn’t need to be thinking about work, not when she was spending time with her family. Now that she was back, of course, that ban was not so much lifted as it was flung right out the window.

“Kendall,” Leona revealed, and it had to be said, in knowing this quiet girl at all, that the softly contained disdain in her voice, her posture, her face, was both foreign and telling of her opinion on the girl.

“I’m so sorry,” Maya couldn’t help but laugh just a bit, while Leona was fighting off an eye roll. The girl, who was just a year older than them but behaved like she ran the dining room, had made herself into someone they worked hard to avoid on a regular basis from day one.

“Don’t be sorry. She’s gone,” Leona’s eye roll veered the other way, and Maya turned to look at her again.

“Gone? As in…”

“As in fired, as in thrown out on her bossy little behind,” Leona smiled to herself before frowning, as though she didn’t want to take happiness in another’s misery. Then she remembered how mean Kendall had been to them, and she smiled again. “Four days ago. Oh, as soon as she picked up your shifts, it’s like all her worst qualities floated right to the surface. And Isabel saw, and she saw, until the last straw fell, and at the end of the night, she took Kendall into her office. Ten minutes later, she was stomping out of here and back to the hellhole she crawled out of.”

“Leona Elizabeth Willis…” Maya blinked. “I’m surprised and intrigued by this side of you. I _like_ it.”

“That’s what I get for telling you my middle name now?” she only smiled. “Anyway, looks like Isabel was ready for that spot to be vacant. The next day, she asked if I wanted to train the new guy or if you might want to do it.”

“There’s a new guy?” Maya looked around, curious. “Is he here now?”

“Came in right before you did, he’s with Isabel now. I think she just wants him to shadow us for now,” Leona explained, nodding toward the office door even as it opened and Isabel came out, trailed by a tall black guy. The moment she got a good look at his face, Maya gasped, grasping Leona’s arm and pulling her aside. “What? What are you… Do you know him?”

“Not in person, no,” Maya shook her head, a stunned sort of smile on her face. “But I’ve seen pictures. That’s Lion… Lionel… That’s Willow’s ex-boyfriend.”

“The Japan guy?” Leona took a step forward to get a look at him again. Did Willow know? She had to, right? He’d been writing to her again for a little while, they’d been reconnecting, but she’d never mentioned…

“Looking like the Texas guy right about now.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	45. Her Band of Girls

Maya knew for sure that Willow and Lion had been communicating more and more in the past several weeks, because the moment he saw her walking toward him, so she might introduce herself, he pointed at her like he knew her face but couldn’t quite place it. Then, when Isabel made the introductions and she said Maya’s name, the recollection filled out his memory. He smiled at her, and her first impression of the guy, now that she had met him and started speaking with him, was that he was just… cool… There were people who simply had that air about them, and Lion had it in spades.

“Willow never said you were moving back here,” she mentioned, and he nodded.

“She doesn’t actually know yet,” he admitted, with as sheepish of a look as his vast coolness could muster. When Maya – and Leona at her side – blinked, he went on to explain. After Christmas, Willow had gone off to visit family down in Florida. This, Maya was aware of, like she was aware that she hadn’t returned to Houston yet, and wouldn’t until two days from now.

While Lion had been considering a return stateside for some time, which had triggered his starting to write with Willow again, he hadn’t mentioned it to her just yet. He didn’t want to get her hopes up, especially as their ongoing correspondence had been quick to make some old feelings resurface. When it had become real, his return, he’d wanted to make it a surprise. He was crashing at his old friend’s place until he found a more permanent home… and while his belongings were making their way back from Japan. Then the job, well… he’d started looking even before he’d flown back, and by some chance – and timing – he had gotten into contact with the restaurant just as Isabel was seeking a new server.

In all this, he’d been working to keep up the surprise for Willow, and until she was actually back in Houston, that meant not telling anyone. He hadn’t known he’d be running into her friends here.

“Your secret’s safe with us,” Maya assured him, as Leona nodded.

And two days later, when Willow Regan returned to Houston on a flight from Tampa, she found herself greeted by one Lionel Obi smiling back at her. They would soon come to discover the Kryptonite to Lion’s cool demeanor, the first time they’d see him exist in the same room as Willow.

By the time TXNY had their first practice of 2022, a lot had changed. There had never been one moment in particular where either of them had needed to discuss their getting back together. The way she said it, the moment she spotted him outside the gate everything had just fallen into place, like they’d simply been on pause all this time and they’d finally unpaused. The very next day following her return to Texas, Lion was moving himself from his friend’s place and into Willow’s apartment.

“You’re going to have to try and control that permanent little grin you’ve got going right now,” Maya happily teased her friend and bandmate when she came bounding down the basement steps to join her, and Riley, and Kayla and Rosa.

“Can I pick your brain about something later?” Rosa asked, tipping her head back to spot Willow from where she sat, fussing over her bass. Maya was pretty sure she was going to be quizzing her about ‘love stuff,’ the better to inspire the Valentine’s Day window at the book store. She’d gone through that quiz herself when Rosa had arrived for the day’s practice.

“Sure,” Willow told Rosa, passing her with a playful tap to the forehead that made their young bandmate smile.

“Okay, before we start,” Maya came to stand before the others. She was proud to say that her knowledge and ability when it came to sign language had vastly improved in the months since she’d been friends with Kayla, and she showed this now by signing along as she addressed her bandmates. “We said from the start that we would make our big unveiling of the new members of the band in the new year, once we all had the chance to grow together and start making things happen.”

Figuring out how to balance the letting out of information about the band’s hiatus and their advance toward their great return had been a challenge already without having to do it in the midst of their first semester of college. It had always been important to find a way to be transparent to those people who’d been faithfully following them all this time while also keeping some things a surprise, the better to make the reveal they were now approaching. When they’d taken Kayla, Rosa, and Willow into the band officially, they had said as much online. They hadn’t mentioned any names, or shared any photos. That would be happening… soon.

But between that one announcement and now, they had been working to put out some careful teasers in the form of audio recordings. When they’d all sung and played together for the first time, that recording had been uploaded to their site, coupled with no other visual than the animated version of their band logo a fan from Spain had created for them. There had been more of these, at least one a week, and each of them had been received with growing intrigue and anticipation. So far, the change in the lineup was appearing to be received positively. It still sounded like TXNY, still felt like TXNY. It was different, but it was definitely them.

They’d taken a next step in this soft campaign by releasing isolated recordings. Kayla had done some drum solos for them, showing them what they’d come to know from her and even some things they hadn’t known she could do up to that point, like she’d been intent on seeing that it wouldn’t just be the fans who’d be surprised. Rosa had done one bass solo, then a couple others where she sang along with her instrument, others where they all played for her to sing. Willow had some of those, too, and then many more where she flexed her instrument playing side, alternating from one to the other. The introduction of those new tones to the band’s music had been something more for the fans to wonder at.

Already before the actual reveal they had expected at least some to greet the change with much less enthusiasm. Maya and Riley, who’d been through that side of it before, had done their best to prepare the others, Rosa, especially. They knew very well she’d be the most vulnerable to whatever would be said about them, about her.

Over the holidays, when they’d all been in Austin, the five of them and Nadine and Isadora, too, they’d made use of this precious time by recording a few things, songs, videos, anything they could think of. They didn’t have their instruments with them, but they could work around it. They had also taken the time to sit, the seven of them together, and take turns sort of interviewing their newbies. Whatever parts of themselves they felt ready to put out there, they shared.

“So we took those interviews from Austin,” Maya went on to tell them at practice that day, “And we edited them with bits from here and there, videos and the audio teases, sort of like a… an introductory package, for each of you. They’re going to be put up on the site… today,” she revealed, getting the trio’s attention at once. It was finally happening, their first big step… their unveiling…

They’d sat there for a while after that, huddled around Maya’s laptop, to view those videos before they hit the internet. There were four, one for Kayla, one for Rosa, one for Willow, and then one more that was their very first performance of their first of a few as yet unreleased songs, new music that had been created specifically for the new TXNY five. The video actually started with the five of them performing TXNY’s very first ‘hit,’ and then, somewhere down the middle, the song started to veer off course, down a new path, a new rhythm, and they launched into the new song. It was their way of saying ‘here we are, this is who we are now.’

“Wow…” Rosa was the first to say anything, when the video came to an end, a proud little smile on her face that was mirrored on the others’.

“So… All systems go?” Maya asked, looking around. It was yes all around, so she looked back to the laptop with a smile, and within minutes all four videos were live on the site. Whatever came next, well… they would find out sooner or later. They didn’t sit around to wait and see; now more than ever, they had a practice to focus on, especially with the final announcement Maya made to them, even as she made it to the site. Accompanying the four videos, they’d watched as she typed out a notice that they were going to be having their first live performance… in two weeks.

“Wait, we are?” Kayla signed.

“Are you serious?” Rosa sat up rod straight, her face alight with equal parts giddiness and crushing anxiety.

“Is that why you asked what we were doing that day?” Willow realized.

It was one thrill upon another, between the videos, and the upload, and the announcement of their first gig together. What it turned into… it might have been their most exhilarating practice yet, as though their unveiling was more like an activation. There had never been any doubt that TXNY deserved to go on, and certainly everything they’d been doing to even get to this point had been done under that belief, but that day, that practice… It had never felt so true.

“I need to get home, have to take Gideon out for his walk,” Rosa scampered up the stairs after practice was over. The newest member of the Coleman/Del Vecchio family was still a young pup, still small, though from everything they’d been hearing, he was likely to grow into a much larger dog by the time he stopped growing. It had been just under a week since he’d been brought home from the shelter, and much in the way that everyone wanted to know about MJ when Maya had come back from Austin, Rosa’s friends and bandmates all wanted to know about little Gideon.

She hadn’t brought him to the house just yet, wanted to wait until he’d adjusted some more before introducing him to Trix and Lou. The two dogs of the Houston house may not have met the pup, but they certainly smelled him on Rosa, and they were notably intrigued. They _had_ seen the little guy by now, going over to Rosa’s, some evenings spotting the two of them on their regular walks…

“Lion’s stuff just got delivered today, so I need to get back and help him unpack,” Willow followed after that, leaving Maya, Riley, and Kayla to climb back up to the ground floor together.

“Want to stay and watch a movie or something?” Riley asked Kayla, who explained that, while she _did_ plan on staying, it was only that she and Maya needed to get started on a project for Professor Robinson’s class. Franny was already on her way to come and join them. This was going to be a big one, and they really needed to get started.

“Almost doesn’t seem fair, does it?” Maya sighed dramatically. “One second we’re down there, making music like the rest of the world isn’t there, and the next… the world is back, and it demands studying, so much studying,” she told Kayla, who gave a laugh, followed by her own flare up of ‘drama.’ They could handle being back in the real world, knowing what awaited them back in their musical world.

TO BE CONTINUED


	46. Her Band of Classmates

Already they were into their second week of this new semester, and it didn’t seem like the time had really gone by. She knew the others were feeling the same as she did, just by seeing how they went along, from day to day: they had found their stride, they were in their element. It was the sort of thing they really wouldn’t have known how to explain, how to comprehend, back when they were still in high school, this thought that they could be going to school to work on something that felt that much more… tangible, maybe? Not just to go to school because it was what was expected of them but because it was the means to an end they wanted very much.

Even Sophie, who technically speaking might have been said to only be biding her time until she was able to start at the police academy, was thriving, having found something she didn’t count as a back up in any way, but more like an opportunity to explore with no strings attached. She had always loved to learn new things, and now here she was, learning. In the end, it would become a tool in her belt, when she stepped out as an officer… or a detective…

And Dylan, from all they’d seen, continued to be satisfied of his choice. He didn’t need college, not now. Maybe someday, as he’d said, but for now he was content. The proof of that was in his work at the community center. The catering, he enjoyed that, too, sure, but it was the coaching, working with the kids, that made him the happiest. Some days he would come home and he would start telling them about one of the kids in his groups with such a spark in his eyes. He was helping them, and they could see how much that was all he could ask for.

The only one of them she could say might have been in any way off center by a hair was Riley, and there was no way she wouldn’t have picked up on it. One day, Maya had asked her if she was having problems with her classes, and Riley had assured her she wasn’t. But there was still that waver in her eyes, and Maya kept tracking it until her best friend of old would explain.

“I don’t know, I mean I love what I’m doing in class, all of it, I do, but it still feels like there’s something missing, something that will really complete the picture, you know?” She did. “It’s okay though, I’ll figure it out,” Riley had promised, a smile on her face that told Maya that yes, she would do that, and she would do it all on her own, as she should.

Lucas, he was so glad to be back in class, him and Bishop moving their way up their program, and Maya would take her own brand of pleasure in referring to her boyfriend as ‘Doc Friar.’

“Just so long as you don’t call me…” he started to say, that morning, when she did it again. Then he stopped, like he’d realized he was about to hand her the weapon of his own demise. She fixed him with a pointed look at once.

“Finish your sentence, sir,” she turned back from the closet where she’d been picking out what she’d wear that day. He only just turned from where he sat on the bed and let his feet set to the ground, and he stared back at her, shaking his head. He wouldn’t. “You tell me now, Lucas Friar, you can’t just dangle something like that in my face,” she approached him with a grinning fury that only set him smiling.

“Make me,” he challenged, and oh how he liked that glint in her eye.

“Lucky for you, I can’t do that _and_ be in time to class, which I kind of like to be, so consider yourself owed one, unless you should find it in your heart to spare me a day’s agony before I inevitably pull it out of you,” she declared, pressing her hands to his shoulders. His response was merely to lock his arms around her waist, keeping her near.

“Sparing you does seem tempting, but I have to say I’m kind of curious about what you’ll do to, as you say, pull it out of me.” She just had to laugh, leaning down to kiss him for a few blissful seconds before she had to let go, had to get back to getting ready.

When she arrived to her first class of the day, she was met by a Franny and Kayla who looked entirely unlike themselves in some way she couldn’t explain.

“What’s going on with you two?” she asked at once, concerned.

“There was a fire in the dorms,” Franny explained, peering up from where the two friends sat by the classroom door. Kayla had her head on her shoulder like she was a breath away from drifting off to sleep.

“What?” Maya’s eyes went wide as she crouched down to be near them. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine, it wasn’t in our room, it was down the hall from us, but it was in the middle of the night and we had to evacuate…” Franny told her.

“You should have called me, I would have come to get you,” Maya went from crouching to sitting, reaching a hand to either of her friends. “When did they let you back in?” she asked, guessing they must have, seeing as they weren’t in pyjamas at the moment.

“Like two hours later. We were both so wired we couldn’t get back to sleep, so we just got ready and came here.”

_“It still smelled,”_ Kayla volunteered limply. Clearly, whatever had kept them awake while they waited was now a thing of the past and they were exhausted.

“Okay, you guys are coming over to the house tonight, no argument. Stay as long as you need.” That they didn’t even try to say they’d be alright going back to their dorm spoke plenty to where their heads were at. If they didn’t have to go back yet, they weren’t going to. “Did you eat?” They shook their heads. Without a word, Maya got up again, making a dash for the nearest food cart, acquiring breakfast and coffee for the tired duo and bringing it back to them. They sat there, the three of them, Franny and Kayla eating as they told Maya more about the night they’d had.

By the time they were able to head into their classroom, the food had started to do its work in them, while the coffee did the rest, enabling them to carry on through the morning. Maya texted her roommates to let them know they would be having guests. They were all at once welcoming to the news, wanting to know that their friends were both alright. Later, in between classes, Maya, Franny, and Kayla were approached – and nearly tackled – by Riley and Sophie, who came toward them and embraced the two dorm residents, wanting to hear for themselves that they were okay.

The day had been entirely altered from the moment they heard about the fire. Though she remained focused on her classes as she attended them, Maya felt like the slightest moment of distraction. Any time where she was able to think to herself, her thoughts would shift to her friends and what they’d gone through. Even if the fire hadn’t been in their room, to think of that happening so close to her… No wonder they were shaken up. When a classmate came up to her and said they’d heard about the band and their upcoming show, saying they wanted to be there, Maya realized it was the first time since she’d found Franny and Kayla that morning that she’d actually thought about their first performance, which was now just a few days away.

She told her classmate that she was looking forward to it, too, which of course she was, but then… For the first time now, she wondered if they might have to cancel, try to get another slot another time. If Kayla wasn’t up to it, she wasn’t going to force her. She didn’t know how to bring it up without having it sound like she only cared about the show or something, but it could be that it became a genuine concern. They couldn’t simply not show up, nor could they cancel last minute without some reason that would be understood. It could mean the end of things right when they were starting again.

She had one more class than her two friends, so they went to their room to pack up some things before going to wait to meet her by the parking lot. When they all started back for home, they heard back from Dylan, saying he had recruited Willow to help him start dinner for them that day. Maya was due at the restaurant that night, but she knew not to worry about her roommates making her classmates and friends feel at home while she was away.

Hours later, when Lucas came to pick her up from work, she asked how Franny and Kayla were doing.

“They’re good, they’re fine,” he assured her. “Settled in, Franny’s bunking with Riley, Kayla’s with Sophie,” he told her. “They spent most of the evening in the basement. Kayla’s been on the drums.” She didn’t say anything and she didn’t have to. “She’ll be okay, Maya,” he told her. “The show…”

“If she isn’t, I wouldn’t…”

“I know you wouldn’t,” he promised. “Want to stop for ice cream?” he asked, and she smiled.

“It’s ridiculous how good you are,” she breathed out, and he gave a ‘humble’ shrug that made her laugh. So, they went for ice cream, which they ate sitting back in the car, sharing a quiet moment in the dark of night.

“Dockleberry,” he said after a few minutes, and she blinked, staring back at him in confusion.

“What are y… Oh!” she gasped, before breaking into roaring giggles. That was what he’d almost said, that morning… it all seemed so far away now.

“You had a weird day, figured I’d spare you,” he shrugged. “But please, let’s not make it a thing?” She looked at him like it was really hard for her to agree to ‘not make it a thing.’ Finally, she leaned across her seat to kiss him, once, twice, and a longer time the third, before pulling back to look at him.

“Is it a thing if I just break it out for special occasions?” she asked, with a wicked grin.

“I guess that’s your right,” he declared, and she nodded, kissing him again. “Eat your ice cream before it melts.” One more quick little peck and she moved back to her seat proper, digging into her small paper cup. Every few seconds she’d get a smile or a small laugh, and he knew she was thinking about the name again. If he could alleviate her worries, that would win out against his own self-preservation any day.

They went home, the place quiet again now, though they didn’t take this for granted to mean that everyone was asleep. It had been an eventful day, the house was loaded, but that was the good part. This was the world they’d created, hard at work. They may have left their families back in Austin, but they had created one of their own, with old friends and new ones in the mix. Their house was open to all of them, whenever they needed it, and as time went on it also meant that their friends could see that open door.

TO BE CONTINUED


	47. Her Band of Fans

Maya would say she had been right at the threshold between waking and still being asleep when she was jolted right into full on awake by the sound of knocks at the closed bedroom door. If that hadn’t done it, the rush of barking it had caused in the two dogs sleeping nearby would have done it; it certainly did for Lucas, who startled awake so fast he almost knocked her over in the process, only barely managing to grab on to her arms and halt her.

“Sorry, I…” he blinked.

“It’s fine, woke me up the rest of the way at least…” she breathed. There was more knocking, and she was just thinking that it sounded like more than one person when she heard Sophie’s voice.

“You guys awake?”

“Well we are now…” Lucas groaned, rubbing at his face.

“Can we come in? Are you… you know…”

“Why does everyone think we sleep naked?” Maya whispered to him before climbing out of bed, weaving through eager dogs underfoot before opening the door. When she did, she found both Sophie and Kayla standing there – which would explain the double knocking – and it took Maya a moment to remember the events of the previous day, the fire in the dorms, and the fact that both Kayla and Franny had spent the night here. “Good morning?” she greeted them with a voice that sounded like ‘come in, I guess.’

In response, Kayla handed over her phone with a grin. It appeared to be a message from one of their pages. Even as she read it to herself, it took Maya a few moments to understand why the girls were so eager to show it to her.

_“Already asked my mom if she’d drive me to Houston for the show, but she called the place and they said it was booked solid. Will there be others soon?”_

Her first thought had been ‘well, that’s too bad…’ but then, finally, it all clicked. _Booked solid._ Her head turned back up to look to her friends, eyes wide, and they had the grins of people who’d had the same reaction not very long ago.

“What?” was all she could say.

“I know!” Sophie squealed, while Kayla took her phone back and went knocking at Riley’s door. “I’m going to text Willow and Rosa,” Sophie dashed back to her room, while Maya turned back to Lucas. He was becoming used to these early-morning wake up calls, going by the way he just sat there now instead of looking just a bit unsure of how to hold himself with people barging into their bedroom. He was looking at her now like he was wondering what this was all about.

“Guess what,” she asked, creeping back up to the bed with a grin on her face.

“Show’s sold out?” he replied, and she paused. Hadn’t he looked like he didn’t know a second ago?

“How did you…”

“Had to go in the middle of the night, couldn’t get back to sleep, so I went on my phone for a bit,” he revealed.

“And you didn’t wake me?” she climbed on to the bed, standing tall – from his perspective – over him. He tugged at her arm and she came to sit with him.

“Figured you’d find out soon enough, and you needed your sleep,” he told her, holding on to her hands in that way he did that made her feel happy and safe. “And now you did, so…”

“Right, that’s fair…” She took a moment, tapped back in to her giddiness. “Sold out… I don’t think we ever did _that_ before, did we?”

“Not that I can remember,” he shook his head. “I mean you’ve played to some big crowds before. That Halloween thing in the park, a few of the venues, and then Sophie’s party…” The Party, before The Accident. Remembering the good of that show, the party itself, was always going to be tinged with the bad that had followed, wasn’t it? “But this is huge for you guys, for you… Have I told you how proud I am? My girlfriend the Rockstar…” She laughed, cheeks growing pink. He brought the hands he held up to his lips, kissed them with that pride of his and the love that came alongside it.

They could hear a shout of surprise and then a lot of excited noises, so Riley and Franny must have been told. Trix and Lou, hearing the sounds, went trotting off to find out what was going on. For once, Maya got ahead of her little sisters and called home first, the better to share the news with her parents. They hadn’t been so much surprised – parental confidence, as they called it – as they were so very, very happy for her and the other girls.

“Good thing we’re VIPs or we wouldn’t have gotten in,” her father joked.

After having her morning chat with her sisters, Maya was quick to reach out to Nadine and Isadora, to share the news. They both had that same look about them, like they couldn’t quite wrap their minds around it, which, coming from those two, was saying a lot.

But she knew what it felt like, no doubt. It was all just so surreal. Seemed only yesterday they were just four friends doing something kind of silly at the Babineaux summer party, and then they were just sort of doing their own thing, and then… then, the whirlwind. No matter what happened, all those milestones, they never stopped just catching her by surprise, like a punch to the heart… the good kind, if such a thing existed, a punch that said ‘see, you’re alive, you’re awake, this is really real.’

Maybe it shouldn’t have been so much of a surprise, right? Not in a bragging kind of way, but just for all they’d seen since those videos had gone up to the site. The response had been constant, strong. For how much they had all been seeing how eager everyone was for the band’s eventual return, they hadn’t expected it to be to this extent.

When the teasers had started going up, it was like a tremor, like everyone started to wake up and look around. The more of those had gone up, the more the tremor turned into the drone of rising voices. And then the videos… the introductions to the new members, showing how they fit within the new lineup, with those who were still active, and those who were not… Their acceptance into the fold had been overwhelming in its positivity.

Willow had had something of a small following through her performances at the coffee shop, but she’d be the first to say how it was nowhere near what TXNY was getting, before she’d ever been part of it. Then, when she’d been revealed as one of the new members of the band, those who _had_ been following her from the coffee shop had put it on their pages that they’d seen her sing out there several times. Next thing they knew, they were getting an influx of new customers, all of them there to see her. They hadn’t known that she worked there, hadn’t expected to meet her, and when they did, Willow had her first experience of meeting these brand-new fans… of hers.

“How was it?” Maya had asked, hoping for her sake that it had been ‘the good kind.’

“They were really sweet,” Willow just smiled. “My boss said she wouldn’t mind the interruptions so long as they didn’t interrupt too long. The new customers thing kind of helped.”

“It was like that with us back in Austin, too,” Maya told her. “Me and Nadine worked at a diner, Riley at a movie theater…” She also remembered how some of those encounters had been less than favorable, so for her sake she hoped she wouldn’t run into too much of that.

Kayla’s experience of her ‘revelation’ to the world had come with a different set of responses. Oh, they had been vastly positive, too, sure, but there was more to it. None of the teasers had been able to convey the one thing about her that people would inevitably take notice of once they saw those videos. At best they’d figured that whoever they had recruited to be their new drummer was simply not that big of a singer, and that was why they’d only heard her music and not her voice.

But then the video had shown them who held those sticks, and the moment she’d started to sign, to answer the sort of ‘get to know you’ quiz each of them had answered in their respective videos, all of a sudden she wasn’t just the new TXNY drummer, she was the new TXNY drummer who was also deaf. It brought on a lot of questions, but Kayla was ready for all of them, not baffled in the slightest. That wasn’t the part that she held to the most.

A few days after the videos had gone up, a couple days before the fire, she’d come to join Maya in the class they shared without Franny, and she had that sort of smile about her that looked like the prelude to happy crying, or possibly _following_ those happy tears. When Maya asked her what that was about, she’d told her about an encounter she’d had the previous evening at her job. There had been a little girl, eight-years-old or so, sitting with her parents nearby, and she’d just kept staring at her, and staring at her. Kayla hadn’t thought too much of it, until the girl had finally taken up her courage and gotten up to walk over to her.

The girl, who introduced herself as Bianca, asked if she was the girl from TXNY, the new drummer. When Kayla had signed back that, yes, she was, the girl’s eyes had gone very bright. She told her how her big sister, Shelly, who’d been a long-time fan, had seen the video of her and, soon as she did, she’d shown it to her. It had been like a revelation to Bianca, something to come and intrigue her. Kayla had been thrilled to learn this, and she’d said as much. The girl had followed this by throwing her arms around her in a great big hug, which Kayla had returned. She had vowed to keep in touch with her small fan, even as she pondered if there might be others out there like her, with a new curiosity.

Then there was Rosa, and it was hard to pretend like they hadn’t all been most concerned about what the response would be like for her, being the youngest of them. Willow, the eldest of them, they hadn’t been concerned for, and Kayla exuded so much confidence on a daily basis that nothing could shake her. Maya and Riley remembered what it had been like with them, in high school, when the band had first started making waves. It hadn’t been bad all the time, not exactly, but there had been more unfortunate moments. Every high school had to have that type, didn’t they? Rosa Del Vecchio, for all her bravado, carried a lot of emotions underneath, and if the bullies started to come at her…

There had been some of those, and they’d seen it in her eyes, one afternoon at practice, enough to make her four musical big sisters want to march into that school and give some of those kids a piece of their minds. But in the end, they hadn’t needed to, because for as much as there was _that_ type, there was the other type, the good people. And maybe they hadn’t taken notice of Rosa before, because she was so quiet and kept to herself, but when the bullies had started putting her in the spotlight, it had changed. Now, much to her surprise and undeniable delight, Rosa experienced something new as she went to school every day… she had friends, two really good ones, called Astrid and Dev.

In time, things would start to settle, they knew, and the newness would wear off. But from all she’d experienced so far, Maya knew deep down that the surprises would never stop coming, not so long as the band existed.

TO BE CONTINUED


	48. Her Band of Roomies

Maya was enjoying herself on this peaceful afternoon, sat on the couch at home with Sophie. Both of them were quietly reading class things, Maya sat up with her legs laid out before her, while Sophie was laid out on the couch with her legs stretching over Maya’s lap. At her toes, Maya could just feel Lou, where she sat sleeping, while Trix was doing the same just by Sophie’s head. The most they got as far as sound was the turn of a page, the occasional scratch of a pencil taking notes in margins, and the equally occasional dog yawn or whimper.

Then they heard the key in the door and their peace was halted by Dylan’s return.

“Hey, guess what,” he called to the girls, who both looked momentarily startled and just a bit put off about the interruption, before the Dylan of it all settled them back into ease. “I got my outfit for the show,” he announced, holding up a couple of bags, one of them holding what looked to be a shoe box. Now the girls blinked, momentarily forgetting about their studying. Sophie sat herself up just enough so she could see over the top of the couch.

“You got new clothes for…” Maya spoke, like she still wasn’t following.

“Your show, the band, you know?” Dylan nodded.

“Yes, I’m familiar, I just… well… you _have_ clothes, I mean it’s not like…”

“It’s your first show here, with the new girls, and it’s sold out, so…” he held up his bags as the end to his statement. From him it was less of a defense of his choice and more a simple ‘well of course.’ “I’ll go put them on, you can tell me what you think,” he dashed up the stairs two at a time.

The girls watched him go, silence setting back over them as Sophie laid back down and Maya faced forward again. Seconds went by, then…

“If it was anyone else, I’d swear he wasn’t telling us everything,” Maya looked to Sophie, who was paging back through her book to find where she’d left off. She made a noise in response, possibly agreeing, or… “What do you think?”

“He wants to look nice,” Sophie shrugged.

“Yeah, but what for? He’s never really been the type to…” She paused then, the spark of an idea taking hold. “Do you think…” she looked back to the stairs for a second before turning back to Sophie in a whisper. “Do you think there’s a girl he likes?” Sophie didn’t reply. Sophie looked at her book, looked at it so closely that Maya couldn’t see her face at all… “There is, isn’t there?” Maya set her own book aside. Sophie didn’t budge. “Hey…” she jostled one of the legs in her lap. “There’s a girl?”

“I’m trying to study,” Sophie spoke evenly.

“Sophie, tell me, right now.”

“Nope.” Maya gave a good tug at the legs, forcing the other girl closer, startling her into dropping her book, which flopped on to her and then slipped to hit the floor with a thud. No wonder she’d hidden her face, with that giant smile on her face, no chance she’d manage to hide _that_. “Not telling!” she insisted, laughing. Maya caught up her arms, pulling her to sit until they could see eye to eye.

“What do you know?” she insisted, too intrigued to let it go.

“Maybe something, maybe nothing, and even if I was sure I wouldn’t tell you, because if this was something that _he_ wanted to talk about he would have done it, okay?” Sophie told her, and Maya sighed. She had a point. Sophie resettled herself so that her balance was no longer dependent on Maya’s keeping hold of her arms. “Whatever this is, if the time comes and he wants to share, that’s on him, and we’ll be anxious to know… clearly.”

“Fair enough,” Maya breathed out. “But now I’m just going to be watching him all the time, trying to figure out who it is he’s trying to impress, you know that, right?”

“Oh, I know,” Sophie grinned, like she couldn’t wait to see that. Maya squinted at her, feeling the temptation to grab a cushion and thump her back down. The rudeness of it all, honestly…

Dylan came bounding back down the stairs a minute later. The girls, now sitting side by side on the couch with a dog in either of their laps – because how were they supposed to get back to reading when they were awaiting a fashion show – looked up as he came striding before them, stopping in front of the television and throwing his arms out as though to ask ‘well?’

It was hard to explain the impression they got. Maya could only speak for herself, but it was really just… baffling. It wasn’t as though she’d never seen Dylan in a more polished and put together fashion, nor was he standing there like he was going to some kind of gala instead of a TXNY show. Still, what he’d made himself into was possibly the most dressed up version of someone going to his friends’ gig. He looked like someone you would absolutely notice walking by.

“Wow…” Maya nodded appreciatively, while Sophie grinned and clapped her hands a few times. Dylan beamed.

“Do you think I should get my hair cut?” he reached to his head, touching the hair which, for as long as she’d known him, had never been longer than his shoulders but never short enough that he couldn’t pull it into some kind of short ponytail or top knot or something in between. The guy had the kind of good hair where not only did he pull it off but it would seem almost a travesty for him to look any different.

“If you do, we’re evicting you,” Maya declared dramatically.

“What she said,” Sophie pointed at her.

“Just like a couple inches or something,” Dylan’s eyes went a bit wide, like he believed them. The girls tipped their heads. Maya waved him over and he came to stand before her. Another motion brought him to crouch until she could reach out and inspect his hair and this shortening proposal. Sophie looked on, like her devoted assistant and co-judge. “So?” Dylan asked, when he couldn’t wait any longer. Maya released his hair. At this point, it just barely brushed at his shoulders.

“One inch,” Maya decided, and Sophie nodded in agreement. Dylan smiled. “But no more,” she added, and he shook his head.

“Got it. Thank you,” he hurried off back up the stairs to change out of his new clothes and shoes. Maya looked to Sophie again.

“I’m still not telling you,” the redhead insisted, getting up from the couch and taking her book back up to her room to finish her reading in peace.

“I will not forget this, Zvolensky!” Maya called after her.

Riley came home not long before Lucas was due to return as well, and Maya quickly grabbed her best friend of old and led her up to her shared room, where she could tell her about what had happened earlier, with Dylan and his new look, and, more importantly, the possible existence of A Girl.

“Who is it?” Riley asked, at once intrigued.

“Sophie wouldn’t say, _won’t_ say. But we can figure it out, can’t we? Hart & Matthews,” she announced, in what might be called her ‘old timey’ voice.

“You don’t think he has a crush on Willow or anything, do you? I mean she and Lion are back together, and they’re really happy now,” Riley wondered, looking instantly concerned for how badly things would end for their friend if that was the case.

“No, not Willow,” Maya shook her head. She was sure… hopefully… “Whoever it is, they’ll definitely be at the show, so who do we know that he knows that will be there?”

They were still sitting there, trying to work through this puzzle, when Lucas walked into the room and paused as he found both his girlfriend and Riley sat in the middle of the bed like castaways adrift at sea.

“Hey… What’s up?” he asked them.

“Dylan’s going fancy for the show, we’re trying to figure out who he’s crushing on,” Maya briefed him as simply as possible. Lucas straightened up.

“Right…” he set his bag down before turning to leave the room. The girls sat up.

“Seize him!” Riley called, while they both scrambled in pursuit.

“Oh, he’s playing with fire,” Maya rushed after him, catching him just before he made it to the stairs. “Get back in here,” she grasped one of his arms and pulled. In the next beat, Riley had the other arm, and whether he was strong enough to resist the pull of not one but two girls at the same time… probably, definitely… he sighed and let them guide him back into his and Maya’s room, knowing he would only prolong these antics if he resisted.

“What?” he protested as he was made to sit on the bed, while Riley shut the door and Maya moved in for the interrogation.

“What do you mean ‘what?’” she grasped him by the shoulders. “You know what this is about, don’t you? You know who he likes!” Lucas opened his mouth to speak but closed it again just as soon. “Oh, come on…” she insisted. “Aren’t we supposed to have that whole binding trust thing, you and me? We tell each other things, we don’t keep secrets, Lucas Friar, not from each other.”

“Usually, we don’t,” he agreed with a nod, which stalled as he met her eyes again. “Just not this time.”

“Why not? Did he swear you to secrecy or something?”

“Or something,” Lucas sighed. “Believe me, I would tell you if I could.” She sighed, too. That much was true, and he had never let her down on this, so what could she do?

“So… that’s it then?” Riley asked, and Maya turned, remembering that she was still there with them. “Should I go?” she indicated the door.

After Riley headed back to her room, Maya turned back to her boyfriend. It was very hard for her not to keep on prying. This was the kind of thing that would keep on turning and turning through her thoughts and she knew it. Dylan, their precious Dylan, had a secret crush, and now apparently both Sophie _and_ Lucas had managed to find out about it and keep it a secret from the rest of them. That might have been the thing that made her want to find out even more.

“You know I appreciate very much how good of a friend you are, keeping secrets when you’re supposed to, right?” Maya softly asked, hugging Lucas from where she stood and he sat. He hugged her back.

“I do,” he confirmed. “And I know it’s killing you not to know, so thank you for understanding.” She let out a greatly dramatic sigh. He laughed. “I know, I know.”

“So, how long have you known?” she asked, her voice all innocence.

“Not telling you that either, Detective Hart,” he replied just as smoothly. Another sigh from her. “As soon as I’m able, I swear I will tell you everything, how I found out, and when I found out, and how many times I almost let it slip in front of you. If it helps, I’m kind of relieved you at least know that there’s something to know now,” he turned his head up to look at her.

“I guess it doesn’t _not_ help…” she admitted, then, with a smile, “And I will hold you to that promise, sir. The minute, the second it is in your power to tell me, I’m expecting all of it.” She kissed the top of his head, always something to make her smile to herself, for how rarely she got to be the one to do it instead of the other way around. “By the way, did he tell you he’s getting his hair cut?” Lucas stared up at her at once. She burst out laughing. “Just an inch, that’s all.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	49. Her Band of Supporters

In what felt like no time at all, the day of the show had come along. Just a few hours now stood between them and their first time stepping up on a stage in their new lineup. They’d been preparing for this, in one way or another, for the past two weeks, between setting down their set, figuring out how they’d look, organizing the instrument transport. And practice, practice, so much practice. For all that, the bulk of the time they’d spend awaiting their big moment… would be spent in class or at work.

Friday morning, Maya awoke at what one might call an hour that was ‘early, even for her.’ She had always been that way on those days where something big was meant to happen, good or not so good, like her mind could only do the whole sleeping thing for so long before it just needed to get back to that all-encompassing thrill… or dread. The vast majority of her previous show days had been that way, so really, she had sort of expected this.

The difference now was that, those other times, those other show days, she’d been all alone in her room back in Austin when this happened. She would spend hours sitting up on her bed, or at her desk, and she would draw, or read… She knew better than to do anything that would wake the dogs sleeping nearby and in turn wake up the rest of the house, so she’d be confined to this very quiet activity. Here again, she found herself constrained by the presence of some pups, just two but just as loud.

“We should really try and get them to sleep downstairs…” she whispered to herself, lying in the darkened silence, the sun not even flinching to rise just yet.

“Who?” a mumbling voice asked, and she startled just a bit before turning to find Lucas staring at her with one barely opened eye. At once she turned toward him, reaching over to gently stroke his hair.

“Nothing, go back to sleep,” she spoke just as gently. For a moment he simply nodded and pulled her close again, and she thought he’d gone back to sleep, but after a few more seconds he bowed his head into a yawn and then looked back at her, both eyes blinking further into wakefulness by the second.

“Show day jitters, yeah?” he asked, laying sleepy kisses at her forehead. Okay, maybe it was better if he didn’t go back to sleep after all. “This is much easier than you texting me. ‘You awake yet?’” She laughed quietly.

“You usually were.”

“Yeah, because I figured you would be, too,” he shrugged.

“Boyfriend sixth sense,” she smiled.

“Something like that,” he smiled back.

When morning properly started, everyone else in the house starting to wake up, to fall into their daily routine, Maya and Lucas joined their roommates to find them all just as anxious as she was for the evening to come. The prospect of sitting in class all day was not sitting so easy on Riley or Sophie either. Dylan, who was easily the most not stressed person they knew in most occasions, displayed his occasional fidgetiness, which he worked off by going outside to throw the basketball around for a while before he had to get ready for work. Maya had half a mind to go out there and join him, and not even so that she might try and suss out his secret crush’s identity.

“Getting my haircut at lunch today,” he told them when he came back inside, decidedly more… Dylan-y. “One inch,” he added, before anyone could say a word about it.

On the drive off toward their morning classes, Maya got a text from Rosa and she chuckled, reading it out to the others in the car. Their high school-bound bandmate had apparently come very close to faking sick so she could stay home and not have to wait out through classes all day. But then she’d had the presence of mind to know that, if she _did_ pretend to be sick, her mother might decide she wasn’t fit to take the stage that night either. So, she’d taken up her things and gone to school anyway, even though it was going to be a leech of a day.

It definitely felt that way for all of them. When Maya found Franny and Kayla, the two of them waiting outside their first class, her friends looked just as anxious for what was to come, signing away so fast that Maya had trouble keeping up and understanding what they were going on about. When they saw her, they got up, coming toward her, and sweeping her into the conversation. At least whenever they were out of class, things moved a little faster.

When they were _in_ class, as much as the subjects might interest her, which of course they did, she couldn’t help but feel her mind want to wander far away. It was like her hands could already feel the guitar she’d soon be holding, the strings beneath her fingers. She could feel the buzzing in her ears from the amplified music and voices, her own voice made larger than life, and then the cheer of the crowd. Her eyes saw the lights, her skin felt the warmth…

“See you tonight, Miss Hart,” Professor Robinson told her as she moved to leave class once they’d been dismissed. Maya paused, looking back at her. “And you as well, Miss Banks,” she added to Kayla, once the girl had stopped and turned to look, once she’d seen her friend and bandmate stop. Now it was the both of them and Franny who looked at the professor, puzzled.

“You’re… you’re coming to the show?” Maya couldn’t help the surprise in her voice. “How do you even know about…”

“Your band? What, just because I’m older I can’t enjoy music?” the woman asked, a smile at the corner of her lips which prevented her students from thinking at any time that they might have insulted her in some way.

“No, no, it’s just… How did you even find out about us?”

“My granddaughter lives down in Austin,” she admitted. “I went to visit her and my son, two summers ago, and she came home from camp one day, telling me all about this band she’d heard about,” she explained, her smile growing into a smirk when she saw the understanding dawn on Maya’s face.

“Then you knew… last semester…”

“Oh, yes,” Professor Robinson told her. This was just wild… Here she’d been, thinking this woman was about as awesome as they came, as teachers went, only to find that she herself was secretly being appreciated. “You can understand my keeping quiet, now, wouldn’t want anyone thinking anyone would get special treatment, would we?”

“No, I get it,” Maya told her. “So… see you tonight then.”

As if the day wasn’t going to drag on enough as it was, now she was thinking about her professor being out in the audience, too. She texted Lucas and Sophie both, telling them this, and both at once knew exactly which of their former campers was Robinson’s granddaughter. Lucas even reminded her that she had a picture of the two of them and a couple other campers on her phone, from the day the old TXNY had arrived to perform for the kids.

By the time she sat in her last class of the day, where she wasn’t with Franny or Kayla _but_ with Lucas, Riley, and Sophie, the wait was hitting critical. She knew that, just because they weren’t in class anymore, it wouldn’t make the part where they were still waiting out those final hours easy all of a sudden. The closer it came, she knew from experience, the more doubt would start to creep in if they weren’t careful, and the more they’d start to fuss over the smallest things.

They’d been aware of this, Riley and her especially, knowing it would be the first for Kayla, Rosa, and Willow. So, the two of them and Sophie together had worked out something of a buddy system, seeing their newbies through to their first show without anyone working herself up into a fine frenzy. Sophie had Kayla, Riley was with Willow, which left Rosa to Maya.

She went to pick her up from school, where she was introduced to Rosa’s new friends, Astrid and Dev. The way they gasped when they saw her and shook her hand with that flicker of hesitation, one might have thought she was a much bigger deal than she felt she had any right to be seen as. They’d known about the band even before Rosa had become a part of it, as they told her, and they had been stunned to discover she and the band were now based in Houston.

“Sorry about that…” Rosa told her as they drove off in Lucas’ car.

“No, it’s okay,” Maya promised. It was still just so weird to her to witness, no matter how many times she’d seen it, the reach they had. People knew about them, cared about them, it seemed, wherever they went, whether they were in Austin, or Houston, or New York, or even across the ocean in Europe and beyond. They had done all that, just them… and it still took her breath away sometimes.

“I was worried at first,” Rosa admitted after a few seconds of silence. “After they stood up for me and I found out they were already fans of the band before I joined, I thought maybe…”

“You thought they were only your friends because you were in it, too?” Maya guessed. Rosa didn’t reply, but she didn’t have to. “And now? Do you still think that’s what it is?”

“No,” Rosa replied, and even looking at the road instead of her passenger, Maya could just see a small smile on the girl’s face, just out of the corner of her eye. It made her smile, too. “They’re really great, both of them. And they’re going to help with the Valentine window. They can be a bit awkward with the whole PDA, but they’re really into the whole romance thing, so…” she shrugged, and Maya laughed.

They all met back at the house to get ready, clothes, hair, makeup, everything. First there was dinner, of course, which they kept from getting too heavy, not looking forward to any incidents on stage. Once they were all ready, the five of them for the stage and the others for the audience, the spirit in the air was about as electric as it could get.

Everyone was amused with Dylan’s ‘completed’ look, down to his haircut, the promised inch feeling more like an inch and a half or two to some of them. The consensus remained that the cut looked good on him, made him look the tiniest bit older, more grown up, a realization that turned his old friends into something like fretting parents, seeing their kids were growing up.

“Right, we need to get going, let’s roll, TXNY!” Maya called to the others when Kayla pointed out the time. They would head out in Sophie’s car, while the others, picking up some of their friends along the way, would join them in Lucas’ car.

“Woah…” Willow breathed as they approached the venue and found the line that stretched along the street, leading up to the door. Rosa took out her phone at once, to record this as they rolled on, inconspicuous as could be while they rolled past and around the back. Once out of sight and parked, the car got loud with excited reactions between the five of them. Their nerves had taken a solid jolt, which could take them either way, really, into just raring to go… or getting stage fright.

They waited until they were able to calm down just enough not to walk in looking like a bunch of giddy girls, and then they went inside. The lead up to showtime was something both Maya and Riley had come to know very well, and now that they were back at it, they felt like they’d never left. The others were new to this, of course, but there was no need for them to worry. They were in good hands, and, with any luck, this spirit would carry them right into that sweet spot where the show had started, and then the energy took hold of them. After that, they’d be like kids learning to ride a bike, with a parent holding on. They could let go and they’d sail on their own.

“Come on, let’s go sneak a look,” Riley told the others, and Maya nodded, signing as much to Kayla.

“Do you think we should?” Rosa asked.

“If you see them now, it won’t be as much of a shock when we actually go on stage,” Maya pointed out, and after a moment’s deep breath, Rosa gave a nod.

The place was packed already. They had really sold out… Even for Maya and Riley the sight of so many people coming to see them, hear them… Maya looked to her best friend of old with a smile, feeling her hand grasping at her own. They looked to their new bandmates around them. Maya took Rosa’s hand on her other side, as Willow and Kayla put their arms around them, standing taller. They stood there in their close band huddle for a minute more, spying on the audience, before moving away again.

Those last minutes, the warming up, the wait… They could already feel it, the energy building in them. Maya was ready, so ready, to go back up there, to feel it all again… When they were called up to go, when the drone of voices turned into a rallying shout, her heart was already beating out a tune of its own. For so long it had been her, and Riley, and Nadine, and – if they were lucky – Isadora, too. Now it was her, and Riley, and Rosa and Willow and Kayla, and as different as it had felt in the beginning, now the difference felt so much better, like it had looped back around into something as though _this_ was how they’d always been meant to be.

They started to play, starting with their first new song, the one from the fourth video they’d put up, and as she stood up there, up front, Maya couldn’t see her bandmates, but she didn’t need to see them to know, to feel as they slipped into that rhythm they’d developed together over the past couple of months, to feel that rhythm take on a new spark, as the energy of the place and the people took them over. By the time her eyes managed to locate Lucas and the others in the audience, as she sang and played, it was like they’d never stopped… and it made her feel like she had super powers.

TO BE CONTINUED


	50. His Methods For Helping

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be the most Boyfriend Guy you can be in the week to come.”

He woke up to this pronouncement on Sunday morning. He opened his eyes and there sat his girlfriend, staring down at him from all of six inches above his face. He didn’t flinch, wasn’t startled. He just looked up at her, expelling a rising yawn before he could reply.

“What’s happening?” was all he could think to ask. He only now noticed that she had her planner laid out before her on the bed, her pen lying on top of it. He sat up as Maya turned back to look at the book sitting open before her. From what he saw, she’d been busy while he slept, compiling what looked like a very loaded schedule for herself in the five days to come.

“I have not one but three projects due by the end of the week,” she told him, snatching up her pen again, fidgeting with it as she stared at the pages before her.

“That… that’s a lot,” he frowned, running a hand through his hair before bringing it to rub at his face, trying to wake up some more.

“Already had to tell the girls I can’t do band practice this week, and I think I might have to take a couple nights off work, it’s just… it’s a lot,” she repeated his claim, though it sounded like she might have called on a bigger word than that.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked, leaning to kiss her shoulder. “Boyfriend Guy, at your service.” She smiled, turning to look at him.

“I just know it’s gonna be hard for us to really spend time together this week, and I’m going to be stressing out…”

“Hey, I get it,” he hushed, wrapping one arm around her waist as he reached to take the pen out of her hand – to some minimal protest – before setting it down and closing his embrace around her. “Consider me on the clock for… boyfriending,” he gave her a look and she laughed.

“I just… I remember how it was, when things got so hectic that we didn’t really have time, and then it all kind of blew up…” He remembered, too, how could he not. It had been the biggest fight they’d had since they’d started dating, practically the _only_ fight, the only one that wasn’t just nitpicking that would be forgotten by the end of the day if not the hour. It was the only time where he genuinely feared that they might not make it through. He didn’t want that happening again, and clearly, she didn’t either.

“Won’t be like that this time,” he assured her as she leaned to him, calmed by his hold.

When she’d gone off to shower, he took a picture of the pages of her planner for the week to come, the better for him to work out his plans to see her through those days. Sure, they lived together, they shared a room, a bed, it wasn’t like it was when they were in high school, living off in their parents’ respective homes, but the workload had a way of shortening the times when they weren’t just in the same room together, the times where they actually got to forget about everything else but the two of them, and he understood what she needed from him. She needed him to make those times count. And that was what he’d do.

Already, there had been one victim to the busy week to come. Even though it had always been the plan for them to wait until the Saturday to follow to properly celebrate with a Date, tomorrow was Valentine’s Day, and they’d be like ships passing one another for the better part of the day. He’d find a way to mark it, he would. Boyfriend Guy was on the case.

In a lot of ways, the whole of the house continued to ride the high from that first show TXNY 2.0 had done a few weeks ago. After it had all been over and they’d left the venue, they had taken advantage of their having the house to go back to, turning the time that followed into something like a post-show party, just them and their close friends who’d been there that evening. It had lasted well into the night, before finally the energy bursting from them went and spent itself and their beds were calling.

This show had been one of the biggest things they’d ever done, and Lucas had just loved seeing how much of an effect it had on Maya and her bandmates. It was all the proof they had needed to tell them that what they were doing with their music was working, and they were far, far from running out of road to travel on.

He had taken it upon himself to record the whole thing, as they would do, to send it on to family and friends both near and far, all of them who couldn’t be with them. They had sent the video on to the two founding members in Boston and New York. Nadine had practically done a running commentary in their group chat, the future doctor making their phones buzz and chirp repeatedly to the tune of all-caps giddiness. Needless to say, she had very much approved of the new lineup’s first steps on the stage. Isadora, for her part, seemed to take in the performance with the critical eye of one attempting to decide what might be finetuned. It was clear however that she was finding very little to say, apart from how well they all harmonized together.

“That was the best night of my life!” Rosa had hollered as they’d all been packed in the car together, headed to the house after the show. Maya had turned a smile to Lucas, while he couldn’t help but laugh. As nervous as their young one had been in the moments and days leading up to the show, now she looked like she was ready to go again and again.

By the following Monday, everyone seemed just as curious as Maya and Franny and Kayla were about what Professor Robinson would say to her two students who were part of the band, or if she’d say anything at all. Maya had told him how she’d tried to spot her in the crowd a few times, though she’d never managed to track her down.

There’d been no chance for them to find out before the class started, as the professor had come along mid-conversation with another student and had gone right into her lecture after that. She would not have been the type to veer off course and give any sign of anything in the midst of her class, so they’d put the question out of mind until they’d all been dismissed, as Maya had told him. She’d then told him how, again, Robinson had addressed them as they were moving to exit.

“She was so funny,” Maya told him. “It was like she’d been holding herself back and now she could finally talk. She loved it, she really did. Not the way people will say they loved something even though they really didn’t, you know?”

“My mother’s really good with that,” he’d nodded, making her chuckle. “I mean, not with people she cares about, like me, and you…”

“Oh, I know,” she’d promised him.

He’d always kind of admired how Maya and the others had figured out how to navigate this world they’d plunged into, to think of ways to put themselves forward in just the right way. They’d accomplished so much in the time they’d been active, and now after their relaunch had come through with the level of energy it did, they had been quick to figure out a way to get as much out of that momentum as they could. The new songs they had premiered in the show were now available, along with the announcement of their putting out a new album, featuring some reworked arrangements – thanks to Isadora – and those new songs together.

And just a few days ago now, they had been booked for an appearance on a morning show on television and radio, too, at the end of February.

Maya and Riley had done all this before, they were getting to be familiar with the process, but for the others, oh, it was brand new, and Lucas had been there when they’d all found out about it, and he’d seen the joy in his girlfriend’s face as she watched Rosa, Willow and Kayla react to it. She remembered what it had been like the first time, for her and Riley and Nadine, and now it was happening for them and she was so glad.

As all this was happening, of course, life didn’t take a break. They still had school, and work… Their classes, more than anything, were keeping them as busy as ever. The semester was now well on its way, and before long it’d be spring break. They didn’t have too much planned as of yet except that they were going to head back to Austin for a few days to see their families.

Lucas had never been more certain of where his life was headed. A great part of that, it had to be said, went to having Maya there with him, to know with so much assurance on her part as well as his own that she was his past, present, and future. But then there was his work, too, there was everything he was working toward at school. He had known for a long time what he wanted to make of himself, and it had never been something he doubted or debated. He was going to be a veterinarian.

There was a lot more to it than he had ever known there could be, but that didn’t make him want to pull back. Far from that, it made him want to keep moving forward. He was also glad to have a great friend like Bishop there to take this journey alongside him. Sometimes they would joke around that they’d go and start a clinic someday, the two of them together. Sometimes it felt less like a joke and more like something he might actually want to see happen.

Tomorrow was Valentine’s Day. Tomorrow was also to be Day 1 of his mission to keep his girlfriend from working herself into a frenzy with all she had on her plate. He would spend the vast majority of his free time working at the bookstore that Sunday just trying to make a plan. Borrowing from Rosa’s technique, he would be walking around with a small notebook – grabbed from the paper section and paid for – and his pen, taking notes. He’d already copied down the information from that picture of her planner. If she wasn’t his girlfriend, it might have looked to people like he was stalking her.

“Right, be honest, is it really okay?”

He blinked, looking up from where he stood, at the counter, hunched over his notes, to find Rosa there, staring back at him expectantly. He must have looked lost, because she pointed off to the window. The infamous Valentine’s display. She’d finished it a few days ago, but she kept acting like she wanted to adjust it. Pete had been steering her away from it all day.

“It’s perfect, really,” Lucas promised her. She didn’t look convinced, but she moved forward like she wanted to see what he was doing. He casually closed the notebook.

“What are you working on?” she asked, still curious. “Date plans?” she teased.

“Something like that…” he frowned to himself.

“Big night?” Rosa asked.

“Big week,” Lucas shrugged, moving around the counter to get back to work. “Monday… Monday…” he muttered to himself as he went.

TO BE CONTINUED


	51. His Methods For Calming

Lucas had known long before he had actually started living with Maya that he would have to work hard when something required him to be awake before she was. His time sharing a room with her had then taught him how light of a sleeper she could be, as morning churned onward. Add to this the fact that she was painfully busy this week, and it thus came as no surprise that he missed his shot of doing something for her, anything at all, on that Monday morning. He woke up so very early, but apparently not early enough. When he turned over, he found the other side of the bed empty.

The dogs had been left downstairs, installed with the hopes that they wouldn’t just climb back up to their door and scratch and whine at it until they were let back in, and it seemed to have worked. They weren’t in or out of the room, where Maya’s exit might have woken them and sent them barking. He found his girlfriend down in the kitchen, books and laptop set up on the table, pyjamas and bed hair in full effect along with a focused face. She didn’t even hear him approach until he came up behind her and put a hand to her shoulder. When he did, she startled.

“Sorry, sorry…” he whispered, as she turned her head back and up. “How long have you been up?” he asked, leaning to kiss the top of her head.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“Just after six,” he informed her, and the noise she made suggested she’d been here a while already. “Did you eat yet?” She shook her head. “Right,” he breathed. Mission one: breakfast.

They may not have been able to have their Valentine’s Day proper until a few days from now, but today was still The Day, and he didn’t let it go by unmarked. He made her pancakes, one thing he had learned to do very well, studying at the hand of the Pancake Queen of Texas… his mother. His skill extended to his ability to lay down the batter, to create a pair of pancakes that came out respectably looking like a couple of hearts. He covered these in the toppings he knew she’d love best, then set these on the table for her along with fruit and coffee. Carrying on the tradition he had inherited from his father, there was also a single rose he used to draw her attention.

When she looked over and saw his handiwork, it was like, all of a sudden, she remembered where she was, what day it was. Her face broke into an unbound smile and she looked up to him, taking the flower before waving him forward. When he came close enough, she bid him to lean in enough that she could kiss him, stretched high on her chair. He kept her aloft with his arms around her, letting the kiss linger a few more seconds before letting her get to her food and getting on to making his own plate.

He came to sit with her when he was done, finding her already halfway through her food, which she ate while she carried on working. Already she looked just a bit more… awake, or grounded… This was to be his task, all through the week, to bring her back down a bit when she came close to flying too far away from the ground. The day was very young still, and he knew from the schedule he’d copied down that the day would stretch long from this point forward. He was only just starting.

By the time the others started to get up, walking into the kitchen like they could smell what had been happening on the stove and were now sad that they’d missed it, Maya was done eating and she was dressed and ready to head out. Lucas wasn’t far behind, so he drove her to the library, where he let her be.

Their schedules already made that seeing one another throughout some of their days would be a tricky matter. And that was on those days when one of them wasn’t busy up to her ears. From the moment he parted with her, Lucas didn’t manage to see his girlfriend again in morning or afternoon and well into the darkening evening. He knew he would find her back where he’d left her, at the library, in her favorite corner. They all had one table they preferred to occupy, and when it was already taken, they would land on another one nearby, until such a time as Their Table became free again. If no table was available nearby, Maya was known to park herself in wait, standing there with her book or laptop in hand as though to say ‘I’m not going away.’

He could see her through the window that night, up at Their Table. Standing outside, he pulled out his phone and texted her.

_Did you eat?_

He watched, a few seconds later, as she picked up her own phone, eyes still on her laptop for a few seconds more before she looked down to see the message. Even from where he stood, he could detect her smile. Like she guessed, he watched her turn her head to look outside. He held up his hand in greeting, and she did the same before setting herself to type.

_Yes, Mom, out in ten. 366 x infinity._

Looking at the time, he knew it wouldn’t be one of those things where she said ten and it turned out closer to twenty or more… The library was closing in ten minutes.

So, he stood by his car, waiting, watching. Eventually he saw her sit back in her chair, stretching her arms over her head, shaking off the fixed state she’d been in before gathering up her things back into her bag and moving away from the table, out of sight for a minute until he spotted her coming out the door and down the steps toward him.

“Your face is familiar to me,” she intoned ponderingly.

“Is that right?” he smirked. When she reached him, he pulled her into a kiss, and she smiled.

“Oh, yeah, it’s you,” she breathed, leaning against him like she’d been dreaming up a nice, comfy pillow in her head, and right now he would be close enough to that.

“Long day?” he asked, running his hands up and down her back. Her response was a grunt of exhaustion. “Right, come on,” he nodded, leading her around to the passenger side.

They drove off, and as they sat peacefully to the music he’d turned up over the radio, it took a few minutes before Maya lifted her head from where she’d set it, against her arm, against the window.

“Where are we going?” she asked, noticing at last that they weren’t headed toward the house.

“You gave me a mission, remember? Don’t expect me to spoil the surprise,” he shrugged, and there was that smile again.

They drove up to Coleman’s Bookstore, where he parked the car at the curb before getting out. He came around and opened her door for her, offering his hand. She took it, complimenting the gesture with a light curtsey. The store was closed at this hour, the lights all out, though the moonlight managed to catch the reflective surfaces of the Valentine’s window decorations in such a way that it still felt lit up.

“What are you doing?” she asked, when he took out his keys and moved to the door. She sounded nervous, like she thought they might get in trouble if someone saw them going into the closed store.

“You’ll see,” was all he would say. He got the door open, waving her in quickly. Once she’d followed, he shut the door and moved behind the counter. There was a light beeping, like the alarm was just gearing to blast, but after he went and crouched and did something back there the beeping ceased. “Just need to go and get something real quick,” he guided her into the back, toward the break room, lighting his way with his phone’s flashlight.

He retrieved a bag, which he’d left ready and waiting in the freezer, before guiding her to another door. He opened it to reveal stairs heading up. She followed him, wordless, curious, and still just apprehensive enough to feel reasonable. They finally reached a landing, and another door which his keys unlocked. And then they were up on the roof of the bookstore. Two lawn chairs awaited them.

“Right this way,” he offered his hand, and she took it, her face slowly relaxing into a smile.

Now that they were sitting here, it would have been easy to concentrate on the city ahead of them, but he’d had a feeling she’d do exactly what she was doing now, which was to turn her eyes up to the sky, to the stars. She breathed out, her day long and heavy on her, made just heavier by the knowledge she’d have another one just like it tomorrow, and the day after that, and after that, and after that…

“For you,” he nudged her arm so she’d look back to him and to the ice cream cup he offered her, spoon sticking out the top. She gasped, broke into a laugh and took the offering.

“My hero,” she sighed. He took his own cup from the bag before settling properly into his seat. He’d been surprised how easy it had been to convince Tracy to let him do this. It had just felt like something perfect, right there within his grasp, so he’d asked… and she’d agreed right away, on the vow that he would remember to set the alarm again and check all the doors he had opened were once again locked once they left. And he would do all of that, once they left.

They wouldn’t be staying all that long, he knew, not with how tired Maya was. She’d need all the rest she could get. But she could have this moment, to breathe and unwind and be happy. Boyfriend Guy was not one for leaving his missions halfway done.

They sat there, quietly eating their ice cream. Maya resumed her stargazing, and Lucas did as she did, though sometimes he couldn’t help but find the sight of her sitting there, smiling, looking up, to be an even more dazzling sight than all the stars and the moon in the sky.

When the ice cream was all gone, they stayed a few minutes more before packing up and heading out. They drove on toward the house and, by the time they got there, he found she’d fallen asleep in her seat. So, he picked her up, and he carried her into the house, up the stairs, and into their room. He coaxed her just a hair out of sleep in order to get her changed out of her clothes and into something more comfortable before easing her under the blankets. In sleep, she grasped on to her pillow, and then she just slept on.

He got changed, too, before getting under the covers with her. She was turned on her side, facing him, and he breathed out, setting his head on his own pillow. The room carried the scent of the rose sitting on her nightstand. That was Monday, and it had gone off just as he would have wanted it to go. Soon it would be Tuesday, and he had plans for that day, too.

TO BE CONTINUED


	52. His Methods For Pausing

Tuesday started much the way Monday did, which was to say that Lucas awoke to find his girlfriend was already up and away, no doubt working down at the kitchen table. As to being alone however, that was a different story. Much as the dogs had adjusted remarkably well over the last couple of days to their downstairs living, it seemed as though they might have been right at the door when Maya had gotten out, because now they were lying next to him on the bed, in the spot where she would have been. When he started to sit up though, Lou lifted her head and looked at him.

“You haven’t seen a certain blond girl, have you?” Lucas asked her, and the dog responded by climbing down from the bed and moving to the closed door. In no time, Trix was up, too, looking around like she was wondering what the two of them were doing before getting off the bed and simply deciding to follow. The three of them made their way down the stairs and into the kitchen. Maya’s things were laid out on the table, while the girl in question stood at the stove, operating the spoon that set about scrambling some eggs, while her other hand held the book she was reading. “Why don’t I do that?”

“No worries, I got it,” she replied without stopping either activity. When he came up and tried to take over anyway, she nudged him with her book. “I can multitask,” she insisted. “And besides, I’m trying to do something for you, and I can’t do that if you’re doing it, so… shoo,” she motioned to the table with her book. He gave her a mock insulted look at being dismissed. “I mean it, go,” she smirked.

“Do I at least get a hello?” he asked, with a pitiful look.

“Mastering those puppy eyes there, Dockleberry?” she asked back, taking a quick look at the skillet before stretching up to kiss him. “Hello,” she spoke emphatically.

“Hello,” he replied with the smile he’d already had before the kiss, at the sound of his self-made nickname. She’d sworn not to overdo it – especially in the company of others – and she’d held her word. Still, hearing it from her, he found, hadn’t been awkward at all. “Isn’t it me who’s supposed to be doing the helping this week?” he asked, stepping back as he’d been told and letting her carry on.

“You are, and you’ve been doing great, so I figured I owed you one.”

Tuesday was going to be a busy one for both of them. It would be a different kind of busy for him, mostly for having many classes and very little time in between, and then a shift down at the bookstore as soon as he was done here, so figuring out how he might find time for his ‘Boyfriend Guy’ mission had been somewhat limited. But he found the way to compensate. There was one block of time at his disposal, not as long as he would have liked but long enough to accommodate him and her both. And it would hinge on Dylan being on time.

He did his best not to be so distracted throughout his classes that morning, to not be the guy sitting there, looking at his watch the whole time as he counted down the minutes until he was supposed to go and find his friend.

Never let it be said that Dylan couldn’t be counted on. He was there, right where he’d said he’d be and right on time. As Lucas jogged up to him, he held out a large squared bag.

“Thanks,” Lucas told him.

“Anytime,” Dylan grinned. He always liked being involved in plans when there were plans… “Let me know how it goes!” he called out as Lucas was off again.

Phase one had been accomplished. Phase two now rested in the capable hands of one Franny Santos. As he came up to the library, in much the same spot as he’d been the night before. He texted her to know he had arrived. He could see them up there at Their Table, Maya, and Franny and Kayla, and Riley, Sophie, and Leona as well. If he hadn’t seen them all before, he would have, after Franny got the text. Soon, all six girls were standing at the window to look down and see him there. He only had eyes for his girlfriend as he held up the bag for her to see.

She turned her head for a moment, like she was looking at all her work, considering whether or not she could leave. But she looked back at him again, and finally she disappeared from view, while the other girls kept looking outside, which he took to mean they knew she was headed out to join him and they wanted to see. That was exactly what it was.

Maya stepped out of the library, the absence of the bag swinging from her shoulder telling him she’d left her things up there with the others. They were on the clock, just as he’d known they’d have to be.

“What do we have here?” she asked, coming up to him. They kissed, and then she looked down to the bag, as though she’d meant to distract him in order to sneak a look.

“A better lunch than what the vending machines would provide,” he simply told her, as he led her off to a bench nearby.

“Hey, don’t knock it, there’s chips, and cookies, and chocolate in there, what more do you need?” she joked.

“An actual meal?” he replied as she laughed.

They sat on the bench, the bag set in between them. Lucas unzipped the insulated container, revealing what awaited inside, courtesy of Dylan and Willow and the catering service. Everything was still hot from when it had been put in there, and he handed her one of the boxes inside, along with a fork.

“Thank you,” she smiled, opening the box and letting out the hum of a hungry person presented with better food than they’d been expecting to have. From his own bag, Lucas retrieved two cans and handed her one. Maya set the box on her knees, popped the can open, set it by her side, and picked up her fork once again. “Don’t tell the vending machines, but this is so much better,” she sighed happily.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” he vowed, starting in on his own meal after setting the bag aside, the better to sit nearer to her. “How was your morning?” he asked. The huff of breath she gave in reply already told him the gist of it. “That bad?”

“Well… no, I mean I can’t really say ‘bad,’ just… just a lot, you know?” she explained, taking a bite.

“I do,” he assured her.

“It’s so much harder to concentrate on a lecture when you’re sitting there thinking ‘I could be working on my assignments right now,’ when you’re stuck in one and the teacher just drones on and on in that very flat sort of voice, taking long pauses, writing on the board like he just likes to watch the chalk debris fall…” she mimed, her voice borrowing the very tone she was describing.

“I’m falling asleep just hearing about it,” he shook his head.

“Right?” she resumed her normal voice. “If I’d had to stay in there another minute, I would have lost it!” she stabbed her fork into her food before scooping some of it up and eating it.

“So, you must be really glad to see me now, huh?” he gave her a look that made her laugh.

“I mean that’s me all the time,” she declared, which made him smile, “But yeah, I can definitely feel a little extra gladness in my heart right here,” she gestured with her fork. “The fact that you brought me food, well that’s even more gladness… in my stomach.”

“Always a good thing,” he nodded.

“Yeah, you’ve met the alternative,” she looked at him. Hungry Maya could definitely be a sight…

“And now the afternoon?” he asked her.

“More of the same,” she shrugged. “The classes should be more motivating this time, less snoozing. But then it’s right back here for hours and hours…”

“I’ll still come and pick you up,” he reminded her, seeing the hours of work stacking behind her eyes like she was feeling the exhaustion already. She looked at him, gratitude shifting away some of the rest.

He could see how thankful she was that he was here now, having this sort of catered picnic with her, on a bench outside the library. It was their very brief escape, and she’d known she would need it, so she’d recruited him to the mission. Then again, he probably would have done it anyway, wouldn’t he? He couldn’t have just sat back, seeing how busy she was and not doing anything about it.

“I’m going to break a bit of a rule right now,” he decided to tell her. She looked at once intrigued.

“Are you now?” she asked. “What kind of rule? Am I going to have to bail you out of jail? Am _I_ going to be in jail? Because I will, you know? For you, any time,” she declared with fierce determination.

“Not that kind of rule,” he laughed. “But I’ll keep that in mind. No, this rule is the ‘don’t spoil the surprise’ one.” She put a hand to her chest, like she might have been clutching her pearls in shock if she actually had pearls to clutch.

“Spoilers? From you, Huckleberry? Why, I never…”

“Not everything,” he promised, “But definitely a big component of it, kind of the main one, but the way I see it, there’s no point guarding it when you could be benefitting from its effect right now and not just on Saturday.”

“You sure know how to work the intrigue, and I admire that quality, now give it,” she held out her hand with a giddy smile, not so much as though she expected to be handed an object, as she could guess that wasn’t what this was, but in a plea for him to go ahead and tell her what he was going to tell her.

“Well,” he sat up, “It has to do with the fact that we won’t be spending the night at the house on Saturday.” Now she sat up, her eyebrow arching.

“Where _will_ we be spending the night then?” she inquired.

“It’s this nice sort of cozy place,” he gestured with his fork like it was his paintbrush and he was creating the picture for her. “The locals are real nice, it’s run by this great couple, and the rooms just above us… there’s some toddlers, and a baby boy… oh, and a trio of dogs.”

Her face broke into a smile the moment she understood he was taking her home to Austin for the weekend, to see her family. More than a smile, it seemed to flow through the whole of her, to revive her.

“I thought we were going down there over break,” she spoke, and he could swear she was holding back tears. With how busy she’d been this week, even finding the time to have very long of a call with her sisters was getting difficult, and he knew she didn’t like having to tell them no.

“We are,” he nodded. “But there’s no reason we can’t go twice, is there?” She leaned over and kissed him then, both of them almost dropping the boxes on their laps.

“It was a very good use of the rule breaking,” she told him as they pulled back a couple inches. He smiled, reaching over to brush away a couple of stubborn tears with designs on rolling away.

“I thought so, too.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	53. His Methods For Surprising

By Wednesday morning, Lucas awakened with the expectation already in him that he would open his eyes to find the other half of the bed was empty… unless the dogs had gotten in here like they’d done the day before. So, when he stretched out his arm and found his hand sliding around a familiar waist, he opened his eyes, confused. There was Maya, turned on her side, facing away from him and, he soon realized, reading on her phone. She turned her head when she felt his arm resting over her, like she wanted to confirm whether he was still sleeping or if he was actually awake. When she found him staring back at her, she smiled, put her phone on the nightstand, and turned herself around to face him.

“Morning,” she greeted him, sliding closer in order to kiss him. He kissed her back, for a moment happily lost in the moment, before his curiosity came back prodding.

“I figured you’d already be downstairs by now, working on your projects. Are you feeling okay?” he asked, concerned. He’d been worried she might overwork herself and now maybe she had? But she just shook her head with a smile, reassuring him.

“I had a couple of texts I needed to read and I could do it from my phone, so I thought I would… grace you with the gift of this face, first thing in the morning,” she grinned with mock pride, which only made him chuckle and pull her closer.

“No opposition here,” he vowed, kissing her again, slowly. It seemed like every day he had been on this ‘mission’ of his, she’d been on one of her own, ensuring that every kindness – though it was not done with need or expectation of retribution – was met with one of her own, in some form or another.

Here, now, the form Maya was taking was beginning to shape itself into something that felt a lot like what they used to refer to as the asterisk to their dates or Dates… And when that was exactly what it turned into, it left him thinking this would be mutually beneficial. She definitely looked relaxed and ready to face another busy day by the time they left their room.

Wednesday’s schedule was about as open as it got, his least busy day of the week, which was perfect for him on any week, but for this one in particular it was even better. He used his morning break, between his first class and his second, which was also his last of the day, to get as much work done as possible, so that he’d have less to do later, enabling him to head into the day’s schemes.

He’d usually stick around the library, knowing that sooner or later he’d be joined by Maya and the others, but this time he headed back to the parking lot, getting into his car and driving off back toward the house. When he got there, he spotted Dylan outside, throwing the basketball around. He wasn’t working until later that day.

“Hey…” Dylan smiled when he saw him, tossing the ball over. Lucas caught it. “Aren’t you at the library by now?”

“Not today,” Lucas told him, tossing the ball at the hoop. _Swish!_

“You wanna play?” Dylan asked, rolling right along with it.

“Well…” he looked at his watch. He did have time. “A short one, then I have to…”

“Oh, the Maya thing, right,” Dylan remembered. He had been very happy to hear the bench picnic had gone off as planned the day before. “We can play some other time if you have to go.” He didn’t have to worry that he might be saying that and not mean it. Dylan had never been anything but genuine.

“Please, I have time to kick your butt,” Lucas declared, moving to retrieve the ball. Dylan grinned, and they were on.

The question of whether or not he was confident of his being able to beat Dylan was not so important – which was a good thing, because he lost, big time – because in the end he’d had fun with his friend, killing a little time before getting back on track. He was still on schedule, and that was all that mattered.

He left Dylan to carry on tossing that ball. Heading into the house, he found what he’d come looking for, or rather who. The two of them had been just inside the door when he opened it, and they crowded about his feet, eager for a greeting and maybe a head scratch.

“Afternoon, ladies,” he laughed, crouching to scratch at both Trix and Lou’s heads. “You want to go for a ride? You want to go see Maya?” he asked them. Already, the word ride had gotten their attention. Maya’s name was enough to crank them up into a frenzy. Yes, they very much wanted all of this.

Grabbing their leashes to put them on once they arrived, he led the dogs up to the car, where they climbed into the back. They loved going in the car, _loved_ it, which somehow translated into their being on their very best behavior, as though they’d cracked the code that if they were good they would get to go more often. Lucas drove them all the way back to the school, mindful of the time.

This afternoon, Maya was in class almost the entire time, except for a fifteen-minute block, which would be much too short for her to even go to the library, but it would all still be on her mind. So all he had to do right now was to enable this moment to be something more than just wiling away the minutes, thinking about everything that needed to be done.

“Right, we’re a little early,” he looked into the backseat, the car now back in the school lot. Trix and Lou kept looking between him and the window, like they couldn’t decide if they would rather pay attention to him or the big lawns out there just begging to be run through. That was exactly why he’d brought the leashes. As much as he would have loved to let them run free, he wasn’t looking forward to have to chase them, or losing track of them, or having them end up going somewhere they weren’t supposed to go.

It wasn’t long that, after leaving the lot with the pair of them on their leashes, they started to be accosted by any number of students or faculty or staff passing him by. So long as he’d be where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be, he didn’t mind this at all. He kept looking at his watch, as their advance dwindled and dwindled away. Finally, he had to excuse himself and jog along with the dogs.

He arrived with a minute to spare. He knew, from having heard it from Maya, Franny, AND Kayla, that this professor was a stickler for keeping them to the very end of the allotted period, so he knew she’d be out in a minute and no less. He was sitting on the grass now, with the two dogs around him. Trix was sniffing at the ground, trotting about, while Lou propped her front legs on his knee before turning her eyes up at him, with a look that seemed to say ‘you have treats, can I have one?’ He pulled a treat from his pocket, two of them, as the moment he fed one to Lou, Trix came sniffing closer. He gave her the second treat, just as students started to come out from their class.

Thankfully, Maya and her friends were three of the first ones to emerge, so no one had the chance to come and get a look at the dogs before she spotted them there.

He could guess how it had taken her a second to process what she saw. She saw him easily enough, and she smiled, but it took another second or two before she saw the dogs and realized it was _their_ dogs. Then, she gasped, and her smile expanded.

Lucas removed the leashes from the dogs, knowing that the moment they saw Maya they wouldn’t run anywhere else but right at her, which was precisely what they did.

“Hey, ladies!” she crouched, her smile unshakeable as she welcomed the eager pair and scratched and petted them, while they carried on seeking one way and another of saying hello to her. Lucas got up from where he’d been sitting, walking up to them even as Franny, Kayla, and a couple others from their class came to see the dogs, too. Some of them probably needed this canine break, too. “I’m happy to see you, too, just in case it looked like I was just focusing on them,” Maya told him, as she held Lou in her lap.

“Good to know,” he smiled, crouching and sitting next to her now.

After a few minutes, they couldn’t just keep sitting here, as Maya and the others had to actually get to their next class, so the leashes went back on, and they started on their way. Just having Trix and Lou there, he saw, made Maya perk up again, and that was all he could hope to see. She told him about how her day had been going up to that point They were still not out of the woods with this busy week. But then they were just over the peak now, with the weekend and freedom and Austin on the horizon, and he could see the cheerfulness appear to stick more easily now, and he was glad of it.

“What are the chances they’ll let us keep you two around, huh?” Maya cooed, after they came to stop outside the building where her next class would be. Only a few more minutes before she’d have to go in now. “You’re good pups, you’ll behave, right? They won’t even know you’re there,” she whispered, in a near huddle with the dogs, who took this as an invitation to lick her face. She just laughed, scratching them. Of course, she knew that there’d be no bringing them in. She might have had a shot if this had been Professor Robinson’s class, but it wasn’t, so before long she had to say goodbye to the dogs and to the boyfriend who’d brought them to her.

“Library again tonight?” Lucas asked, once he got his turn for goodbyes.

“Looks that way,” she sighed.

“I’m bringing you pizza,” he decided right then, and her eyes sparked with the prospect. “And cupcakes?” he added, and she nodded rapidly, before pointing at him.

“This right here, this is why you’re the best boyfriend out there. Don’t tell the others, they’ll get jealous,” she whispered, and he smiled, pulling her into one last quick hug before he had to let her go off to her next class.

The dogs were taken back to the house. By now, Dylan had left his ball throwing activities behind, getting himself ready for his catering shift. They had set up a system since the holidays, where Rosa had a key to the house and she would come and hang with the dogs a while in those times when none of them would be around for some time. He sent her off a text to let her know, and she promised to drop in after she got home from school. Trix and Lou were already fast friends with her Gideon.

Lucas went by the bakery, picking up the cupcakes from Sophie’s friend and co-worker Ellie, as he’d called to order, before going to their favorite pizza place and getting an extra-large pizza and some drinks. He may have been tasked with providing for his girlfriend, but he wouldn’t be Boyfriend Guy if he didn’t also think of the others who’d be up there with her, working the hours away. This time around, they all packed up their things before finding somewhere to sit and eat, away from books and eagle-eyed librarians. Hell Week was more than halfway done now… Tomorrow, Thursday…

TO BE CONTINUED


	54. His Methods For Cheering

Again, on Thursday when he woke up, he found her still next to him. Only this time she wasn’t curled up around her phone, reading for her research. She was sitting up, and though he could only see her back, with her head bowed low, the impression he got almost instantly was that something was wrong. As he slowly came to sit up and got to see what was going on, _if_ anything was going on, he found her with a tense sort of look on her face, the kind you might get if you were in pain and trying not to make a sound. She was holding her arms like she was trying to safeguard the one with the other.

“Maya?” he asked softly. When she heard him, he knew she must not have been aware that he was even awake up until then. She took in a breath and released it, like she’d been wanting to do it for so long but had resisted, so not to wake him. Now that she didn’t have to worry about that anymore, her tightly guarded situation came undone.

“It hurts…” she told him in a shaky breath, and to see her like this, she who was usually so strong despite what might be thrown her way… Looking at her arms again, it took him another few seconds before a realization came to him. The arm she was holding, it was the one she’d broken, in the accident. “I think I strained it, the last few days,” she sniffed.

She didn’t like to talk about it too much, really almost at all. _He_ knew, but then only in confidence. The fact was that, even after all this time, her arm would still pain her now and then. It was never so bad that she couldn’t carry on, but it could get bad enough to make her really feel it, to make it more than just an annoyance. The worst it would get, that would usually happen after a long shift at the restaurant, or on the day after a performance, playing her guitar as she’d do, but even then she wouldn’t do much more than frown, and roll her wrist, and try to very casually not use that arm unless she really had to, without anyone noticing but him.

He’d never seen her like this, like she might actually cry for the pain of it.

“What do you need?” he asked her. His reflex would have been to put his arms around her, but he didn’t want to risk hurting her more, so he just met her eye and waited for her response. “Do you need me to take you to… a clinic, or hospital, or…” She shook her head. He got up from the bed, moved from their room to the bathroom, grabbed something that would hopefully relieve her pain and took it back with a glass of water. He gave it to her and she took it at once, breathing for a moment after drinking down the water.

“This morning was supposed to be my big push,” she frowned, while he sat down next to her again, facing toward her. She didn’t have class until just before lunch today, but now she was sort of stuck here, waiting to see if the pain would subside.

“I’ll stay and help you, whatever you need.”

“No, you have your own classes,” she shook her head. “I know you mean well, and I love you for that, but it’ll only make me feel worse if I know you’re missing something because of me.”

“Well how do you think _I’m_ going to feel?” he gave her a small smile, and he got one in return, the first he’d seen out of her this morning. “Besides, I’ll be sitting in class and I won’t be able to pay attention, because all I’ll do is think about you and if you’re okay. Bishop can tell me what I missed, and I’ve never missed a class so it’s not like they think I’m a slacker.”

“Yeah, there’s not a drop of slacker in you, Huckleberry,” she breathed, and he could see she was coming around to his offer.

“For now, just lie down a bit, try to relax. I’ll go get you breakfast and bring it up here.” There was no arguing on this part at least, so she did as he suggested and he went downstairs to start her breakfast. The dogs were sniffing at his heels the moment they smelled the bacon cooking, like they thought he hadn’t remembered to put in an extra couple slices for them.

He went back upstairs soon after, with two plates of eggs and bacon and toast and two cups of coffee, all balanced on a tray. It was a good thing the dogs were still busy with their treats, or he might have had to worry about having the two of them underfoot and risking to make him drop the tray. He made it safely back to the room, where he shut the door after setting the food down on his desk. Maya looked as though she’d fallen asleep again, but a moment later she opened her eyes, breathed in…

“Hungry?” he asked, bringing the tray over as she sat again. She kept her arm close to her body, like in an invisible sling.

“Getting there,” she replied.

“How’s your arm? The pain…”

“A bit less now, with the pill from before,” she told him, looking down to her arm, slowly flexing her fingers, her wrist. A small intake of breath told him exactly how that had felt. As she set about starting on her breakfast, Lucas went and took his phone, shooting a text off to Bishop.

_Won’t be in class this morning, can you send me your notes later?_

He could see her looking at him as he did this, just as he could see a flicker of sadness in her, less guarded at the moment. She wasn’t going to stop him from skipping out to be with her, but she still wished he didn’t have to. He’d only just set his phone back down when Bishop’s reply came in.

_Sure. You ok?_

_Yes. I’ll explain later. Thanks._

He was about to set his phone down again, when he remembered something. With how the morning had started, the whole thing with the ‘Boyfriend Guy’ mission had sort of slipped out of his thoughts, but now, holding his phone, he remembered what he’d had in store for her today. It almost seemed impossible that he could have forgotten, with how it had been a constant throughout the week for him to prepare. He set his phone on his leg so he wouldn’t forget. For now, they both had food to eat while it was still hot.

“It was already starting to hurt before, wasn’t it?” he had to ask after a minute. She looked at him, no need to pretend as though he wasn’t right. He could see in her eyes how much she hated this, that she needed to get this reminder of that horrible night, horrible period in their lives, every time. Her arm had healed just fine, and still now and then there’d be times when she’d feel it again, and she’d have to relive it in her head.

It all made for a very quiet breakfast, though this never had to mean that it was _too_ quiet, or in any way awkward. They had long developed an ease with silence, and it resolved itself here in a moment of much needed peace. When they were finished eating though, he picked up his phone, pulled something up on it, and then set the thing on her knee just as the video began to play.

Her mouth just started to shape itself around what he’d guess to have been ‘what is this?’ before the music and the images answered the question for her.

This had been his ace in the hole, the very first thing he’d thought to do and immediately set in motion, back on Sunday night when she’d asked him to essentially be her cheering section for the week to come. He’d asked himself what might make her happy, especially, once they were deep into this week and things might get to be bad enough that this might become an essential response. And when he’d gotten the idea there had been no second guessing to it.

There had been some concern, as he wondered whether or not he could pull this off, if it would be asking too much in too little time. Within a day, he’d realized his concerns had been unnecessary. If there was one thing to count on, it was the speediness of TXNY fans when they were called to action. The videos had come pouring in over the past three days, and he didn’t doubt that they’d keep on coming, added on to the playlist for her – and the others in the band – to find and watch.

The call had been a simple one: to share a little happiness. And they had answered that call with songs, with dance, with words… Lucas watched her as she watched them, and to see the smile on her face, the occasional laugh, and those happy tears… When the video came up, the one her New York siblings had put together, she’d held to that phone like it was them, her wonderful brothers and sisters out there…

“How many…” she asked, after an hour and nearly twenty videos had gone by.

“Seven hundred and fifty-two… so far,” he revealed, and she looked up at him, stunned, emotions swelling… She just gave him that look, the one that would make him beam with pride, the one that seemed to say ‘do you know how much I love you?’

“The others, did they see?” she asked.

“Not yet, but they’ll be getting the link soon,” he promised. It might have seemed almost a little selfish, but he’d wanted her to be the first to see. He’d been seeing them as they came in, of course, though only to ensure none of them were inappropriate or anything. “Whenever you need a boost, you have a lot of material right here.”

“Come here,” she smiled, and he leaned forward to meet her kiss. “Thank you… just…” she shook her head, at a loss for words.

Now that she’d had breakfast, and the pain reliever was… well, relieving pain… she needed to get started, get back to work, and so they got set up at her desk, where he offered his services wherever they were needed, to ensure that her arm wouldn’t go acting up again too much. He’d been hearing enough about her projects all week that he kind of knew what needed to be done, and it was all actually interesting to him, which did help some of the way.

“We have to get ready to go,” she told him after a while, seeing the time. He hadn’t even realized how long they’d been sitting there, and now he kind of wished they didn’t have to go.

But they got dressed, and they gathered their things, and then they got in his car. As he drove, he could hear the videos playing on her phone. She had gone back to the playlist, started responding to the videos she’d already watched. She’d answer every one, he knew she would.

He wouldn’t see her again until late that evening, when he went to get her from the library, and it would be kind of hard not to go around worrying about how she was doing for all that time, but he kept himself from texting her over and over to ask how she was. When she emerged from the library and started toward him, she looked tired but overall well, and he breathed out. One more day of this, one more and then they were off to Austin for a weekend away.

TO BE CONTINUED


	55. His Methods For Living

Friday morning came upon them, somewhere between the best and the worst day. Yes, one project was completed and handed in, but there were two more needing to be completed today, and it wouldn’t be until _that_ was dealt with that Maya would actually be free to see this day as a good one. They’d gone to bed the night before and, when he’d gone to lie down in his spot, he had quickly found himself pulled into big spoon mode, which he happily submitted to.

“How’s your arm doing?” he’d asked, kissing her shoulder as he gingerly laid his hand over hers.

“Better than this morning,” she’d told him, in that positive way that also spoke to the negative issue underneath. It still hurt, just less. “Just… keep holding on to me, okay?” she’d whispered, laying her hand over his as he wrapped his arm around her middle.

“Consider it done,” he’d vowed.

And the next morning, Friday, when they’d woken up, he hadn’t left her, still held her as he’d done when they’d fallen asleep the night before.

“Good morning?” he spoke softy, in case by some miracle he was actually awake before she was.

“Better than the last one,” was her response, making him smile into her hair. “I know it’s probably more to do with how I took it easy yesterday, and the pain relievers and all that, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m going to say my arm is mostly better right now because of you.”

“My powers are great and mysterious,” he declared, making her break into laughter for several seconds, even as she turned around in his arms to face him and kiss him. Looking into her bright face first thing in the morning, no matter how many times he’d been treated to it by now, still felt like she was the one with all the powers. It still kind of took his breath away. Maybe it showed in his face. The smile on her face, oh… it was everything. Before long, it had to retreat, as she remembered…

“I really need to get started. I have an hour before my first class, if I can get some revisions in…”

“Right. I’ll get started on breakfast,” he kissed her forehead before rolling out of bed and heading downstairs.

He let her work through breakfast, and through the ride to school, and when he dropped her off, he knew she’d be sitting outside her first class, still working away. One more day of this, the end in sight, he hoped she would be granted a second wind… third, possibly… that would carry her all the way to the end. He knew both projects were due to be turned in by six at the latest, which meant that, by the time he saw her again, unless some catastrophe had befallen her, it would all be over.

That didn’t stop him from checking in with her throughout the day, with covert encouragements and some overt ones, too. Through these communications, he was treated, at two in the afternoon, to a picture of his girlfriend holding up two fingers, which he knew in this case to mean not simply ‘peace,’ but ‘two projects down, one to go.’

_Halfway to the prize_ , he’d replied, with a winky face, and she’d been instantly intrigued. Did he have something planned? _Maybe…_

The curiosity would have to carry on, as of course he could not possibly reveal what it meant, not yet, no… She had to finish her other project, first.

When he looked at his watch and saw it was almost five thirty and he hadn’t gotten a three-finger salute out of her, he started to worry. Where was she? Was she nearly done? What if she didn’t meet her deadline? He didn’t want to interrupt her with a text or anything that might distract her. Five forty-five and still nothing. Fifty… fifty-five… fifty-eight… fifty-nine…

“I’ll have my prize now,” a voice made him jump and turn around. There she stood, on the other side of his car, where he’d been leaning in wait. He moved around to go and meet her, and that smile… She held up three fingers, like she knew he’d been waiting on that, and he scooped her up at once. “Okay, okay! Put me down!” she laughed, and he obliged.

“You weren’t writing, so I thought you were still at the library or…”

“Sorry about that, I just wanted to surprise you…” she explained, and he breathed out. “Looks like I succeeded… a little too well,” she tapped his arms. “So?” she tilted her head to the car, mouthing the word ‘prize.’ He stood up straight now, before reaching to open the door for her.

“First stop, back to the house,” he told her.

When they got there, they found messages scribbled on the board in the kitchen. In Riley’s handwriting – and in her designated color of purple, of course – they found a message saying that Dylan was staying late at the community center, and she was meeting Leona to help her with something. In Sophie’s hand – and in green – they learned that _she_ was headed to the movies with a couple of friends.

“Is this part of the prize?” Maya teased, turning back to him.

“It actually isn’t, and now it’s making me start to rethink…” he ‘pondered,’ and she poked at his chest.

“Nope, prize, gimme,” she insisted, as he expected she would. She wasn’t about to be left wondering what he’d initially planned, no matter the alternative. He grinned down at her before nodding his head up.

“You’ll find the first part upstairs,” he told her. “It involves shedding the whole college girl look,” he went on, leading her toward the stairs.

“Are you sure we’re still not talking about that rethink?” she chuckled.

When they reached their room, Maya would discover what he’d laid out there, after she’d been done getting dressed that morning. There’d been a moment where he’d been concerned that she might go back up before they left, but she hadn’t, and so they were still right on track.

He had pulled his favorite dress of hers from the closet, hanging it on the hook fixed to the top of the door. When she saw it, she turned back to him, questions in her eyes.

“Aren’t we doing do-over Valentine’s tomorrow?” she asked.

“Well, we were… but we’ll be in Austin, and I figured it would be a better idea if you got to spend that time with your parents and your sisters and brother. So, _this_ will be our Valentine’s,” he revealed. “Which includes…” he took two steps to the side, opening the top dresser drawer and digging out a wrapped box he’d hidden in there. “This, to go with that,” he nodded to the dress. She got that smile now, the one that felt so big that your face seemed to shake for trying to keep it in control.

“You’d tell me if this week had officially melted my brain and I was living in some kind of fantasy haze, right?” she asked, looking back up to him.

“Not seeing any melted brain stuff dripping from your ears,” he played along, leaning this way and that to look at her ears. She laughed, now tending to the unwrapping of her present. Inside, she found a golden bracelet, ornamented with a trio of dangling musical notes.

“Oh!” she blinked. She’d seen it, the first time they’d gone to the mall out here in Houston, and any time they’d walked by the store, he’d seen her sort of absently staring through the window, to where it had been, with a sort of distracted look, because it hadn’t been there in a while. Truth be told, he’d bought it for her a few months back. He’d almost given it to her for Christmas, and for her birthday, but he’d held on to it, deciding this would be the time when he gave it to her. “I don’t have your present…” she looked almost distressed for a second. “I was going to have it shipped to me here from Austin, but when you told me we were going anyway…”

“It’s okay,” he assured her, dislodging the bracelet from the box before fastening it around her wrist. “I can wait until tomorrow to find out.” She looked to the chain around her wrist, touched the dangling notes with a smile to herself.

“So, I should get changed, huh?” she turned her eyes back up to him, like she’d just remembered there was more to this. He nodded. “And where am I taking my fancy self when I’m done?”

“That’s for me to know and your fancy self to find out,” he told her, refusing to budge. She squinted at him, though she couldn’t quite chase her smile, which diminished the power of her ‘glare.’

They both got changed. In fairness to having picked out his favorite dress of hers, Lucas put on her favorite suit of his, though he could never really explain to anyone why she preferred this one over any other he might have. When he came back from his stop in the basement bathroom, the one he shared with Dylan, to deal with his hair, he found the door was shut and locked. He knocked.

“Oh, you don’t get to look until I’m done!” Maya’s voice called out, and he bowed his head. He could just see the amused look on her face without actually seeing her.

“I’ll be downstairs then,” he told her before moving toward the stairs.

Five minutes after he’d plopped down on the couch and turned the television on, he was joined by the dogs, who stared at him like they were wondering why he was dressed the way he was. One of their squeaky toys was lying just within reach, so he tossed it, leading to the scrambling and skittering of dogs, attempting to find the toy and return it. Trix managed to get it first, returning it with her head high while Lou barked and trailed after her.

“Okay,” Lucas laughed, picking up the bigger dog and keeping her close before tossing the toy again. “Your turn, Lou.”

For the next half hour, he worked through this system of alternating which dog got to get the tossed toy. He lost count of how many times it had been returned to him, and he’d just looked at the time, realizing how long it had been, when he heard the sound of heels on the steps, and he turned around.

It really was his favorite dress of hers. Anyone who didn’t see how good it was, well… they didn’t matter, especially not now.

“Do I get my prize now?” Maya asked, with a grin that said just how amused she was to see the look on his face.

“If there wasn’t one already there would absolutely be one now,” he promised, abandoning the squeaky toy to walk toward her. He traced his fingers along her arms, finally catching her hands in his, taking a moment to touch at the bracelet around her wrist. “So, this guy in one of my classes mentioned how his parents ran this dance studio. And on Fridays, it’s open to the public to come and ‘spin their sweetie around…’ His words, not mine… Actually, not even his, more like his mother’s.” Maya laughed.

“And look, it’s Friday,” she beamed.

“It _is_ Friday, look at that. So… May I take you dancing?”

“I did get all fancy, didn’t I? And you did, too,” she gave him a once over. “After the week I’ve had… There is nothing I’d love more than to go and get spun around by you, Lucas Friar.” He leaned down and kissed her, and for a moment it felt like they’d already started dancing.

“Well then, let’s get going,” he led her out the door and to the car, like the most proper of escorts.

TO BE CONTINUED


	56. His Methods For Loving

He would have figured she would have been up early, wanting to hit the road for Austin as soon as possible. But then, after the previous evening, the previous week… She was sleeping in, and he wasn’t long to join her as he fell back to sleep.

They’d danced until the end of the night, until the place was closing and they had no choice but to leave. The whole thing had been sort of like magic, like an escape from the world, underneath twinkling lights, with music at times slow and at times upbeat, and couples all around them. As though anyone would have expected anything else, he’d only had eyes for her. When they’d walked in, a lot of people had eyes for her, too, and him as well, he supposed. It probably had to do with the fact that, as they came to learn, this was the sort of thing where they didn’t often see newcomers. But they were welcomed, and soon enough he knew that she was thinking the same thing: they would have to come back here another week, whenever they could…

At first, he’d been concerned with not doing anything that might strain her arm, but as the evening had drawn on, he’d found she didn’t seem bothered by it at all. She was so happy, he could see it, and that in turn could only ever make _him_ happy, too.

By the time they’d left the studio, they were still riding the last of the high they’d gotten off the night, the dancing. It got them back into the car and off to the house without incident, but after that they only had one thing in mind and it was copious amounts of sleep. Their evening concluded with a satisfied collapse into bed and it seemed like only moments after she’d set her head over his shoulder, they were both asleep.

When they woke up for good, on Saturday morning, she’d somehow slipped until her head was buried under his arm, all curled up near him. What woke him up was her raising her way out of there, sitting up, and stretching, and yawning, before her arms fell back in her lap and she just sat there, rubbing sleep out of her face after a few seconds.

“Hey…” he set his hand to the small of her back and she turned her head to look at him. It was hard to say for sure if she looked more spent from the last week or relaxed from sleeping in, and the thought could only make him chuckle.

“What?” she asked, smiling and curious to know what had made him laugh.

“Nothing,” he shrugged it off as he sat up to join her. She greeted him with a kiss and then another. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“You know when it’s like… ‘I’m aching, but it’s a good ache?’” she asked back, and he nodded. “Kind of where I’m at right now. My feet are pulsing from last night and I’m okay with it,” she declared. He bowed his head to kiss her shoulder.

“I know how that goes,” he confirmed. “So, what’s the plan? Breakfast here or do you want to grab something on the go?”

“We can stop by the Nook on the way?” she thought aloud after a moment’s thought.

“I’m sold,” he agreed at once.

They’d packed their overnight bags the previous morning, which really turned out to work in their favor, as they could never have gotten the energy to do it the night before, and now they didn’t have to stall their departure any longer this morning. They said goodbye to the others until the next night – they weren’t tagging along for this home visit – and they got into Lucas’ car. One pitstop down at the Nook and they were on their way to Austin.

There had been times where the drive from Houston to Austin or the other way around had started to feel long for them, but since the one on the night they’d been stuck waiting for hours on the road, they had never found there to be a point to complaints anymore. As Lucas was behind the wheel, Maya managed to get through her breakfast much faster than he did, as he could only manage a bite whenever the car had to come to a stop and wait for traffic to advance once again.

He was all too happy to make his way through his meal that way. They were on the road, and his girlfriend was the picture of joyful release, and what more did he need?

“I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces,” she grinned, holding up the box with his food as they stopped again.

Her parents knew they were coming to spend the weekend. Lucas had called ahead, days ago, to ensure that they weren’t going to end up being there while they were all busy elsewhere. When Katy Hart had confirmed that they would be all set and ready for them though, Lucas had made one request: don’t tell the twins. If this visit was to be the closing of his Boyfriend Guy mission, then Maya getting to surprise Nellie and Gracie would be the crowning achievement.

“It’ll blow their toddler minds,” he gave her a smile, chewing on his latest bite before they had to start driving again.

“Bet you Gracie’s figured it out,” Maya told him, sneaking one of his potatoes as though he couldn’t see her.

“She’s two…”

“And a half. Remember the whole Jack Skellington thing? Girl can’t be fooled.” Even with all that makeup, she’d looked at him like she knew him, that Halloween when he’d dressed up as the great pumpkin king…

“Oh…” he breathed out. Maybe she _would_ have figured it out.

“If she did, whether she’s said it out loud, whether she’s told Nellie…” she shrugged. They’d have to wait and see.

“So, what’s the wager on this bet?” Lucas asked. He could see her grinning out of the corner of his eye.

“I’ll think of something.”

“Is that even fair? I don’t know what I’m betting with…”

“Won’t be anything you can’t afford, I promise,” she told him, and now he was the one grinning, taking in her confidence over her sister’s having figured them out.

His food had long lost any shred of warmth by the time he managed to eat the last of it, but really, he didn’t mind. It all still tasted excellent, and he didn’t leave one crumb behind. Soon after that, the car started taking the familiar Austin streets that would get them to the Hunter Hart house.

“If I’m right, I’m pretty sure they’re napping right now,” Maya looked to the time as they pulled up to the curb. “Hang on,” she grabbed her phone and started typing. “Texting my dad so he’ll get the dogs in the basement or something. If they see us, they’ll be loud, wake the girls and MJ…”

A few minutes later, Shawn appeared at the door to wave them in. They had silent hugs at the door, whispering about how the drive had been and how glad he was that they were here. He let them know that he’d done as asked, and that Katy was upstairs with the kids, keeping an eye as they slept. Lucas let Maya go on ahead to see them while he took their bags into her room.

As he set them down on the bed, he turned, seeing that Shawn was at the door, looking in. After all this time, the years he and Maya had been dating, and friends before that, after all this time since Shawn had been her father, Lucas felt he had gotten to a place where the two of them were good. There’d been that year, after the accident, where he had become persona non grata in this house, and there’d been nothing to shake the man’s opinions on him, but Lucas had never blamed him, and soon as he’d learned what had really happened, Shawn had acknowledged his mistake and apologized in earnest. Since then, all had been well. Their living together could make them feel awkward, but only in a ‘our girl’s growing up’ sort of way.

It also helped that it made him into a direct line to her, who would be honest upon questioning, without being made to divulge anything he wasn’t supposed to.

“Long week, yeah?” Shawn asked, voice still low, even though it was unlikely it would reach the napping trio upstairs.

“The longest,” Lucas nodded.

“Everything turn out alright?”

“All finished and turned in on time,” he nodded again. “It was a lot though. The strain, her arm…” He didn’t have to say anything else for Shawn to understand what he meant. “It’s better now, and…”

He was interrupted as the two of them turned their eyes up to the ceiling upon hearing the distinct sound of little girls squealing, followed by a baby crying.

“And nap time’s over,” Shawn moved to the stairs, and Lucas followed. As they reached the second floor, Katy passed by and waited, handing MJ over to his father. “Hey, bud, that was a lot of noise, huh? Yeah, let’s go in here,” he disappeared into the nursery with the two-month-old.

“Hey, Lucas,” Katy smiled, moving to greet him with a hug. “How was the drive?”

“Basic,” he shrugged. “There was breakfast though.”

“Well, I’m really happy you two are here with us.” And he knew she meant it. Same as with Shawn, the accident had shifted things for them, and after his ‘exoneration’ Maya’s mother had been working overtime to prove that she trusted him again, until they’d gotten to where they were now. She knew how he felt for Maya, knew where he stood where she was concerned, that he loved her and would always look out for her. He was family, and that was all.

“Sounds like they are, too,” he nodded to the girls’ room, and Katy laughed, tipping her head for him to go on ahead.

When he walked into the room, he found them piled up together on Gracie’s bed, Maya and the twins chatting away as he’d come to hear them, morning after morning over Skype. Gracie was stuck to her big sister’s side, little arms wrapped around one of hers, while Nellie had more or less climbed on to Maya, who was using her free hand to get the mess of brown hair on the older twin’s head to behave.

You wouldn’t know by looking at them that they hadn’t seen each other in a few weeks. By the schedule they’d been keeping in the new year, they should have come up to Houston the previous week, but then they’d had to cancel, which had not helped, with Maya heading into this week she’d just had. Now here they all were, and they were all just thrilled to be together. He always wondered if the dynamics between them would have been different if Maya had been closer to the twins’ age, if they wouldn’t have been as close as they were, with this sixteen-year gap between them. It made her into some kind of middle ground between a sister and another parent.

“Lukey!” Gracie piped up when she spotted him at the door. Nellie grinned, as her quiet sister extricated herself from the pile up and came to stand on her feet, coming closer to the edge and holding out her arms in a clear request for holding. Lucas obliged, partly to ensure that she wouldn’t lose her footing and plummet to the ground. As quiet as she still was on most occasions, she knew how to give very tight hugs that said all that her words did not. He couldn’t help but smile, even as she pulled back and he got to look her in the eye.

“Did you know we were coming?” he asked in a poor whisper, so that Maya could still hear. Gracie gave a solid nod, and he breathed out, bowing his head in ‘defeat’ while he heard Maya laugh. “How?”

“Daddy made the bed,” she informed him. The sheets _were_ always clean, always looked freshly put in whenever they came over, though he hadn’t known Shawn was the one to do it. “I didn’t tell,” she whispered and shook her head. “I promised.”

“Thank you,” Lucas told her, and she smiled, all the little bits of her face that looked like Maya now shining through.

As exhausted as Maya still was – and he could see it – she did not show it enough that her sisters would notice. She played with them all day, they both did, often with baby MJ nearby. In a way, she was still coming off like being here was rejuvenating her, no matter her tiredness.

In the afternoon, they were visited by his parents and his grandfather, who had been invited to come over for dinner, the better to keep everyone together. At one time, Lucas swore he saw Pappy Joe disappear into the kitchen with Maya, and he didn’t see either of them back until a few minutes later. He might have understood what that was about if he remembered what Maya had told him the evening before, when he’d given her the bracelet she still wore today, fancy dress or no.

Later, when their guests were gone, and the residents of the house were all up in their rooms, sleeping or about to go to sleep, it left only him and her, in her room. Maya sat at the bay window, watching a few more of the playlist videos and writing her replies to them. He went to sit with her, watched some of the videos, too. Eventually, she set the phone aside and pulled out a small box she’d kept hidden under her crossed legs. She handed it to him with a smile.

“There wasn’t a box big enough for _me_ to fit in, soooo…” she shrugged innocently. “Happy Valentine’s Day… finally. Which is to say, this is the last part of all that… extended holiday,” she went on, and he nodded before setting himself to unwrapping the box. When he opened it, he blinked, not quite believing his eyes.

He didn’t exactly remember when he had told her the story, but clearly, he must have, at some point, or else how would she have known to even… He looked up at her, confused, and she just smiled back at him.

“You told me once…”

“When?” he cut her off, unable not to.

“I think it was three, no, four years ago,” she nodded to herself in confirmation. “You said how you used to have this mug, and it was your favorite when you were little, and your grandmother had gotten it for you, kept it at the house with her and Pappy Joe, so whenever you’d go to them, that’d be yours, and there used to be three but the other ones got broken, so you hid the last one somewhere so it wouldn’t get broken, too, but then you couldn’t find it again.”

He could only nod, looking from her to the mug and back.

“So, when we were here back in December, I mentioned it to Pappy Joe, he said he remembered the mug, but he hadn’t found it either. I asked if I could look around his house, maybe I could find it.”

“Where was it?”

“In the basement, under the…”

“The stairs,” he remembered now. She smiled.

“I wanted to surprise you, but the time never came for me either,” she looked to the bracelet around her wrist. “And then I forgot it here, and kept forgetting, and finally I was going to have it shipped over, like I said, but we were coming, so…”

He still didn’t know what to say. He looked at the mug, and he could see his childhood so clearly, could hear his grandmother’s voice, her laugh… His face must have been telling quite the story, because Maya leaned in, pressing her forehead to the side of his head, putting her arms around him. What a week it had been… Hectic as it had been, they would never forget it.

TO BE CONTINUED


	57. Their Time With Life

Before long, February had given way to March. Spring was asserting itself more and more by the day, much as it didn’t have the same effect as it might have done for Maya, growing up in New York until she and her mother had made the move down to Texas. Still, the turn of the seasons was just one more reminder that their first year of college was fast advancing toward its end. In no time, those of them who _had_ classes, would find themselves in that special hell known as finals, but that wasn’t happening now, no.

Today was the last day before spring break.

No matter what school they might be attending, this much did not change. The last day of classes, of tests, of anything related with going to school, when they knew what lay on the other side of it – peace and fun for days on end – was its own very specific brand of painful. Their brains didn’t care that they still had things to do, they were already halfway checked out, slowly packing their bags and dancing around, humming loudly to ignore the fact that they weren’t actually done yet.

And it wasn’t like they had much of a choice getting through it. You couldn’t exactly remove the last day, as the ‘honor’ would then pass to the second to last day, and so on, and so forth, and there was nothing to be done for it. So, one more day.

This time around, Maya’s twin sisters _did_ know she was coming home, both of them, because they’d been told in no uncertain terms. They had known ever since they’d seen their sister the time she and her boyfriend had come and surprised them, which meant that every day since, when they had their morning call, Maya would be asked how many days there were left until she came ‘for a long time.’ And every morning, she would oblige, the number shrinking and shrinking every time.

“When are you coming?” Gracie was the one to ask it this morning, and Maya smirked.

“Tonight,” she told them, and to see their little faces light up, as though they hadn’t heard ‘tomorrow’ when they’d talked the day before… It made the prospect of facing this last day of classes even more daunting. “You two might be asleep by the time we get there, so maybe you won’t see me until the morning though,” she had to warn them. There was also the possibility that they would be headed to the Friar house first, seeing as their last visit had them staying with her family. It was only fair that his family got a turn now.

The last few weeks had been going about as well as they could hope for them to go, really. After that ‘hell week’ had been over, it kind of made any work that much more appreciated, as it didn’t involve her being swamped. The fact that all three of those projects had been returned to her with near perfect marks, well… that just made it that much better.

All of them were faring pretty well in their classes. It wasn’t as though it was all handed to them, they’d worked really hard, as they’d always done, but still there had been this worry like just because they’d been great students in high school it wouldn’t mean that it would translate by the time they carried through and into college. Sometimes it felt like the environment they were in, all of them living together, was helping them, heightening their drive.

And now, they were just hours away from heading home for a week, all five of them. Once again, Trix and Lou would be left in the care of Rosa and her mother, where they would spend time with their new pal Gideon.

As far as the band went, the last few weeks had been a mix of the new and the old and the same, depending on who was asked. They’d had their interview on the morning show and on the radio at the end of February. For Maya and Riley, it was like a flashback to the first time they’d done those, back in Austin, back with Nadine, and Isadora from a distance. The stations were different, the people, too, but walking up to those places with their new bandmates, it was easy to remember what it had been like, the giddy nerves they’d felt… They only had to look to Rosa, and Kayla, and Willow, and it was all right there.

They’d been all wide-eyed, all of them. Willow had turned sort of fidgety, which was so unlike her. Kayla had been off in her own bubble, needing a couple of tries before they could manage to draw her attention. Rosa had started to look a little green around the gills the closer they’d gotten, and it was a wonder she hadn’t just gone and been sick right then and there. Riley had held her hand the whole way to the room reserved for them, while Maya did all the talking.

“Hey, you okay?” she’d turned to their young bandmate after shutting the door. She wouldn’t even speak or so much as shake or nod her head, like she was certain if she did… “Riley?” she looked to her friend, and the both of them ushered Rosa toward the small bathroom. They weren’t a second too soon. “Yeah, okay…” she looked away, though she didn’t move away. Willow and Kayla had been quick to find water and whatever else Rosa might need. A few minutes later, they were all sitting in the bathroom, tending to her.

“I’m sorry,” she’d told them, voice weak, still shaking. “I don’t know why I…”

“Nerves are a pain like that,” Maya assured her, rubbing at her back. “What do you need right now? You want the ‘you can do this’ speech? Or the ‘you don’t have to do this’ speech…” Rosa just held up one finger, and Maya jumped in at once. “Okay, look at me,” she requested, and the pale face turned toward her. “Don’t think about the people watching. You did the show and you killed it, this time the people aren’t even there.”

“It’s not that…” Rosa told her. “It’s… there’s the…”

“The interview?” Kayla had signed, and it was a wonder she’d managed to get anything from how Rosa mumbled her words. Maya had seen the signs though, and it all started to make sense. Of course, it was the interview that had her all in knots like that.

Once, she had told them how, if it wasn’t for how her mother had given her the job at the bookstore, she would never have been able to even get a job, with how she had trouble with people focusing right on her. Job interviews, school presentations… Maya guessed it was one thing to be part of the band, facing all those people she couldn’t really focus on, not when she was busy playing and singing, but with none of that, sitting on a couch, with some personality she’d seen on television for years…

“I don’t want to mess it up for you,” she’d looked to Maya, to the other three, like she was about to burst into tears.

“You won’t,” Riley told her, as Willow reached out for her hand, and Kayla patted her leg, and Maya put her arm around her shoulders.

“You’re not going to get over this just because we tell you to. So, you might have to fake it for a while. Pretend like it’s one of those talks we had, for the videos, you know?” Maya went on. Rosa gave a small nod. “Squeeze our hands if you have to.”

A knock at the door had reminded them they were expected to get started soon, all the things they had to do before they had their interview. The girls had looked to Rosa, and after a few seconds they’d gotten a nod. She would try. If nothing else, she would try.

She hadn’t spoken more than she had to, but when she _had_ spoken, she’d handled herself well enough. As soon as they’d left the studio, she’d looked like she was ready to collapse, but at the same time she looked proud of herself, which was just as well… They were pretty proud of her, too. She’d gotten through the radio interview much the same way.

Both interviews had served to lead the way into their releasing their new album, the first with the new lineup, and that had been the thrill carrying them over these past weeks, getting to hear from all these people as they reacted to their new songs, their adjusted… elevated sound. Still, for all their praise, none of it had meant so much as what they’d gotten from both Nadine and Isadora. Nothing could mean so much as to know that their retired bandmates still recognized TXNY in their music.

As much as Maya and her bandmates were looking both backward and forward in time with their new music, Lucas was having his own experience of reflection on his past and his future, all of it born out of the gift Maya had given him on their belated Valentine’s. The old mug, the design faded to some degree, with the very fine chip along the handle which had caused the then seven-year-old Lucas to hide his favorite mug, only to forget where he’d put it.

It had been out there, at his grandfather’s old house… the house which now belonged to him, to do with as he saw fit. They still hadn’t made a decision, him and Maya, and it would definitely be a decision they made together, but not yet, not with three years and a quarter of college left ahead of them before they could even really do anything about it. Both of them had agreed that making plans too far ahead wouldn’t be good, in so many ways, and it wasn’t so much that he was making some plan now, only that…

Every time he looked at the mug, which presently sat on his desk in their room, next to a picture of him and Maya and his parents and grandfather and her parents and siblings, taken last Christmas, he would think about his childhood, about his grandparents, and that house, that land… The place had always meant so much to him. He and Pappy Joe may have had the odd rough patch along the way, but always, always… going to that house felt like he’d left home and gone home at the same time. And since his grandfather had moved in with them the house had been out there, untouched, unvisited except for the occasional trip to check on things or to pick up something which had been left behind.

He looked at the mug and he knew, deep down, that no matter where they ended up, if they lived in that house or somewhere else, in Austin, in Houston, anywhere… Wherever they ended up, he didn’t want to let go of the old house. He knew what his grandfather had said, that he could sell the house and land and use that money to get a house anywhere he needed to, but… how could he do that?

“Hey!” He blinked, looking around. He was standing by his car, waiting for the others. The day was done. Spring break was upon them, and there was Maya, jogging up toward him. In an instant, she had her arms around his neck and she was smiling up at him. “What’s with the face?” she asked, chuckling. He just smiled down at her, his arms around her, too. “We’re on break, you look like you’re trying to make objects move with your mind.” He relaxed his face at this, but she still looked at him in wait. She knew something was on his mind, and she wasn’t about to let it go if she could help.

“Future stuff, it’s all good,” he promised. And it was, and for that she just nodded, accepting it. He kissed her, and he opened the car door for her. They had another long drive ahead of them, all five roommates bound for Austin.

TO BE CONTINUED


	58. Their Time With the Road

“Hey, Matthews, you have thirty seconds or we’re leaving you behind!” Maya shouted as she watched her best friend of old dash back for the house, while the rest of them were packed in Lucas’ car. It was the third time she’d gone back, every time remembering something she’d forgotten to pack, every time sending her carmates into huffing groans.

They’d all hurried back here, them and Lucas and Sophie, to pick up Dylan and their bags, now packed tight in the trunk and on the laps of those of them sat in the back. It was still early, and they should be making good time as they drove on toward Austin, but they also knew that the later they left, the more likely they’d be stuck out there through what was usually dinner time, and being stuck in that car while hungry had never led to fun times.

“Should I go get her?” Dylan called, his voice emerging from behind the bags sitting on his knees and very nearly hiding him completely.

“You’ll topple everything,” Sophie declared, in a similar predicament. “Stay here.”

“I can go?” Lucas offered next.

“She knows I’m only half joking, she’ll hurry,” Maya said with confidence, and she was soon proven right, as Riley came hurrying back, just twenty-six seconds after receiving her ‘ultimatum.’ She sat back next to Dylan, receiving the bags that were to be her load, which in turn allowed the other two in the back to be seen again. “Got your thing?”

“Got it,” Riley promised. “I’m good now, we can go, really.”

“Great, let’s go. Driver!” Maya tapped Lucas’ arm. He turned the key in the ignition, and then…

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Dylan informed them from the back.

Five minutes later, finally, they were off. The music cranked up, it now truly felt, more than when they’d left school, more than when they’d packed their stuff in the car, that their break had gone and started. They were headed home.

They had considered doing the whole spring break thing, as seemed to go hand in hand with college, but in the end, they’d decided they’d rather do what they were doing now and head home for a little while. They still had three other spring breaks in their future, they could try it another year, who knew? Sophie had already said that, if they ever wanted to give it a shot, she’d get them into one of the hotels her mother had connections with, so they’d be settled in style. Or, they could just do this again. The choice was all their own.

“I texted my dad that we were on our way,” Riley told the others.

“Which means all the other parents will know in a minute,” Maya smirked. In case they hadn’t believed her, the rest of them soon heard their phones chirping away with messages that boiled down to ‘you’re on your way, that’s great, drive safe!’ Their families had long developed this sort of network of theirs, and it never stopped being amusing to them.

“Are Franny and Kayla coming down to Austin for the break, too?” Lucas asked.

“No, they are meeting some of their former teammates, also in college now but all over the place, down in Miami,” Maya told him, then, after a few seconds. “Maybe we should do that next year, get the old teams back together, you know? Like it was before they shut the teams down.”

“I wasn’t in those,” Sophie reminded from the backseat.

“You’d still come, of course,” Maya turned to look at her. “I mean, if you wanted,” she added, not wanting to make it sound like it was her own choice instead of Sophie’s.

“And me,” Riley nodded.

“You’ve always been part of the team,” Dylan pointed out before Maya could say it, and she pointed at him like ‘what he said.’

“It’s going to turn into some rematch, isn’t it?” Lucas joked, though he, like the rest of them, was sounding more and more into this idea of a spring break reunion, and a beach…

“I think it’s actually impossible for all of us to be together and _not_ try to compete,” Maya turned to him with a laugh. “Which is a real shame, because we usually whoop your butts,” she continued innocently, getting cheers from Riley and Sophie, and a humble nod from Dylan.

“Right. Next year. I’m in,” Lucas declared, with a flash of the old ‘rivalry’ back on. “Dylan?”

“No sweat!” he leaned forward to tap Lucas’ seat as an alternative to a high five.

“Oh, you wanna dance?” Maya ‘glared’ at her boyfriend.

“With you, any day.”

“Nuh-uh, no time for flirting here,” she held up her finger, crooking it after a beat. “I mean… thanks, same,” she smiled for a moment, before reasserting The Look. “Count your days, Friar, the defeat is going to be epic.”

As was bound to happen when it was all of them together and the nugget of an idea was formed into existence, it was impossible to let it go, and the next several minutes were spent with Maya and Dylan with their phones in hand, writing back and forth with their former teammates, of their very first high school teams. This went back to the days where Riya Chari was captain for the girls, and Nathan Shelby was the same for the boys. They had been seniors back then, and now they were that again, so to speak, as they were in their fourth year of college.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, they had a mix of solid and tentative commitments to this event that would be a whole year away.

“My parents are at your house,” Riley tapped Maya’s shoulder an hour into the drive.

“What about August?” she asked, trying not to chuckle when her friend’s response was a sigh.

“He’s having dinner at the Zhus’,” she eventually replied.

“You mean at his _girlfriend’s_ house?” Maya crooned, only to see the look of utter big sisterly distress.

They’d all sort of joked about it, years ago, when the Matthews had moved to Austin and inevitably become entangled with Maya’s friends as they became Riley’s friends, and with their families all the same. By their ages, it had only been too natural that Auggie would be closest with Nadine’s sisters, Marley and Michaela, the second in particular, as she was only a year ahead of him, and they would all go on and play pretend matchmaker with their young siblings.

Well, now the joke was on them, as August had revealed at Valentine’s that Michaela Zhu was now his girlfriend, so of course he had to take her out and get her something special. Riley had heard the story from August himself, when he’d told her over Skype, and had they been asleep the rest of the household would have heard her cry of surprise. As it turned out, the two of them had been a thing for a few months already, and they were still going strong.

“Everyone keeps making a big deal about it because she’s older than me, why is that important?” August had asked Maya and Lucas, when he and his parents had been over at the Hunter Hart house, the Saturday they’d been there. “So, she’s a year older,” he’d shrugged, and Maya had playfully teased him over the ‘mystic’ of the older woman. August just looked even more confused.

“You like her a lot then, huh?” Lucas had asked, and Maya had to force herself not to laugh, seeing this boy she’d known all his life, going all pink in the face over a girl.

As it turned out, Nadine had no idea that her little sister was seeing anyone either, and when Riley had told her about the whole thing, the surprise had been equal in their faraway friend’s face. By the end of the conversation, as awkward as they both still felt about the whole thing, Maya had been a witness to the two older sisters of the new couple coming together on the one thing they could agree on: if this kept up, the two of them might be sisters someday.

“Seriously?” Maya had shaken her head with a chuckle.

“Remember when me and Asher would race with Nadine’s sisters on our backs?” Dylan asked with a grin, as they drove on toward Austin. “It was me and Michaela against Asher and Marley. We should have a rematch of _that_. They’re a lot taller than they used to be, but it should be fine.”

No one agreed or disagreed, and August Matthews’ romantic life was left aside. There was some more singing, which was probably a good thing. They needed the distraction, as unexpected traffic started to accumulate, and the twinge of hunger started to gnaw at them. By this time, everything in them insisted that they shouldn’t eat, that they’d have dinner when they’d arrive, but being stuck in a car this long, and in traffic on top of that… well, it had a way of heightening everything, hunger most of all.

“Okay, desperate measures,” Maya leaned forward and opened the glove compartment, revealing the bag of mini chocolate bars she’d hidden there before they left. There were exactly ten of them, measured ahead of time for such an emergency and preventing their exaggerating. “Two each, that’s it,” she grabbed two for herself and two for Lucas and then passed the bag on to Dylan, who saw to the distribution with the girls on either side of him.

“Thanks, Mom,” Sophie joked, and Riley and Dylan laughed along with her, while Lucas had the presence of mind to bite back his own smile.

“Yeah, well, you keep it down back there or you’re grounded. Don’t think I won’t,” Maya turned back to look at them again, and seeing how they all just sort of sat up straight for a second… that felt kind of good. She sat back, facing forward, tossing a look to Lucas, who just nodded to himself and kept on driving, breaking into his chocolate when he had the chance.

By the time they got into Austin and started for the Zvolensky house, the chocolate was a thing of the past and they were anxious for dinner all over again. They dropped Sophie off, allowing Riley and Dylan some breathing room with some of the bags gone. Next stop was the Orlando house, where Dylan got out, reminding them that his parents had invited them all to breakfast at his house, one morning while they were here, so they needed to get back to him with a date.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Lucas asked, once it was just him and Maya and Riley. “Do you still want me to drop you off at your parents’ house if they’re at hers?” he asked Riley, indicating Maya on the end. “My mother’s waiting for us,” he reminded Maya, and she understood what he meant. What were they going to do, drop off Riley at the Hunter Hart house and not go in? Shawn and Katy weren’t just going to let them go when they’d just arrived, and if the twins were awake…

“On it, just go to my house,” Maya told him, reaching casually in his pocket and pulling out his phone. She went about typing and then sending a message, and then started this again but on her own phone. A few seconds later, there was a ding from his phone and one from hers, too, and then she smiled. “All good. Your parents will meet us at mine’s.” Just like that, they were headed for dinner with all of their parents, down at the Hunter Hart house. Next year they would do the whole beach thing, but this year, like this, it was all they needed.

TO BE CONTINUED


	59. Their Time With His People

His parents had not had time to arrive ahead of them at the Hunter Hart house, of course, which allowed Lucas and Maya and Riley to show up and get a chance not to be bombarded with so many parents trying to get their turn at hellos at the same time. Already, both he and Maya had been ‘demanded’ upstairs. As it turned out, they’d arrived just as the twins were being put to bed, which meant a pair of toddlers in footy pyjamas at the top of the stairs, calling for ‘Ya and Lukey.’

So, up they’d gone, delighting their audience of two with a ‘full cast’ performance of their selected story book, followed by a lullaby he left in the all too capable hands of the lead singer of TXNY.

After the girls had gone to sleep, Maya had made a quick stop in the nursery to see her already sleeping baby brother, and then they’d gone back downstairs, just as the bell rang and announced the arrival of the Friars.

He would always describe his mother’s greetings, whenever he’d visit her or she’d visit him, as though her exterior was totally calm and collected in her happiness to see him, while on the inside she was fighting the urge to spring for him, to wrap him in her arms and never let him go, never let him out of her sight again. He could see it in her eyes, he really did sometimes. Mostly, he felt it in the way she would hug him.

“Your grandfather’s out with some of the guys tonight,” his father told him, once his mother had ‘detached’ and allowed him to come for his turn.

Dinner at the Hunter Hart house, on any day, was a good time. When you added the Matthews, and now when you also added _his_ parents, well… it was as much of a party as they could ask for. Maya had texted ahead, just as she’d texted his parents to invite them, so they’d been ready for the added guests, although he suspected, just as Maya did, that her parents had already expected this and done their own planning ahead.

They didn’t make a late night of it. The three of them who’d just arrived had a week of classes and a long drive in them, and they were anxious to get to unwind some. Riley’s bags were transferred from his car and into her parents’, Maya promised she’d drop back in the next day, and then they were off, back to his parents’.

“I know you can carry your bags just fine, but let me do it so I don’t get smacked for my manners?” he told her as they were driving up, his parents in their car just ahead.

“Done,” she agreed with a chuckle. Oh, she was going to tease him good for that one.

Ever since they’d moved to Houston, it seemed like every time he came back there was something new about the house. It reminded him of how it had been for him, going back into Maya’s house after having been out of it for so long, when her parents didn’t want him there, except it was different, it was the house he’d grown up in and now… it was growing on ahead, without him.

This time, the change was a big one. There were new sofas in the living room. When she saw him and Maya looking, noticing, his mother came toward them with that big smile of hers.

“What do you think, they’re nice, aren’t they? We talked about changing them for so long, I thought it was high time we finally went through with it,” she explained. That much was true, she had been saying for a good three years that she wanted new sofas. Personally, Lucas had been fine with the old ones still. He knew his father felt the same way, and so did his grandfather, but if his mother had her mind made up…

She was still looking at him, waiting for his response, and he blinked, coming back to his senses, looking at the new sofas. He reached out his hands, touched the fabric, while Maya moved up and took a seat, testing them out properly. She breathed out, settling in, and that made him smirk. If it was up to her, she’d probably just go to sleep right here.

It seemed that was all his mother had needed to see and hear, and after a second, she moved off, calling ‘Tom, they love the sofas!’ which left the two of them alone.

“Movie?” he suggested, and she nodded, though she stood back up at the same time.

“Changing first, and then snacks, and then movie,” she nodded, pulling at his arm to lead him upstairs. He grabbed the bags, which had been abandoned by the door, and they headed up. When they reached his room, she stopped and turned to him. “Pardon me, Sir, would you be so kind?” she asked, breaking out her Southern Belle, tried and tested over the last near seven years.

“Tease all you want, this is working for me,” he told her as he moved to open the door for them.

“Much obliged,” she told him, a spark of a laugh in her eyes.

They didn’t go so far as to unpack just yet, depositing their bags and opening them to get what they needed. Soon, they were changed into PJs and headed back downstairs to find Melinda Friar was way ahead of them, the popcorn already fired up like she’d read their minds.

“She’s hitting critical hostess mode,” Maya whispered as they settled on the floor in the living room. So long as they were eating popcorn, they knew better than to take their buttery snack and soon-to-be buttery fingers anywhere near Melinda’s New Sofas.

“My grandmother, _her_ mother, was just the same when I was growing up,” he told her, as the movie started. The thought of that ‘legacy’ seemed to settle in her brain and, the way the smile crept up her face, he was pretty sure he knew what she was thinking about. “Don’t look at me, I think it skipped a generation.”

“Great, that means we get to have a mini Mel someday?” she mock cringed at the thought, and honestly, he didn’t know how to answer that, like the thought of a tiny terror like that couldn’t quite achieve the horror it suggested, not when combined with the thought that it would be _their_ kid. Every time Maya acknowledged this accepted future of theirs, it still gave him this happy sort of twinge.

“It’s a possibility,” he finally replied, offering out the bowl of popcorn to her. Going by the look on her face, maybe she’d played herself, too.

As tired as they’d been, it wasn’t enough that they fell asleep over the movie. Really, it just felt good to be back in Austin, to be here, at his parents’ house, enjoying themselves on a quiet Friday night, like a lowercase date… Then again, it was hard to fall asleep once they were joined by a couple more viewers. Twenty minutes into the movie, his mother poked her head in, saw what they were watching, then asked if she and his father could join them. It was easier to say yes, and two minutes later it was the four of them, rewinding the movie to the start and going again. Lucas turned to look to Maya with a bit of an apologetic look, but she just smiled and leaned to rest her head on his shoulder, grabbing a handful of popcorn. So, he settled back in, too, and they watched the movie with his parents.

“She’s gotten a lot better about not talking, but she still makes noises when she stops herself,” Lucas told her, later, when the movie was over and they’d gone back to his old room.

“It’s like her own language,” Maya smiled, replicating the noises. She kind of had a point, and it made him laugh. “Your dad talked more than she did.”

“You know how he gets,” he nodded. “If he thinks something doesn’t make sense, he can’t let it go.”

“If they tried to make a spaceship like that, it’d never even fly, it’d just fall apart!” she imitated Tom Friar, and it was scary how well she could capture his father’s voice and manners.

“I don’t think I need to have the image of you pretending to be my dad in my head,” he frowned, though he was also holding back a chuckle.

“Oh, you don’t, huh?” she started toward him, putting her arms up and around his neck, which activated his reflex to put _his_ arms around her waist, like a stationary slow dance. “Well, just say the word and I’ll put another image in your head. I think you’ll like that one a whole lot better. I can even do the other voice again,” she went on, her tone shifting back into Southern Belle mode, and he had to take a breath at that. She laughed. “I’m going to have to remember that trick,” she carried on, before he leaned in to kiss her.

For a time, they just stood there, lightly swaying along, caught up in their kiss, in contact, and warmth, and he was very nearly to the point where he got to wonder if his parents were still downstairs and if they would even hear…

There was a knock at the door, and they sprang apart so fast that he nearly toppled over his bag, would have done, too, if Maya hadn’t just as quickly reached out and stopped him. They looked at each other like they were ready to burst out laughing, before a second knock reminded them that someone was just outside.

“Yes?” Lucas called.

“Can I come in?” Pappy Joe’s voice sounded from out in the hall, so Lucas went to open the door. “Evening,” his grandfather nodded to him. “Maya,” he nodded to her, too. “Sorry I wasn’t there at dinner.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Lucas insisted, wondering if his grandfather could tell what they’d been up… almost up to.

“Well, I’m taking you kids out to breakfast tomorrow morning, how’s that sound?”

“Sounds great, sir,” Maya told him, and Lucas could only nod in agreement.

“Good, alright, see you in the morning then,” Pappy Joe clapped him on the shoulder, and he could swear he passed his grandson a look that said he _did_ know, though he didn’t say a word and simply moved on toward the stairs. Lucas watched him go, couldn’t help it, not after that fall he’d had.

Once he was securely down the steps, the door could be shut again. As he stood there, Lucas felt those arms close around his waist now, her head laid against his back even as she trailed her fingers along his stomach, making circles and lines while he could only stand there, trying to pretend like it didn’t tickle or anything.

“Maybe we could sleep at the house out there while we’re here,” she joked, and it took him a moment to know which house she meant. Pappy Joe’s house… _his_ house… maybe _their_ house, someday… “Bit more privacy… Then again, your mother would probably try and move in if we deprived her of getting to look after her sweet boy,” she went on, smiling, he could just feel it.

“Yeah, we can’t have that,” he agreed, turning himself in her arms until he could see her face. “So, I guess we’re stuck here,” he whispered, just before scooping her up in his arms, looking at her trying to bite back a squeal as he carried her to the bed.

TO BE CONTINUED


	60. Their Time With Her People

Whenever she’d found herself spending the night at the Friar house, since both she and Lucas had left their parents’ homes, Maya would reach this moment where she wouldn’t be sure how to behave. She had been an early riser for many years, and that was always fine, except on those times when she was at somebody else’s house in the morning. At sleepovers, she would creep out of her friend’s room or wherever they’d been sleeping, and she would look at pictures on their walls, or browse through their books, or movies, or music… until other people were awake, too.

Here, at his parents’ house… She would just lie there, wide awake, and it would make her grow restless, but she just didn’t see herself sneaking around past this room. But then, once, she’d heard the tiny scratching sounds she knew would be the dog, Dash, just outside the door, so she’d gone and collected her before taking her downstairs, the better not to wake Lucas. And when she’d gone to the kitchen, to see about the status of the dog’s food and water, there was Melinda Friar. It was hardly a surprise, if she thought about it. Of course, _she’d_ be an early riser, too.

And from that time, she hadn’t been so anxious anymore about leaving the room when she was awake. She would end up in the kitchen, and she’d have some good conversations with her boyfriend’s mother. It would just be something between the two of them, and she kind of liked that. Sometimes she’d pitch in for breakfast preparation, though today that wouldn’t be the case, seeing as they were all going out, to be treated by Pappy Joe.

“It’s just you and me and three generations of Friar men, we have to stick together,” Melinda whispered to her conspiratorially, and Maya had to bite back her laugh as the first of those ‘Friar men’ came down to join them. The father came first, then the son, and then the grandfather.

They went to Ma Maggie’s that morning, and oh, it was always so wonderful to be back here. They were welcomed with such joy, as known as they were to the staff. As much as they all loved going to the Nook, it was never the same as here.

After they left the restaurant, the Friars went on their way, while Maya and Lucas went on their own way, back to the Hunter Hart house.

“You know, we could offer to watch your brother and sisters tonight, so your parents can have a night out or something,” Lucas suggested as they walked on down the street. When she let out a small laugh, he gave the hand he held a jostle. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing, I just think it’s sweet of you to offer,” she insisted. “And it’s a good idea, so I’m in if you are. Fair warning though, if nine months from now I have another sibling, it’s all on you.”

When they arrived at the house and told Shawn and Katy about Lucas’ idea, it was received with an immediate agreement. They even took it one step further. Before they knew it, they’d gone from looking after the kids for a few hours to a few days. As they told it, they’d been wanting to travel out to Philadelphia to visit some people, but the prospect of travelling with three children under the age of three had loosened their determination to actually go. But now, if the two of them were up for it…

Maya stole a quick look to Lucas, to see how he might feel about committing to something like that. They’d gotten skilled enough at reading one another that she could confidently turn back to her parents and tell them they had a deal. While her parents started looking into flights and accommodations, Maya took Lucas upstairs to check in on Nellie, Gracie, and MJ.

“Look at us with our wild spring break… babysitting,” she turned to him, giving him her best ‘wild’ face. When he gave her one to match, she snorted and laughed. “You’re really okay with this though?”

“Absolutely,” he assured her. “Couldn’t imagine a better use of our time off.” Knowing that he really meant it, she could only stall him on the steps and kiss him quick. “Look at that, we’re the same height,” he grinned.

“Look at that, you were doing so well,” she ‘squinted’ at him, just as the twins emerged from their room, having finally caught to the fact that they were here. “Ladies!” Maya hollered, as she sped up the rest of the way, holding out her hands for some clumsy high fives. “Guess what,” she crouched to be at their eye level. “We’re gonna spend the next few days together, just the two of you and the two of us and MJ and the dogs,” she whispered, like this was a big deal. The way she saw it, it would make the prospect of their parents being gone a lot easier to take if they thought it was a special treat for them.

“Uh,” Lucas spoke up, while the twins were animatedly showing their joy for what their big sister had just told them. Maya looked back to him, seeing the look on his face which seemed to say ‘I just remembered something.’ She asked what it was with a tip of her head. “We’re supposed to be staying with my parents, remember? It’s their turn.”

Maya closed her eyes. It _was_ their turn. But they couldn’t back out of what they’d promised her parents either, not when they were already preparing, and…

“You don’t suppose your family would be interested to have a few more guests?” she casually asked, closing her arms around her sisters for effect. “They’re real small, so they won’t take up that much space… even if it’s like we’re moving whenever they go anywhere,” she amended, thinking of MJ and everything he would need.

“Well…” Lucas thought aloud, coming up toward the heap of sisters and crouching near them. “How do you think my mother will feel about playing host to a couple of kids and a baby? One of the only things that ranks up there with hospitality… And then my dad, and Pappy Joe, well…” He definitely had a point there, and it made her smile as she turned back to her sisters.

“Right, change of plans. We’re going to have our own vacation… at the Friar house,” she told them, and whether or not they understood what it all meant, they were excited, and that was all that mattered.

It might have seemed like they were getting ahead of themselves, making these decisions on their own, but they knew enough to make those decisions with confidence. There was no doubt that the Friars would be up for this, and one call from Lucas confirmed it. Meanwhile, her parents were close enough to _his_ parents to greet this adjustment to the plans with immediate consent.

The next couple of hours became all about getting everyone ready to go. Shawn and Katy had booked a flight and needed to be off to the airport by two. They would take a cab, leaving the minivan to Lucas and Maya, the better to transport baby MJ, the twins, the dogs, and all associated luggage. Just gathering all these things, packing bags and collecting all the things they would need, short of packing a crib, was proving to be busy work. Every so often, Shawn or Katy would come away from where they were packing for _their_ trip, with something they wanted to make sure Maya and Lucas wouldn’t forget, explaining specifically why it was important that they didn’t forget it.

“Here are the duckies for their bath, just make sure…” Shawn came in, with a netted bag containing five plastic ducks of varying sizes and colors.

“… to squeeze out the water when we’re done, I know,” Maya laughed. “You know we’re just a few minutes away if we miss anything? I have the keys,” she whispered.

“Right… No, of course…” Shawn blinked, like hearing himself back was making him want to shake his head at himself. He looked down, and Maya looked, too, finding Gracie had come up next to her and was now poking at the ducks in the bag dangling from her big sister’s hand. Looking back up to her father, Maya knew where this all came from, him and her mother both. They had never been away from the twins for days at a time. They were as concerned for how the two of them would deal with this as how they themselves would fare, being away from their kids.

Once her father returned to his own packing, Maya handed the bag of ducks to Gracie and indicated for her to bring them to Lucas to be packed along with the rest. Her little Mouse-Mouse happily scampered off to do just that, joining her twin, presently attempting to mimic Lucas as he sat there, folding clothing. She wasn’t exactly succeeding, but they had to hand it to her: Nellie Hunter was no quitter, and she didn’t get frustrated. She just kept trying.

“I think – and I know I said this before, but it feels real this time – we have everything we need,” Maya finally announced, letting out a satisfied breath, as she followed Lucas down the stairs. He had the last of the bags, and she had her brother, who’d just woken up from his nap, with no awareness of all the running around which had been going on while he’d slept. He was just clinging to his big sister, equally clueless to how happy he could make her by simply showing such ease and attachment to her, despite how little they actually got to see one another.

“We walked through every room about six times, if we _don’t_ have it all…” Lucas breathed out, setting the bags down and looking at the collected heap. It was a lot. “Maybe it’d just be easier to have them come to us?” he turned back to her, looking spent.

“No way, we’re not unpacking all that again,” Maya shook her head. “Well… we will… over there… and then we’ll have to pack it all up again when we come back… and unpack it again…” the thoughts trailed and expanded from her, and he gave her a look as though to say ‘see, maybe not such a bad idea after all.’ “But,” she came up with her rebuttal, “Your mother’s been expecting us for the last few hours, imagine what _she’s_ been up to all this time. You really want to make that be for nothing? And you don’t want to see what ‘ _that’_ looks like?” she asked, challenging him. He considered this for a moment, then wordlessly picked up the first load to take to the minivan. “Yeah,” she whispered with a victorious grin, looking down to MJ in her arms. “We got him,” she told her baby brother, kissing the top of his head.

Soon, all the packing and preparing was dealt with, and the cab was on its way to pick up Shawn and Katy. The two of them were now going through the process of saying goodbye to their kids, all the while adding reminders of things that needed to be done, things that shouldn’t be done…

“We got it, we got it,” Maya promised them.

“Cab’s here,” Lucas called from the window.

“Right, you crazy kids have fun out there, but not too much fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t… No, scratch that, don’t do anything _he_ wouldn’t do,” Maya nodded to her boyfriend. Lucas looked back at her, like he was trying to decide if he should feel insulted or not. “See you on Friday!”

TO BE CONTINUED


	61. Their Time With the Old

The departure of Shawn and Katy, which led to Maya and Lucas being left in charge of the twins and MJ, had eaten up most of their day on Saturday. Once the parents were gone and all the kids’ things had been loaded into the minivan, they drove off to the Friar house to get everyone settled in. As was to be expected, the whole thing was a giant hit.

The twins crowded around Pappy Joe at once, as though they could just sense the ex-Santa spirit wafting off of him. The old man welcomed this attention in stride, a great, boundless smile on his face as he and the little ones got to chatting. In the meantime, Melinda Friar had eyes for Matthew Jonathan Hunter alone, taking him off Maya’s hands almost as soon as they’d arrived and melting into cooing baby talk, which the babe seemed to appreciate. It was not lost on Maya, as she watched them, that this woman would be her children’s grandmother someday…

While her siblings were now in capable – and highly motivated – hands, she joined Lucas and his father in the unloading of the minivan. As expected, the last few hours had not been spent idly here either. When they went up to the room, they found something that genuinely caught them by surprise. There was a crib, sitting in the corner of the room, assembled and ready, with bedding and everything, the scent telling them it had just been cleaned.

“Did she buy this?” Maya whispered, with the tiniest bit of confused panic in her voice.

“No, I’m pretty sure that was mine…” Lucas replied in much the same tone, though with the added confusion of having to wonder where it could possibly have come from. He had lived in this house for the better part of his life, he would have known if it was here, unless… “I think they got it out of storage.” They both approached the thing like they were just the tiniest bit mystified by its presence.

“Is it still secure? I mean it hasn’t been used in a long time,” she asked, touching the top of it.

“They must have checked, or else they wouldn’t have done it all up like that,” he pointed out, and he had a point. So, that was settled. MJ had his place to sleep, and as for the girls, well they could stay in the big bed with them, as they’d done in the past.

“So… you slept in here,” she turned an amused grin at him now. “Little Hucklebaby…” she crooned. He laughed, nodded. “And were these your sheets? With the little ducks?” she went on, planting her elbow on top of the rail and her face in her palm as she looked at him.

“Hey, don’t shame me for my ducks,” he joked, making her laugh.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

They didn’t lament the change to their plans all that much. Technically, their plans were a lot as they would have been before. Yes, they would have been here and Maya’s siblings would have been at their house, but they would have visited, would have seen each other most every day anyway. Now though, it felt like more of a responsibility to look after them, much as they were sure they would have found highly motivated babysitters at the Friar house. And they were okay with that. For the next seven days, Nellie, Gracie, MJ, they were all theirs to look after and care for, and that was what they’d do.

This started the following day, when they made their way to their old high school. It had been the plan from the start, for them to attend this double game day and cheer on their old teams and old teammates, those who were still there from the previous year and the new ones who’d come along to fill the spots of those, like them, who’d graduated and moved on. Riley, Sophie, and Dylan were also there, and when they saw the two of them, Lucas walking the twins along and holding each of them by the hand while Maya had MJ strapped to her front, they had to pause and explain themselves.

“You guys look like quite the little family,” Sophie declared with an amused grin, even as the twins sprinted off, Gracie toward Riley, and Nellie practically flying into Dylan’s arms. “Are you babysitting?”

“You could say that,” Maya replied before hushing MJ as he started to fuss. They explained the situation, Shawn and Katy’s departure the previous day, leaving them in charge of the kids. “But we’ve got this covered, yeah?” she looked to Lucas.

“Oh, yeah,” he agreed, straightening the bag on his shoulder. He and Maya had made something of a ‘playful’ wager to see how many of their former classmates and teachers would see them today and assume MJ was theirs.

“Hope it’s not too loud for him in there,” Maya frowned as they made their way into the school and toward the gym. It wasn’t the first time they’d come back, wasn’t the first game they’d attended, and still every time it left them feeling this twinge of nostalgia to be back.

“We got a couple options for that,” Lucas reminded her, patting the bag which, along with diapers and wipes and any number of other things they might need for MJ while they were out here, contained headphones, earmuffs, anything they might have been able to safely put on the three-month-old boy. “And if it gets to be too bad, we can alternate, one of us steps out of the gym for a while and then we switch.”

“Thought of everything, huh?” she asked, smirking.

“I do what I can,” he smirked back.

The girls were first to play that day, and as they reached the gym, Maya spotted her former coach on the court, running the team through warm-up. Every time she was here, seeing them, it brought back all these memories, and though she was content with every part of her life out in Houston, and she didn’t regret not carrying on with basketball in this capacity… she did really miss it.

The first to spot her was the girls’ new captain, Keilani Avelino, and though they remained focused on finishing their warm-up, Maya could see the news of her presence fly from one girl to the next as they ran along. Every time one of them would be told, they’d look in her direction and smile and wave. Even the new players did so, some of them for having seen her and Sophie and the guys play, others for knowing her music, with the band.

“Wait, that’s Franny and Kayla’s old team, isn’t it?” Riley asked, pointing to the other group of girls now warming up.

“It is!” Maya grinned. “Oh, now this is going to be a _game_!” she declared, only to melt at once into soothing tones again, when MJ looked on the verge of breaking into wailing cries. The kid had some lungs on him. Shawn had taken to claim that he was sure she must have heard him all the way in Houston.

The second the team was released from warm-ups, they waved Maya, Sophie, and Riley over, crowding around them and most of all crowding around baby MJ. At least _they_ knew this was her brother, as she’d told them on previous visits about her mother expecting him, and then showed them pictures after he’d been born. Now though, she had the genuine article, in the flesh and overflowing with cuteness, and they were here for it.

They finally took to the stands, where it wasn’t long before they went to fish out some form of noise dampening from the bag, settling one on the boy’s head that seemed to do the job. In no time, he was snoozing peacefully, even as the game started. If it hadn’t been for their old team being on one end of the court, they would have thrown sympathetic support to Franny and Kayla’s old team, but that wasn’t the case. They poured every ounce of support they had in them toward Keilani and the others. By the end, it came down to a single point, but they won.

They went off to lunch, talking the game over as they would have done back in the day, before making their way back to the gym for the boys’ turn. This one came with a bit of mixed feelings.

For Lucas and Dylan, it was just great to see their old teammates, and the new guys, too, but then there was Riley… and Scott Shelby, the team captain and her former boyfriend.

Much as they had mended a lot of the hurt that had followed their break-up, the two of them had never really managed to keep things going the way they’d been before, as far as their friendship went. And then, once she’d gone off to Houston, and they didn’t have so many, if any, chances to see one another, well… it had turned a gap into a sink hole, and neither of them could recover from it, which left any encounter between the two of them to turn instantly awkward. And because they were her closest friends, both Maya and Sophie backed up this stance, much as they had no issue with Scott in any way.

“That was so…” Sophie whispered, after they’d all gone up to say hello to the guys.

“I know…” Maya whispered back.

They moved up into the stands again, careful to get the twins up there without incident. Once there, they planted Nellie in ‘Auntie Riley’s’ lap, allowing the sunny girl to give of her energy to perk up the frowning brunette who held her, while Gracie sat in Lucas’ lap and leaned to him like she wasn’t enjoying the loudness any more than her little brother did but decided that so long as she was like this she could stomach it.

Once the game started, the three of them holding one of the young Hunters were once again caught in different modes of tending their charge while taking in the game. Riley couldn’t have had a better partner, as Nellie had her same energy when it came to watching sports, and whatever Riley would shout, Nellie would replicate with a proud grin on her little face. Lucas managed to keep track of the game, though he spent much of the time doing what he could to cheer up Gracie, either telling her about the game (she liked learning how things worked) or making voices as though he was one player or another. That would make her laugh, always. Maya, for her part, kept a close eye on her brother as he drifted in and out of sleep. She excused herself once, as she’d had to do during the girls’ game, to go and change him. It was good to get him unstrapped from her for a few minutes, too.

She was back in time to see the boys win their game, making the day a double victory, something they would always strive to achieve on days like these. All of them who’d been part of the team – officially or not – knew how all of them would be feeling now, the joy and the exhilaration, and they were really glad they’d been here to see it all.

“So, how many was it?” Pappy Joe asked them that night, chuckling, when they told him about the games, but more importantly about their wager.

“Eleven that we saw,” Lucas reported of the looks and the outright questions put to Maya and him about MJ and whether he was theirs. “Couple of them, I think she wanted to just say yes, to see how they’d react,” he tipped his head to Maya.

“And who won?”

“He said less than ten, I said more than ten,” Maya revealed. “Now he owes me… I haven’t decided what I’ll collect.” She was going to hold on to this, yes, until the right opportunity came to cash in her victory…

TO BE CONTINUED


	62. Their Time With the Distant

Long after they would be back in Houston the following week, it would be difficult, near impossible really, for them not to look back on this time where they’d been looking after the Hunter kids as ‘a glimpse into the future.’

Sunday morning, Lucas awoke to some confusion as to his situation. He was lying on his stomach, but it felt as though he was pressed beneath something heavy, squeezed into a space, like he’d been snuggly fit into a tunnel. It took him a moment – and the opening of his eyes – to understand that wasn’t the case. Instead, he found one small girl – Gracie, he could guess without seeing her face or anything – who had rolled fully into his side as she slept. As to his back, one little hand set on his upper arm made him understand that – somehow – Nellie was using his back for a mattress.

“Maya?” he whispered, as he could neither move nor see her.

He had kept his voice very low, so she might not have heard him. Either that, or she was too focused on what she was doing. A few seconds after his failed call, as he was about to try again, he heard her, humming low, a soft sort of lullaby. Turning his head just so, he was finally able to spot her, standing in the middle of the room with her little brother cradled in her arms. He could just see MJ’s arm, reaching toward her face, which told him the babe was awake and at peace, looking to his big sister.

There was nothing to be done for it, not unless he intended to disrupt this moment, which he didn’t. Instead, he just lay there, trapped next to and beneath a couple of toddlers, watching and listening, until finally Maya took her eyes from her brother long enough to spot him there, looking back at her. She was just momentarily startled, and then she took in _his_ situation and bit back a laugh at once.

“Okay, back you go, bud,” she whispered, taking MJ back to the borrowed crib. Once she’d set him down, she came back to the bed, inspecting the scene for a moment before finding her course of action. First, she pried Nellie off of him, which was a relief. She held the girl in her arms as she moved around the bed and came to sit there again. While she kept one sister close with one arm, she reached out the other, sliding it under Gracie until she could just pull her back, allowing Lucas to sit up. When this disruption was met with whimpering, he reached down and pulled the sleeping twin into his arms.

“Thanks,” he looked to Maya with a smile as she closed both arms around Nellie now, leaning her cheek to the top of the girl’s head. Both girls were sleeping contently against those who held them, and that was the image that would stay with the both of them, just as seeing Maya and MJ would stay with him, just as seeing Lucas with the twins would stay with her. They said nothing, but it was just there. The future kept knocking at their door, and the more it did…

Finding themselves left with the care of Maya’s siblings had changed a lot of their plans, though never in such a way that it appeared as an inconvenience. It was different, not bad. For instance, today…

It had been planned that they would all be going to the airport, all five of them, to greet the group coming out of New York and Boston, to spend _their_ spring break at home or visiting in Austin, too. But they had committed themselves not to pass the kids on to Lucas’ parents, as much as they would have gladly taken on the task. Wherever they went, the twins and MJ would go, too, and taking those three all the way to the airport and back, no matter how much they wanted to be there to see their friends… It wasn’t going to happen. So, they stayed at the house, dedicating themselves instead to helping set up something of a ‘welcome back’ party instigated – as might have been expected – by Melinda Friar.

The twins were running around in the yard, chasing after Dash, Ghost, Tuck, and Queen. Pappy Joe had MJ in his arms and was regaling the small boy with story after story. Whether or not he could understand what he was being told, he at least looked downright enthralled by the man speaking to him, so there was that. In the meantime, Lucas, Maya, and Tom Friar were being directed by The Hostess in setting up the folding tables they’d retrieved from the basement. Then there were chairs, and tablecloths, and ‘the garden service’ of plates and utensils and cups and whatnot. And there was the food… so much food…

“They’re here, hey,” Maya sprinted to Lucas, as he attempted to wrangle the great parasol his mother had asked him to install. “Here,” she quickly helped him to set the thing in place, and as soon as it was open and steady, the two of them moved around the side of the house, arriving out front just in time to see the cars pull up, two of them.

The next few minutes were a blur, as the doors opened and from the vehicles came Riley, Sophie, and Dylan, of course, but then also Zay and Nadine, Farkle and Isadora, Asher and Ray, Joey and Rebecca… It was a frenzy of reunion, and talking about their flight – which they’d only taken today, to allow for a joint trip, once those of them who couldn’t get out of work over the weekend were in the clear – and asking how everyone was doing…

“We better head back into the yard before my mother comes looking for us,” Lucas pointed out, and there was a rumble of stifled laughs as they went.

Here again, there were several minutes of greetings and conversations, and the effect as a whole was some variation on the scene earlier with Maya and Lucas and the kids. It just reminded them how much they were all growing up… grown up, really. They were all living on their own and doing well in that respect, and they were soon to be one year down with college, and two of them were married already… They weren’t the same kids they used to be, even though, deep down where it counted, they would always be those kids, especially when they were together. They’d just be older versions of themselves.

“I wrote two songs on the plane,” Isadora announced, like it was the most natural thing for a person to do, even as the rest of the band, past and present, stared at her in awe.

“ _That’s_ what you were doing,” Nadine realized aloud, like she couldn’t believe she hadn’t figured as much before.

“I still need to polish them a bit… a lot, maybe.”

“You can take your time, we do have a load of new stuff going around right now,” Maya pointed out, though she couldn’t hide her curiosity over these new songs any more than the others could. “So, in the meantime… how’s married life?” The other girls looked just as interested to hear from Isadora on the subject. As much as they didn’t mean to, it was just difficult not to be… invested… in hearing from the first of them to take that step.

“It’s fine,” Isadora looked at all of them, the way they just stared at her. “We’re still us,” she reminded them. “We have been discussing our plans though. We know we want to look into getting our own place, but we’re still in school, and it’s going to be a while before that’s done, and we don’t know where we’ll end up after that…” There was a wave of nods from several of the other girls, which suggested that they – within their own couples – had been having similar thoughts and discussions. Only Riley, of them, couldn’t say as much.

“Uh, do they know what they’re doing?” Rebecca inquired all of a sudden, pointing across the yard. The girls turned and saw what she’d seen. Dylan and Asher had hoisted up the Hunter twins on to their shoulders and appeared to be revving up for a race. Asher had a very eager looking Nellie clamped to him, while Dylan had a somewhat less certain looking Gracie holding on for dear life. Maya knew the shy twin wouldn’t have even allowed herself to be put up there if she didn’t actually want to do it, though that didn’t prevent her from being spooked deep at the prospect.

“Oh, yeah, they’re old pros, trust me, they used to do this with my sisters all the time,” Nadine chuckled.

Across the yard, where he’d been talking away with Zay and Farkle, Lucas was also watching the race about to launch, and he was discovering something like uncertainty in him. Normally, he might have been fine, and he knew, just as well as Nadine did, that they had done this again and again, but… They’d been given this responsibility, to look after them, and what if something went wrong, what if…

“Go, go!” Nellie shouted, and the race was on, both ‘passengers’ hollering as their ‘horses’ started a weaving circuit of the Friars’ yard, though their tones sounded very different, one excited, one fearful. The longer it went on however, the more the tones evened out and settled into equal giddiness.

They had all been very lucky in a sense. Despite their being scattered to the winds… or to three different states, at least… they had all still managed to stay very much in touch, and to see one another already a few times. There were still no plans set for the summer, but they had to figure they’d see one another again at some point during this next, longer break they would have. They’d still have their lives, in Houston, in New York, in Boston, still have jobs they couldn’t just abandon because they were on holiday. But the possibility would be there, and that’d be something.

“So, you guys are in for next year?” Lucas asked Ray and Zay as they watched the race.

“The great basketball beach reunion? Absolutely,” Ray declared, with something between a handshake and a fist bump. “Asher saw Maya’s message and he looked like he was already figuring out a training schedule so we’ll be ready to ‘claim victory.’”

“He’s not wrong,” Zay chimed in. “We’ll probably need that year to figure out how to win against them,” he nodded to the pack of girls, even though not all of them had been part of that team they were looking to pull back together.

“Not wrong,” Lucas echoed, though with a smirk to himself. There had never been any sort of animosity in the rivalry between the girls’ and boys’ teams, only playful shots, and that had been part of what made them work as well as they did, part of what had made them strive so hard to get them back together when the school had disbanded them. It was all talk, because underneath it all they would always support one another, always recognize talent and skill. The girls’ team had more of it, and that was just the truth.

“At least they’re getting a good work out from this,” Zay commented, as the race finally ended in a (clearly orchestrated) dead heat tie. As exhausted as they were, Dylan and Asher pulled the excited girls from their shoulders, holding them aloft like the winners they were, while the rest of their friends happily cheered them on.

TO BE CONTINUED


	63. Their Time With Peace

The days that followed, of him and her looking after the twins and MJ as they awaited Shawn & Katy’s return, had all come and gone, all of them feeling as though they started with anticipation and ended with satisfaction. When they had taken on the task, all Maya and Lucas had wanted was for her parents to have a good time away on their vacation and for the kids to have a great week, too, despite their parents’ absence. The way they saw it, if they could accomplish all that, well then, their own week would have been fantastic, too. And it was.

Tuesday was spent at the Zvolensky house, all of the visiting friends uniting here along with Lucas and Maya and her siblings. The twins had never seen the place, and to see their stunned little faces, as they took in the grandeur of it, was about as sweet as one could imagine. They got to go in to the pool, here monitored with great attention, no matter how well they already fared in the water, Gracie especially. Meanwhile, all Nellie cared to do was to get towed through the water on Lucas’ back, her giggles echoing off the walls of the interior pool.

While all of them were down there, MJ was left in the care of Sophie’s mother. To see the woman walking about with the infant in her arms, knowing the more difficult periods Sophie had experienced with her in recent years, they could sort of see how things may have been, back in the days when Diana Zvolensky had been a new mother.

After their time in the pool, the group relocated to the home theater – another big hit with the twins – where they fished out some old favorites and played movies they had loved growing up, the better to ‘expand the horizon’ of the girls’ cinematic knowledge. When they proved to have already seen the one that he chose, Zay came up to them with curiosity, soon to be confirmed in the fact that they really had seen it. Before long, he was calling back his favorite parts with them. They could only really nod and say a few words, but that was good enough for him.

The day ended with both girls curled up together on one of the comfy seats, sleeping soundly. Sophie offered for them to stay the night, but Maya knew from some chats with her mother over the past few months that the girls did not do well in waking up somewhere unfamiliar, so they were better off going back to the Friar house, where they had been many times, sometimes with Katy alone or Katy and Shawn together, when they had gone to visit one or both of Lucas’ parents.

The drive was a bit longer than planned. They’d almost reached the house when Nellie started to wake up.

“Keep driving,” Maya whispered to Lucas, and so he did.

They ended up circling the block four times, as one or the other of the three sleeping children would start to fuss whenever they came close. After the second turn, Lucas’ phone – kept by Maya while he drove – gave a buzz. His father was texting, asking what they were up to. Maya explained, and that was that. Finally, they came to a stop and were able to start carrying everyone into the house. Tom Friar came from the house, providing the third pair of arms required to get Nellie, Gracie, and MJ inside and up to Lucas’ old room.

The next day, Wednesday, as they’d already told their friends the night before, they had decided to spend quietly, just them and her siblings and his family, at the Friar house. As much as it was also about giving Shawn and Katy the chance to be away and unwind for a few days, the point of their even being in Austin this week instead of off on some beach somewhere, had been to get to spend time with these people here with them. So while they would see their friends again the next day and a few more after that, so long as they were all in the same city… Today was for family.

It started with chaos.

There was no telling which of them woke first, as both Maya and Lucas jumped out of sleep, startled awake by the piercing wail of MJ in his crib.

“Got him, got him,” Maya managed to untangle herself from the vice grip of Nellie, even as both she and Gracie started to wake, before scrambling over to pick up her brother. “Hey bud, what’s the matter?” she hushed at once, holding him close, hoping he would soon calm down, before…

Her father called it dominos, when one of the three started to cry and eventually the distress it represented just went and knocked the next one to feel it and start to cry, too, and then the last one, never to be left as the odd one out…

They hit dominos that morning, as MJ’s continuing cries first pulled Gracie in, and then Nellie was not long to follow right along with her, until the room echoed with all their high voices. Lucas was quick to try and comfort the twins while Maya went into overdrive in her attempts to calm her brother. The first step was to open the door. By now, there was hardly any point in hoping that Lucas’ mother, father, and grandfather were still asleep, so they would not be sparing them by keeping the door shut.

Instead, opening it would allow passage for what she could only hope would make swift work of giving the twins something to focus on enough that they’d stop crying. She’d barely opened the door that, as promised, the dogs came rushing in, all of them looking hyper from the sound of all the wailing cries. A couple of them crowded around her feet, while the others went climbing on the bed.

“I’m going to take him somewhere else, okay?” Maya called to Lucas, who looked just a bit frazzled by all of it but still managed to nod, understanding what she was trying to do.

“Everything alright?” she crossed Tom Friar, standing at the door to his and Melinda’s room.

“Fine, no sweat,” she promised, even though her head was rushing. She took MJ downstairs, Queen and Ghost on her heels like canine proxies of the people they’d been named for. “A little morning surprise, huh? Is that what’s got you all worked up?” Now that her brain wasn’t overloaded with her siblings’ wailing and her own startled heart, she could finally focus on MJ, and more importantly on the smell, giving her all the hints that she could need as to what she’d find in his diaper.

So, she took him into the bathroom, where she was so glad to have stashed some of the diaper things ‘just in case,’ and she set herself to getting him cleaned and changed, singing to him all the while, the better to soothe him… and to distract herself from the diaper in need of immediate disposal.

“See, we’ve got this, yeah?” she told him as she was finishing up. “We’ve got MP, and we’ve got MJ, and more importantly, we have… a smile?” she gave one of her own as she saw the one on his face. “All better, bud,” she pulled him back into her arms, planting kisses on his cheek as she took him out of the bathroom, taking a breath as she felt him calm again, and as she realized the house was quiet again. Actually, not quiet. She could hear her sisters laughing upstairs. She stayed down here a minute more though, enjoying this moment with her brother before relinquishing him into what arms would have him while she went back to deal with the mess left in the bathroom.

After that four-alarm wake up call, the rest of the day was the whole opposite of chaos. Morning disappeared into a session of hide and seek, and stories, and games. When it got to be nap time and everything stopped, Maya and Lucas found themselves sitting on the floor outside his room, the shut door at their backs.

“I’m going to need five showers to get the scent off me,” Maya frowned, catching a whiff on the air. Lucas said nothing, only put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close enough that he could kiss the top of her head. She smiled, looking up at him. “Thank you.”

“For the kiss?” he asked.

“Well, that, yes,” she chuckled lightly. “But for the rest, too. Everything this morning, and the last few days… Thank you for being who you are so much that I didn’t even have to think about it. I knew you’d have my back.”

“It goes like this,” he told her, twining his fingers with hers. “You’re my family, which makes them mine, too.”

Wednesday soon became Thursday, and Thursday was to be spent at the park, where Maya and Lucas (and the Hunter kids) went to join their friends at the basketball hoops. As it had come to be known between them, sooner or later they’d end up with a ball in hand, facing off in a game or a shoot off. In this case, it was a bit of both, with three groups coming together to form one team, and another, and an audience to watch the game… and the kids.

After the game, they started on their way down to the diner for lunch, already talking about returning to see who would reign the shoot off this time. They were greeted by Asher and Joey’s uncle, who jovially welcomed his nephews, and his former employees, and the rest of his visiting patrons of old. The twins were just as happy to see him, as they would often come here with their parents.

“I’ve got the new CDs, see?” he pointed to the counter. “Can’t keep them long,” he revealed proudly, as Maya and the others of the band received this news with great smiles.

After lunch, they had the promised shoot off, back at the park. Both Maya and Lucas held steady and could possibly have made it to the final two still in contention. But Lucas had already noticed the twins seemed to be getting restless, and when he quietly pointed this out to her, Maya looked back to him, and a silent decision took place between them. The next time each of them had their turn, they ‘inexplicably’ missed, eliminating them both.

“We’re going to head to the playground,” Maya told the others, picking Nellie up as Lucas got Gracie.

“I’ll come with you,” Isadora got up from where she sat at Farkle’s side. “I can push the stroller,” she nodded to where MJ was napping along.

So, they went off across the park, to the playground, where the twins were released, soon taking off like rockets, while Lucas stayed close to them. Maya wanted to join him, knowing that in a setting like this it was better to have one watcher for each of her sisters, but she also hesitated to leave Isadora alone to deal with MJ, even if she _had_ volunteered and he _was_ sleeping. Her friend seemed to sense this, as she quickly went on to explain.

“I’d like to watch him for a while, if that’s alright. I’ve never really spent much time around babies… by choice… but I thought that maybe I should try it now.” Maya stared at her for a moment. What was she saying? Was she…

“Sm… Isadora? You’re not…” she slowly asked, and the girl sat up.

“I’m not what?” she asked, then, “Oh… Oh, no, I’m not.” Maya breathed out. “The thing is, before we came down to Texas, we had dinner with my parents and Farkle’s parents, and they were talking about things, about our future, and well… I started to ask myself…” She paused here, looking at the sleeping babe in his stroller, and whatever she was thinking, she didn’t look ready to go into it, so Maya didn’t nudge. Instead, she agreed to leave her brother with her friend before jogging off to join Lucas on twin watch.

When Friday morning rolled around, the Friar house was once again up bright and early, although this time with much less crying and diaper stink. Shawn and Katy were flying home today, in just a few hours actually, and they all knew it, the twins especially. Much as they were happy for their own ‘vacation’ with Maya and Lucas and his family, the prospect of their parents coming home was one which made them both very giddy.

In order to occupy them, Maya and Lucas had planned out a solid morning. First, they went with the twins and MJ down to Ma Maggie’s for breakfast. Maya kind of liked the idea of them growing up and having this place be a part of their memories for as long as they had memories to hold. After that, they went to the mall, where they spent a good while picking out a couple things for the girls and MJ, clothes and toys and a few new books.

“I know I don’t have to, and maybe I shouldn’t, but I wanted to, so…” Maya told Lucas, that night, the first one they’d spent all week without two toddlers planting a barrier between them and preventing them from spooning, as they thought back on the day.

“You and me both,” he reminded, as he’d also pitched in on the small spree.

After leaving the mall, MJ was asleep and the twins were glued to a couple of the books they’d bought, looking at the covers mostly, so that they didn’t see they were on their way to their own house until the car came to a stop and there was a knock at the minivan’s window. When they looked up, they discovered their father staring back at them with a smile. Soon, they were released from their seats, the better to hug tight to both their mother and father in turn.

Both Katy and Shawn expressed deep gratitude to their daughter and her boyfriend for all they’d done over the past week, both of them looking good and relaxed, as much as they looked plainly relieved to be home and to see their children again…

“I’m really glad we came home this week,” Maya breathed as Lucas held her that night.

“Yeah?” he asked, sensing there was more to the statement.

“Yeah…” she replied, smiling to herself, thinking how bright the future looked.

TO BE CONTINUED


	64. Their Year in Independence

They drove back to Houston on Saturday. It didn’t leave much time at all for Maya to spend with her parents in the whole of their break, but in two weeks’ time they would make the drive up to visit them, so that’d be something to make up for it in part. And besides, the way she saw it, she had gone without seeing them, sure, but for a good cause. She could deal with that.

As was the case on previous treks to and from Austin, the five of them roommates would find there was a very specific kind of joy they experienced in their being together again, on their way home. It balanced out any sadness they might have had for leaving their families behind so well that they hardly felt the shift. They weren’t so much sad to leave them now, more so glad that they’d gotten to see them, and now… now they were going home.

“We’re going to need food,” Sophie reminded them as they neared the house. There was no need to ask whether any of them was in the mood for a run to the grocery store after the long drive. Without anyone saying a word it was thus decided that groceries could wait until morning. And when they were about to pass the restaurant where they usually ordered their pizza, Lucas turned a look to Maya, who turned to look at their friends in the back, and by the time she looked back to him, the choice was made.

They sat and stood inside the restaurant a few minutes later, waiting on their order. Even as they were doing this, some texts were coming in and going out on a few of their phones and, as the minutes passed, the lineup of diners started to grow. Rosa would be bringing the dogs home, so naturally Maya invited her to join them. Riley heard from Leona, and soon she invited both her and Bishop to come along.

“We’re going to need another pizza,” Maya told Lucas, who turned and went back to the counter.

“Done,” he told her, when he came back a minute later. She stared up at him now, and the smile on her face made him breathe out and turn once more to go and order _another_ another pizza, which would now bring them to four. Franny and Kayla were back in town, and they all had so much to tell each other, so of course she had to invite them. And then Sophie was texting back and forth with Ellie from the bakery through a lot of the drive, so she had to invite her, too.

“That’s everyone, I swear… Willow’s coming, too, and Lion… But we’ll have enough, right? Four pizzas, and…” she stopped to count in her head and on her fingers. The five of them, and Rosa, and Leona and Bishop, and Franny and Kayla, and Ellie, and Willow and Lion, that made thirteen people, four pizzas… Her face scrunched, hesitant, and Lucas just turned and went to the counter again.

Several minutes later, with a stack of five large pizza boxes split up between the three in the backseat, they were on their way to the house at last.

To no one’s surprise, seeing as she lived just a short walking distance away from their own house, they found Rosa waiting out front, with a very eager looking Trix and Lou, the dogs sitting to attention like they knew their people were coming home now and they couldn’t wait. As soon as the car came into view, they started to bark and try to run at them, so it was just as well that Rosa had kept them on their leashes.

“Hey, girls!” Maya was the first out of the car and walking toward them, and the moment she was near enough they were standing on their back legs, trying to get at her, and she set her hands to working at once on scratching the both of them. “Missed you, too,” she laughed. “Hey, Rosa,” she looked up to her bandmate with a grin. Once she’d managed to disentangle herself from the dogs and their leashes, she pulled the girl into a hug. Rosa hugged her back, and Maya couldn’t help thinking back to when she’d first hugged her new friend. She seemed so surprised, like she’d never had someone, a friend, close enough to her that this would be the response they had upon seeing one another. But she’d hugged back after a beat, because she _did_ want to reciprocate.

“I’m so glad you’re all back!” Rosa told her as they pulled away. When she smiled, she looked so much more her age, in the best way.

Lucas soon found himself holding the stack of pizza boxes, as Riley dashed off to open the door, while Dylan and Sophie set about taking the bags from the car, setting them just inside the door before running back for another load. The pizzas were brought into the kitchen, ready and waiting for their guests as they’d arrive. It was really so good to be back here, in their little kitchen. Not that it was _too_ little. It was exactly as they would want it.

“Still checking?” he asked, spotting Riley standing in the living room, looking about. She turned back to look at him, like someone busted doing something they weren’t supposed to.

“It’s fine,” she insisted, turning to take her bags and bring them upstairs. Leave it to Zay, as usual, to put an idea in their heads. In this case, he’d started going on about the idea that they might return home some day after one of these trips out of town and find signs that their house might have been broken into. Riley had gone a little saucer-eyed at the thought. That was days ago though, and after convincing her _not_ to just drive right back home, they had figured she’d forgotten all about it.

“I’m going to kill him,” Maya frowned, coming in to see Riley headed up the stairs still looking flighty.

“He’s back in Boston now,” Lucas reminded her, smirking.

“I’m going to tell Nadine to kill him, she’ll understand,” she amended.

Before long, the others started to arrive. After having left one large group of friends back in Austin, it felt great to return to Houston to this new group of theirs. They had been fortunate in finding such good friends at every turn, and they would always treat each one of them with that thought in mind.

Bishop and Leona had made a stop for whatever refreshments they might need to go along with the pizza, while Ellie, as ever, came bearing treats from the bakery. Their kitchen table came with an extension, and they had extra chairs, but still it wasn’t enough to cater to all of them there that evening, but it had never even been any kind of an issue. When all the chairs had come to be occupied, others ended up standing, leaning against the counter or sitting on it. Rosa was sat on the ground, feeding the odd bit of pizza to the dogs sitting across her legs.

“So, I heard your old team beat ours,” Franny looked to Maya and Sophie, a smirk on her face.

“One point,” Sophie declared. “It could have just as easily been yours who won… _but…_ ” she trailed off with a winning grin.

_“Rematch, for the honor of our people, two on two,”_ Kayla signed dramatically.

“Maybe later, when we don’t have so much pizza in us,” Maya replied with a laugh.

“How was the trip?” Lucas asked Bishop, the two of them being of those who hadn’t taken a chair.

“It felt good to go back,” Bishop nodded. “And I’m glad I got to show her where I grew up,” he looked to Leona, sitting between Willow and Riley, laughing along with them. His mother had flown him back to France over spring break, and he had invited Leona to come along, insisting that he pay her way. They’d been hearing tidbits over the previous days, but now that they were all back, Lucas couldn’t help but see there were some thoughts working through his friend’s face. Had something gone wrong on the trip? He and Leona didn’t look any less happy together…

“That’s great,” he told Bishop, feeling out for the rest of the statement. Now, the tall boy’s face changed a bit.

“Then I had to come back here, and go back to my father’s house,” Bishop explained, and Lucas let out a breath. Of course… “After being with my mother and my stepfather and siblings, I came back, and it was just him again. Everything I’d been feeling before…” He didn’t say the words, but he didn’t have to. It all felt worse now that he’d been reminded of what he used to have.

“I’m really sorry,” Lucas told him. It wasn’t as though he played any part in this, but he did feel bad for his friend. Bishop shrugged, like he wanted to dismiss it, but it wasn’t so easy to shake off as he might like to. At the table, Lucas could see Leona looking at the two of them, at her boyfriend in particular, and he could see the worry in her brow. She probably knew much more about all of it than he did. “If you ever need a night off from there, you’re welcome to crash here any time.”

“Thank you,” Bishop nodded, his smile carrying what gratitude had flowed beyond his voice. Neither one of them spoke for a minute, listening in to the conversation around the table, which now consisted, for some reason, of Maya and Franny attempting to one-up each other on which of them had the most ridiculous anecdote from their basketball playing days. Lucas couldn’t say how long it had been going on, but by now both of them, and several of the others listening in, were laughing so hard they had difficulty getting words out. He chuckled, and Bishop did, too. “What about _your_ trip?” the boy asked, turning back to him.

“Involved a lot more diapers than I would have expected,” Lucas declared, earning himself a confused look from his friend. He chuckled before explaining about Shawn and Katy’s unplanned vacation and his and Maya’s being left in charge of her young siblings. Bishop nodded now, finally grasping his meaning.

After spending so many days where Nellie, Gracie, and MJ had never been out of sight for very long, it actually felt a little weird not having them there. He didn’t see Nellie running and jumping and climbing all over, asking questions… He didn’t find Gracie trailing after him, or tucked against his side when they all woke up. He didn’t get to make little MJ laugh by doing the silliest and simplest things. And if he missed them like this, he could only imagine how Maya was feeling, now that they were hours away.

It was hard to believe they were nearly one year through with their college days in Houston, one year through their living on their own. But that was always the way. Everything looked so far away when facing forward, but looking back, it was fast, gone in the blink of an eye. Who knew where the next turn would take them? College, and careers, and life… For now, they were just here, packed into their Houston kitchen, talking and laughing and eating with their friends, and there was no need for any of them to blink.

TO BE CONTINUED


	65. Their Year in Tables

When Lucas picked her up from work that night, she got into his car with a smile and the declaration that she’d had a long shift, which he would reply to with a slow nod that could translate into ‘say no more, home it is’ as he pulled the car back into the street and started them on their way to the house. More often than not, the drive would be her time to unwind, to chat away as she was finally able to, now that she wasn’t on the clock anymore, minding this table or that one. Sometimes, she’d be so tired, the combination of school and work, that she’d just sit there in quiet contemplation of the night sky above them. This was one of those nights, so he cranked up the radio and let her have her moment.

He still had some reading to do for class when they got home, and as he settled in to do that, on his side of their joined desks, she stood behind him for a moment, wrapping her arms around him and kissing the back of his head.

“I’ll be downstairs,” she told him, starting to move back, and he stalled her by pressing his hand over hers.

“You can stay,” he insisted. “I might read faster that way,” he smiled back at her. She squinted suspiciously at him, though with a smile all the same.

“You really won’t and we both know it,” she chuckled.

“It was worth a try,” he sighed, and she rewarded this try with a good, slow kiss.

“You’ve got more of that coming once you’re done, how’s that for motivation?” He paused, then gently pried her arms from him.

“Go, I need to read,” he announced, and she laughed, moving to retrieve her sketchbook and pencil before walking out of the room, shutting the door as she went.

Maya headed down the stairs, her ears telling her as she went that Sophie was in the shower, while Riley was on the phone with her brother. Getting down the stairs, she could see Dylan in the kitchen, whipping himself up some strange concoction of an evening snack.

“That looks just on the edge of ‘are you really going to eat that?’” she commented as she passed him.

“You don’t even know,” he replied confidently, and she smirked, moving to pass through the back door. She sat down on one of the lawn chairs, setting her legs up on another. Her sketchbook sat in her lap, and her pencil was stuck in her ponytail as she set her head back and looked at the sky, breathing out.

After a few moments, she felt her breath hitch, and tremble, and she tried to pull it together, because there was no way, no chance in hell, that she was going to let it get to her, that she would go and cry about it… no matter how much her eyes were prickling. She’d just keep looking at the sky, just a while longer, and maybe…

“What’s wrong?” a voice asked, and she startled, her sketchbook sliding from her lap until it landed with a _thunk_ against the ground. She turned to look for it just as Dylan came up and got it back for her himself, handing it over.

“Thanks,” she told him, and she hated how small her voice sounded. He stood there for a few seconds, looking at her, with his plate in hand like he’d come to join her to eat his weird snack. Except now he was looking like he was trying to figure something out, and finally he resolved himself to set the plate on the patio table and pull another chair closer. He sat, and he looked at her, and he waited. There was no expectation in him, he wasn’t telling her to talk, only letting her know that she could. “It was just a weird night,” she tried to laugh it off, but her voice was just that keen on betraying her, apparently.

“I’ve had those,” Dylan told her, though it sounded like the rest of that statement was ‘and I didn’t come home looking shaken up like this, so what really happened?’ She sighed, her fingers drumming on her sketchbook’s cover, absently looking to brush off any dirt that might have touched it when it was on the ground.

“Between the restaurant here, and the diner in Austin, and even… back when my mother was a waitress, too, back in New York, it’s not like I’ve never seen or heard about more than my share of rude customers, and when I’ve been the one to have to deal with them, I’ve been a champ, you know? I never let them get to me, I was firm, unshakeable, gave them the big smile and the courtesy, even though underneath all that I had some choice words for them, you know?”

“Yeah,” Dylan nodded, and she nodded, too, for a couple of beats. She fell silent after that, her thoughts going back a couple of hours.

“But this was different. It wasn’t rude anymore, it was…” she shook her head slowly, like it would help the words come, but it didn’t. She bowed her head, drumming her fingers again. Dylan didn’t say anything, didn’t have to. He was like Lucas in that respect. He didn’t push, he listened.

So, why wasn’t she telling _him_ all this? He was upstairs, and no amount of reading would have kept him from hearing her out instead. Instead, she’d played like this was any old night.

“This guy, he just… His vibe was wrong, you know? Like, you look at someone, and you get this feeling like they’ll be a problem?” she looked to Dylan, and he nodded. He got that, from his catering job. “I couldn’t figure out what it was about him that rubbed me the wrong way, but as it went on, when I’d be at that table, with him and his date, I kept wanting to look to the girl to see if she was alright. Then, he caught me looking. After I left them, I went back to the kitchen, and when I stepped out again, he was standing there, next to the bar, like he was waiting.”

She could still see him in her head, that face, that look in his eyes, and right then she knew exactly who he reminded her of.

“He didn’t say anything, just looked at me, and looked, and looked, and then he got his drinks and went away, but I…” Her voice failed now, and she bowed her head once again. Silence stretched, as Dylan kept on waiting, not prodding. “Part of me keeps thinking it’s like I’m an impostor for even feeling that way, because nothing happened, not to me. But it could have… almost did… _would_ have, if I’d been the one to…”

Now the tears came, just a few, though she batted them away so fast as to seem like they’d never been there. She didn’t want to be in this moment, hated feeling like this, and maybe that was why she wasn’t telling Lucas at that moment, because he would try and make her feel better, but really all it would do would be to make this go longer than it had to, and that was just…

Dylan didn’t have to say it, but she knew he’d understood what she was referring to. The party, Sophie’s party, her cousin, and the smoothie, and the accident, but more importantly the ‘what if’ of what might have happened if she’d finished her own cup, if that boy had succeeded in getting her away from the others, if… if…

It had been over two years, though she hadn’t known the whole of it until the summer before last, and on the whole she was fine. But tonight… Tonight had made her realize that maybe she wasn’t as over it as she’d let herself believe.

When she felt the arms close around her, it took all of a second for her to know it wasn’t Dylan leaning over the back of her chair, wasn’t Dylan wrapping his arms around her, leaning his head against hers, and for how much she hadn’t wanted to let herself feel it all, when she felt Lucas embrace her, she let it all go, let it all emerge from her, and he just held on.

She didn’t know when he’d come through the back door, how long he’d stood there, how much he’d heard. She didn’t know how he’d sat upstairs for all of a minute, realizing in time that he’d been reading the same two lines again and again before the feeling at the back of his mind had finally made him get up from his desk and go looking for her, only to find her outside.

They stayed like that for a while, even after she’d stopped crying. She was good here, she didn’t want to move, and he stayed. She hated having to be this way, but right then she knew that she could hate it all she wanted, that it wouldn’t make it go away. The truth of what had almost happened to her had struck deep, and she’d carried that knowledge with her all this time, not understanding what it was doing to her. Now she knew, and there was nothing to be done for it except this.

And Lucas, her sweet Huckleberry… proving over and over just how good he was, in his heart, in his soul… how much he would always look out for her. Life seemed intent on throwing her in situation after situation where he got to show it, and it wasn’t as though she was asking that _he_ go through stuff that would give her the chance to return the favor, but it did get to feel like she was calling on him so many times, even if he’d never think it was too much. He’d always be there, he didn’t keep count.

“I’m okay,” she finally said, patting his hand. “You should go read,” she told him.

“It’s fine, I…”

“No, really,” she looked back at him. “I want you to,” she insisted. He’d just been holding her all this time, she’d never seen his face since he’d come, and now, to see the worry lining those eyes… “I’m good,” she promised. “I’ve got him and his disgusting snack,” she nodded toward Dylan.

“It’s really not though,” Dylan went to get his bowl. “I’ll prove it to you.” The way he said it, it felt more like ‘I’ve got you.’ Lucas turned to look at his friend, and Dylan gave him a nod. He looked back to her, and she managed a genuine smile. So, he leaned forward, and he kissed her, once and then another time, and he went back inside. Maya watched him go, finally turning back to find Dylan holding his bowl out to her. It made her chuckle, just a bit.

She wouldn’t say that it was the best thing she’d ever eaten, but it was a lot better than what she’d imagined. More than anything, it made her feel like the events of earlier that night were so very far away. She didn’t expect it to be as though it had never happened all of a sudden, but she did feel better, and she would always remember what they’d both done for her, Dylan, and then Lucas. It would stay between them, at least for now. She could have told Riley and Sophie, but frankly she didn’t feel like rehashing it all over again. As much as it had been necessary for her to talk it out this once, not to let it fester until even going to work at the restaurant would get to her, now that she’d done it… The best thing she could do was to keep looking forward, keep moving, and that was what she’d do.

TO BE CONTINUED


	66. Their Year in Practice

In the days that followed the moment out in the yard, Lucas would find himself at odds with his own impulses. His deeper instincts made him want to be near Maya, to make sure she was okay, which would inevitably resolve itself into him looking to her with his concerns worn in evidence over his face. But he had other instincts, and these ones came out of having known this girl for the better part of seven years. She hadn’t confided in him outright, specifically to bypass those looks of concern, and he understood that, he respected that. But he _had_ heard, and now he couldn’t pretend as though he hadn’t. Those instincts he’d picked up out of knowing her said that he needed to take his cue from her, from what _she_ needed. The problem now was to get both sides of his instincts to decide who won out.

Things were better now, or at least she seemed to have genuinely found her balance again, and he couldn’t ask for more, so all he could do now was what he always did. He was there, whatever she needed… and that went both ways.

The night before, they’d banded together to get Trix and Lou through bath time, which was always a messy, lengthy sort of enterprise. It wasn’t that they didn’t like bath time, oh no. They might actually have liked it too much, which resulted in them and the bathroom floor getting a good splash down before they were done. This was usually something reserved for a weekend morning, but this was a special occasion. He was bringing the dogs in to one of his classes.

“You’re going to behave for your good pal Dockleberry, aren’t you? Yeah, you are…” he could hear Maya in the backseat with the dogs as they drove in that day. Sophie had taken her car to drive herself and Riley to class, the better to leave them the space with the dogs, so now it was the four of them, him in the front and Maya, Trix, and Lou in the back. Nowadays, the dogs were as primed as ever, when they’d get to go for a car ride, which was why Maya was with them, in hopes that they wouldn’t work themselves up into too much of a frenzy.

“I’ll come find you after my class is over,” he told her as they arrived. She nodded, though her attention was still on the dogs. She had a break between classes that coincided perfectly enough so that she could take care of getting the two of them back home after his class with them was over.

He watched her go for a moment before finally starting on his way to class with the leashes in either hand. On the whole, they were very well-behaved, and they had been taught to stop and sit and all of that, but it didn’t stop them from being dogs, active ones, curious ones, and now that they were here, in this environment…

“Good morning,” Bishop crouched to greet the dogs when they found him outside the classroom. They knew him very well by now, and they were always eager to see someone they knew… and strangers, too, but still. “Oh, hey,” Bishop looked back up like he’d just noticed Lucas, only to break into chuckles. He could never keep up the joke. “If I were you, I’d keep an eye out for you-know-who today, with these two around you…”

“You-know-who? So, she’s Voldemort now?” Lucas chuckled.

“Hey, man, be cool,” Bishop stood up, gesturing like he should keep quiet, like the name might summon her. “But yes, definitely, so watch yourself, Potter.”

“Right, okay,” Lucas just shrugged, smirking.

By now, they knew the people in their classes pretty well, all the ones who were on the same track as them especially, the ones they’d be seeing a lot of over the next few years, and they got along well with most of them. There were a few who they would probably get along with if they were more sociable, but they liked to keep to themselves and that was fine. Then there was Josie and her friends. As of today, thanks to Bishop, he’d have trouble not calling them Voldemort and her Death Eaters…

Alright, so she wasn’t _that_ bad, but she was very much a presence that had a way of bringing disruption and unease, especially if she decided she wanted something from you or if she decided she didn’t like you. Well, she definitely wanted something from Lucas, and he had a pretty good idea what it was. The fact that he constantly and clearly denied her had yet to deter her, and now that Bishop had mentioned it, he couldn’t help but think he might have been right on one thing at least. This would definitely get her attention.

“You know the crazy thing is…” he’d started to tell Bishop, before his friend’s face shifted with a tinge of annoyance, and right on cue…

“Oh, look at those sweet pups, hello…” a tall blonde approached them and crouched to greet the dogs, much as Bishop had done earlier.

Unlike their reaction to him – eager and cheerful – Trix and Lou responded to this with a curiosity that came off more apprehensive, and Bishop gave Lucas a look as though to say ‘see, they see right through her.’ Lucas tried not to laugh, which was just essential at this point, so not to give the girl any sort of wiggle room to believe she had an in with him. She wasn’t exactly being subtle about it either.

“Morning, Lucas,” she looked over to him as she stood back up and faced him, with that same weird smile, the one that looked sort of real on the surface but came off fake in the end for how little life or genuine warmth it exuded. This wasn’t a smile, it was a hook, and she was out fishing.

“Morning, Josie,” he replied, with exactly as much courtesy as might have been expected of him, but always with a clear distance from the girl and her hook of a smile, whether it kept her away or not.

“Are these your dogs?” she asked, still fishing.

“Yeah, that’s Trix, and that’s Lou.” The dogs looked up at him at the sound of their names, much more enthusiastic toward him than they’d been a moment ago. “My girlfriend and I both had dogs back with our parents and we decided to adopt some of our own,” he explained. He never missed a chance to mention that he did have a girlfriend, always in passing, like he was giving her a chance to just pull back that hook. Even if he had been single, he could never see himself with someone like her, but that was beside the point.

“I have a dog, back with _my_ parents, too,” Josie informed him, _her_ way of saying ‘I hear you but I’m going to pretend like I don’t.’ “Would you like to see a picture?”

Thankfully, he was spared by the arrival of a few more students wanting to introduce themselves to the dogs, and then by their professor, who called the class to their seats and effectively sent Josie and her hook packing. With some relief, Lucas brought the dogs over to where he and Bishop usually sat.

Eventually, he was able to do his bit with the dogs, as he was called on to do, and it made him even happier to have them here for this than he’d already been. He was proud of Trix and Lou, always, and now he got to share them with his classmates. The fact that, even as they all started to interact with the pair of them, they still showed a decisive reticence around Josie and her friends, well, that was kind of bonus.

“So, are these two staying with you all day?” Josie was right back at it when class was dismissed, and Lucas did what he could to once again establish his stance, which was to say ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ as he got the dogs back on their leashes and started out of class.

“No, my girlfriend is getting them and taking them home,” he told her. To his surprise, he didn’t have to go looking for her: Maya was sitting on a bench nearby, bent over a textbook as she waited for him.

Before he could start toward her, there was a pronounced gasp just behind him, and he turned to witness ‘Voldemort’ with the closest thing to a genuine emotion on her face, as Josie stood there, jaw low and eyes fixed. Lucas spotted Bishop, just behind him and next to her, squinting as though he didn’t understand what was happening all of a sudden. Lucas gave a very small nod: just wait.

“That’s… that’s the singer from TXNY!” Josie was whispering to her friends with barely contained excitement. Lucas could barely contain his smirk. He might have felt bad about what was about to happen, but if it finally moved him off the girl’s radar… He could feel the tug of two leashes and he looked down to find both Trix and Lou now eagerly attempting to get to their favorite girl.

“Alright,” he crouched, unhooking the leashes, “Go get her.” And they were off, racing the short distance and barking until Maya looked up and quickly set her book aside with a smile, bending over to pull Lou into her lap even as Trix climbed on at her side.

“What are you _doing?_ ” Josie turned back to him, like he had literally unleashed the dogs on her unsuspecting idol and she would now be eternally embarrassed.

“What?” he casually shrugged. “I told you she was coming for them,” he gestured off to the happy trio on the bench. Josie opened her mouth to reply, and he saw the moment it all finally clicked for her that _this_ was his girlfriend. “I can introduce you,” he added, though she was already moving off with her friends. He turned back to Bishop, who was now allowing his chuckle to emerge, and they moved to join Maya and the dogs.

“If you ask me, they should always allow dogs around here, it makes everything instantly more interesting. But that’s just me,” Maya declared as they came along. Lucas smiled, leaning in to kiss her. “What was that over there?” she asked, curious.

“We defeated the Dark Lord,” Bishop reported, and Maya frowned and smiled at once.

“What?” she laughed. “Wait, was that her?” she then asked, sitting up. She’d heard all about the girl with the fish hook smile already.

“That was Josie,” Lucas confirmed with a nod. “Turns out, she’s a big fan.”

“Ah,” Maya nodded back. “Well, tell her I said hi.”

“Do you want me to tell her what you said the first time I told you about her? I think that was the first time I heard you refer to me as ‘your man’ and, you know, I kind of liked that,” he replied with a pondering tone.

“Don’t even,” she laughed, holding Lou securely as she got up from the bench. “Alright, I better get these two back to the car if I want to make it back for my next class.” He fished the keys from his pocket and handed them to her along with the leashes, which were attached once more to the dogs’ collars. “How was your class?”

“It went great,” he nodded. “Many compliments on the grooming.”

“Why do you have to tease like that?” she ‘glared’ at him before stretching up to kiss him quick. “See you tonight. And if you see you-know-who again, ask her if she wants an autograph!” she called out, hurrying off with the dogs. Lucas had to smile, picturing the look on the girl’s face if that happened.

TO BE CONTINUED


	67. Their Year in Friendship

After they’d stood there for a few minutes, crouching behind the couch, the temptation was very strong for them to just sit. It was all fun at first, the idea of hiding in wait until the right moment came, but as it turned out ‘the right moment’ was taking a very long time to come around.

“Are you sure she’s on her way?” Lucas whisper-shouted to Lion, who stood by the window, just peering out between the closed curtains.

“Yeah, yeah, she texted to say sh… Wait, here she comes, hey!” Lion turned back, pointing to all the bits of head he could see poking out from behind some item or another of his and Willow’s apartment. At his signal, they all went back into hiding, everyone primed, waiting… waiting…

When the door opened, and the flick of a switch brought them out of the darkness, they all emerged at once, with great energy and loud voices as they shouted ‘SURPRISE!’ Willow, stood at the door with her key still in hand, took a couple startled steps before realizing what was happening, and then she laughed. Lion went toward her with a toothy grin, scooping up his girlfriend in his arms and briefly kissing her, while everyone started coming forward to get their turn at wishing her a happy birthday.

“Twenty-one!” Maya proclaimed as she hugged her friend and bandmate, a good teetering sort of hug, where both were in danger of losing their footing and neither was giving it any mind, as they laughed and went on hugging. “You’re going to become _that_ friend, aren’t you? The Legal One,” she announced dramatically.

“Not happening,” Willow just went on chuckling.

“Not that we’d abuse it or anything,” Maya went right along, a look of questionable innocence on her face before she hugged her one more time and moved along to let the others have their turn.

April was only just starting, though the plans for this party had been in the works since the middling days of March, a joint effort between Rosa and Kayla and Lion for the most part, though everyone else had pitched in where they were needed. There were the usual suspects, as far as their side of things was concerned, and there were a few others who worked at the coffee shop, or others who worked with both Willow and Dylan at the catering service. There were also friends of hers and Lion from high school.

“What’s going on over there?” Maya’s voice reached Lucas and he looked over to her, then to where she was nodding. He looked, finding Bishop in conversation with Lion. The two guys seemed to be discussing something specific, not just casual party chatter.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. The two of them had only met a few times, when they’d all be hanging out at the house, as far as he knew. When the two of them shared a handshake and some smiles, the onlooking couple was even more intrigued.

Thankfully, it didn’t look as though they would have to wait all too long to find out what it was about. They watched Bishop leave Lion and go to Leona, where he told her something that made her look surprised at first and then excited. A moment later, both of them were headed right toward Lucas and Maya.

“What’s going on?” Maya repeated herself, now to the source of her curiosity.

“I’m moving out of my father’s place,” Bishop announced, his voice carrying relief even on the second time he said the words.

“What?” Lucas replied, surprised. “Where are you…” he started to ask, then stopped as he – and Maya, too – figured it out for himself. Right here. He was moving in with Willow and Lion.

“That’s awesome!” Maya was the first to speak, and Bishop just nodded, smiling, because it truly was. As he explained it, Lion had overheard him and Lucas talking, that day in the kitchen when they’d come back from spring break in Austin, and then he and Willow had started talking about it, and one thing had led to another and now the spare room was his to take. He’d have to pay rent and contribute as any roommate would, which was more than fine by him.

“What’s going to happen with your dad?” Lucas had to ask, and Bishop sighed, shaking his head to himself.

“I don’t know. But the way I see it, it might actually be for the best, for me and for him, too. Maybe being in the same city will be enough for us, maybe that’s how we’ll figure out how to be father and son again. Living together, it just didn’t work.”

It was a testament to how all their respective friendships had sort of gone and melded together that, before long, the others learned of Bishop’s news, too, and they were all checking in with him, all excited for him. For some time already they had been pondering their futures, their lives after college, and more and more they were finding that these people, their new friends, were deeply entrenched in this matter. They were already living with faraway friendships, and they were managing, even though they missed their people in Boston and New York and Austin very much. Now, more and more, they were thinking about those days in the long run when they might be faraway from these new friends, too.

“When do we go up there?” Rosa popped up a little while later, with Kayla and Riley in tow, the three of them crowding around Maya like a covert huddle. She looked over their heads to find where Willow was at the moment. She found her dancing with a couple of the girls from the catering service. In the back of her mind, Maya wondered if either of them was the girl Dylan was secretly crushing over, but then she got back on task, looking to her bandmates.

“Let’s go,” she nodded and signed, and the others grinned and followed her.

They signalled Dylan, who was in charge of the music, and when the current song was over – because what was the point of cutting people off in the middle of a dance – he switched the track over to the one they needed, an instrumental of one of their newer songs.

“Alright, alright!” Maya called loudly, to get people’s attention, as the others kept to the huddle around her. “Willow Regan, you beautiful creature, this one’s for you,” she smirked, tipping her head to the birthday girl who was looking back at them with a grin poised on her lips.

They had taken the words and changed some of them, making the song about their friend and bandmate. It was meant to be funny, and from how she kept on smiling and laughing, they knew they’d hit the mark just right. It featured a lot of exaggerated gestures and facial expressions, especially from Kayla, who also added a few ‘drum beats’ as best she could with no instrument on hand. The whole thing ended with raucous applause and cheers from the rest of the party and with a group hug piled around Willow.

They all danced around for a while after that, the five of them together. When they stopped and went to sit and take a breather, Maya found herself with Willow, the both of them sitting out on the fire escape and breathing in some fresh air, always a plus after any amount of time in a crowded party.

“So, what’s this new year of your life going to look like in your head?” Maya asked, looking to the birthday girl, laid out with her head in her lap.

“It’s going to look like having to decide whether I’m quitting the coffee shop or the catering, or both,” Willow announced, and Maya gave her a frown, not following. Willow smiled up to her. “I got in to nursing school,” she revealed, and Maya was so happy to hear it that she jumped up a bit from where she sat, which led to Willow sitting up and turning to look at her again.

“I didn’t know you’d finally applied…”

“That’s why they’re called secrets,” Willow smiled. “I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure. Anyway, I’m starting in the fall, and… honestly, I can’t wait. Took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, but I know it was the right thing, not going right away.”

“Well, I’m really happy for you,” Maya told her, and Willow went on smiling, hugging her tight until they were both laughing. For a while they discussed the whole dilemma of Willow’s jobs, figuring if she could just quit one – and which one – or if she would need to quit both and find another one that would pay more. Now that she had Lion living with her, and soon Bishop, too, she could be just fine keeping one of her current jobs, though this didn’t resolve the question of which one.

“I’m not going to figure this out tonight,” she frowned after a while.

“And you shouldn’t,” Maya pointed out. “It’s your birthday, which means all you have to do right now is have fun, and dance, and open presents, and eat way too much cake,” she counted off her fingers.

“There’s cake?” Willow turned back to look through the window like she’d see it there waiting for her.

“Of course, there’s cake!” Maya gave her a nudge. “Who do you take us for?” she asked with mock indignation. “There is so much cake, there will be leftovers enough so that it’s _all_ you eat for like a week or two,” she declared.

“Please,” Willow chuckled, “You’ve never seen Lion eat cake. The guy’s all nice and lean but he can destroy a cake like no one’s business.” Maya’s eyebrow raised at this, suddenly curious. There was a rap at the window a second later, and there was Lucas, poking his head out to look at them.

“I just realized we haven’t danced yet,” he informed his girlfriend, who gasped, turning to Willow – who gave her a nod – before crawling from her seat and back through the window, as Lucas held her hand to ensure she didn’t trip and fall.

The two of them danced on for some time, enough that they didn’t see the time pass by. Before they knew it, some of the guests had started to clear out, and in the end, it was just the five roommates, Willow, Lion, Bishop, and Leona. Franny and Kayla had taken off in order to get Rosa home, once the others had assured them that they could handle the cleanup. Well, most of them.

“Sit, come on,” Lion insisted, leading his girlfriend back to the couch when she tried to help them. “You’re still on the clock.”

“Yeah, no cleaning for you, birthday girl,” Sophie smiled. Willow put up her hands in surrender, smiling.

They made quick work of picking up everything so that they could leave Willow and Lion to an apartment in much the same state as they’d found it when they’d arrived a few hours back. The primary difference here, of course, was the amount of leftover food – much of it being cake, as promised. They left their friend with a few more well wishes and hugs before heading on home. A lot of good things had been decided and learned on that night, and they couldn’t wait to see what would come next, between Bishop’s move out of his father’s house and Willow’s shift toward starting nursing school.

“Alright, so tell me,” Maya stopped Lucas from getting out of the car after they arrived back home and the others had climbed out of the back seat. “It’s the redhead, isn’t it?” When he looked at her and seemed confused, she sighed. “The girl from the catering service, is that her? Dylan’s secret lady?” she whispered, tracing a heart with her index fingers. He let out a breath, leaning in quietly, then…

“Still not telling,” he smiled, kissed her cheek, then got out of the car as he heard her groan in frustration.

TO BE CONTINUED


	68. Their Year in Learning

Over the following weekend, the house was one roommate short, as Riley had gone to have her own family weekend down in Austin. So, on Monday morning, it was just three of them in the car and headed off to class. Riley would be back today, too, but she’d told them she would be running late and would meet them there, so they went on ahead without her. It wasn’t the first time their usual roster was incomplete, thanks to different schedules, or appointments, or cancelled classes, or sick days, and every time it still felt weird, like they were exactly that: incomplete. The girls especially would take a specific pleasure in being overly dramatic about it, as though they were not only missing a limb but spraying blood all over from where said limb had been torn away.

This morning, for instance, Lucas pulled into the parking lot at school, turning in his seat to take in his girlfriend and their ginger roomie, sitting side by side in the back, or rather almost leaning to one another as though on the verge of starvation, staring off into some unknown distance.

“Do you guys think you’re going to make it through the day?” he asked with sarcastic but amused curiosity. Both girls turned their eyes toward him.

“Somehow…” Maya sighed.

“I guess…” Sophie sighed, too. “If we have to.”

“If I get you coffee, will you come out of the car?” Lucas played along.

Soon after, once she’d parted ways with Sophie and Lucas, as they both headed to their respective classes, Maya took off at an eased strolling pace, as she started on her way to her own first class of the day. She had some time to kill, so she could sit and do some reading while she enjoyed her coffee. Or she could head off toward the dorms to go and pick up her friends and classmates… Yeah, she’d do that, although…

She returned to the coffee cart, where the girl who had served her and the others just a couple minutes before watched her come with a concerned look as though something was wrong with her cup. Instead, she ordered two more, grabbed some snacks, and started off toward the dorms somewhere between a brisk pace and a jog. She only just managed to come to a stop before the door to the room she needed, when it opened, ushering out Franny, and Kayla behind her. Their exit stalled, as they startled to find their friend there, just as Maya very nearly dropped the tray containing all three cups.

“Woah, hey!” Franny reached out at once, helping to steady everything again.

“Good morning,” Maya smiled as they smiled back. “Morning fuel,” she announced, as the cups were taken one by one and the treats were divided from the bag before they all started on their way to Professor Robinson’s class.

She really liked this part of the day, and she guessed maybe it was because she had come along over the last few years with something of a routine, of this time with her friends before class. It was different from how it had been back in high school, in a really good way, actually. For how much she had found her footing with school over those last few years, it really felt as though being here, now, she had uncovered something she was even more connected to.

“Isn’t that Riley’s dad?” Franny spoke as they were nearing their classroom. Maya looked at her, then to where she was pointing. Just as she spotted him, Cory Matthews spotted them right back. He waved at them, and Maya blinked for a moment before hurrying off toward him, the others right on her heel.

“No way, please tell me you haven’t gone off the deep end, Matthews, the job’s good back in Austin,” she couldn’t help but say as they came toward him.

Before he could put in a word, Professor Robinson emerged from her classroom, looking to Riley’s father like she was coming to see him, only to be surprised by the arrival of her students. Maya stared at Cory again, eyes wide with questions.

“Oh, good morning, girls, I was actually just thinking about you three, I know you all came from Austin, maybe you might have crossed paths?” Professor Robinson asked, smiling as she pressed a hand to Mr. Matthews’ arm. Maya must have looked like the rising amount of questions was ready to make her head burst, as the man finally came around to explaining a few things.

“I just came to drop Riley off, and I’d been meaning to come and say hello to Patty,” he indicated Professor Robinson. “I hadn’t seen her in years, since I was a kid and she’d come visit Mr. Feeny, they’re old friends,” he revealed, very nearly knocking Maya off her feet with this explanation, like the elimination of her initial assumption had left her vulnerable to the surprise of the truth.

Luckily for her, she wasn’t the only one in for some surprises. Somehow their connection was still unknown to ‘Patty,’ as was the fact that this man she’d apparently known since he was a kid was the father of one of the other girls in the band.

“How… what… are the odds…” Maya sputtered as she followed Franny and Kayla into the classroom a minute later, while the conversation went on the in the hall.

She didn’t know that she really paid much attention in that day’s class, still too baffled to think about this unexpected connection. It really kept playing through her head, thinking about this, that in all these months she had been in the woman’s classes, not knowing they were ‘a hop and a skip’ away from one another in a game of six degrees of separation. Of all the schools she could have gone to, in all the programs, the classes, of all the professors… she’d been specifically growing attached to Professor Robinson… Patty…

“Oh, Miss Hart?” the professor called to her as she was moving to leave after class was dismissed. She stopped and turned back to her. “I’ve invited Cory and his family to come up for dinner this Friday. If you’re available, I would love for you to join us,” she went on, smiling. She must have looked a bit gobsmacked, as Franny bumped her shoulder, calling her back to attention. “You can bring your boyfriend if you’d like,” the professor went on, and in her head, Maya wondered how she knew about him before remembering how he was sometimes with her when she’d run into Professor Robinson, or when she’d be going to or coming out of class.

“I… sure… I mean, yes, I would love to, I… I’ll check with Lucas, but I don’t think he has plans either,” she finally managed to say.

“Good,” the professor beamed, picking up her things and leading the girls out of her classroom. “Let me know next time,” she gestured back to the door before parting ways with her students. As soon as she was well out of earshot, Maya turned back to her friends, with surprise now in full effect.

“What just happened?” she still spoke low.

_“You didn’t know that they knew each other?”_ Kayla signed.

_“I didn’t,”_ Maya replied in like. “I don’t know when I mentioned her around him, but I must have… at some point? It’s not like I could have made that leap on my own. And _he_ never said anything, oh…” she shook her head, thinking of her former teacher, part of her wanting to ask questions about when he knew her as a kid, enough that she let him call her Patty, part of her wanting to get annoyed for having kept this information to himself.

She quickly pulled out her phone, fingers flying over the keys as she relayed the whole scene to Riley via text. She wasn’t sure whether she was in class or not by this point, but she got her answer two minutes later with a string of replies.

_Riley: WHAT?!?!_

_Riley: He said he was going to say hi to someone, I thought it was you!_

_Riley: SHE KNOWS FEENY?? AND MY DAD?!_

_Riley: My dad just wrote to ask if I was free on Friday. You’re going, right? You’re bringing Lucas?_

_Riley: He asks if he and Mom and August can stay the night with us._

_Riley: Do you think your dad knew her, too??_

She could always count on Riley to freak out right along with her, and that sort of made her feel better. Not that she felt bad, it was just sort of a lot… She replied, telling her that she’d have to check with Lucas but yes, probably, she would be going, too. And if Cory, Topanga, and August were all going to be staying with them, they would have to figure where to put them all… But then the question about her dad, that got her curious all over again.

She sent off a quick message to Lucas first, asking him if he was busy Friday night. She didn’t get into the story, not yet. After that, she called her father.

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be in class?” he asked.

“In between two now,” she informed him. “You busy?”

“For you, always free. What’s up?”

“Mr. Matthews was here, he brought Riley back from Austin,” she started, hearing a sound from him that translated as ‘yes, I knew about that.’ “Did you know he knew one of my professors? He came to see her and we ran into him.”

“Well, they’re both teachers, it’s…”

“No, he said he knew her since he was little. She’s a friend of Mr. Feeny’s?” she went on, and there was a pause. She could practically hear him thinking back.

“The redhead?” Shawn finally asked.

“It’s kind of white now,” Maya frowned. “He called her Patty.”

“Yeah…” he responded, the word stretching out with the rise of memory. “That’s one of your professors?”

“Robinson, yeah,” she nodded to herself.

“No way,” he laughed. She may or may not have raved about the woman to him and her mother… a few times.

“Anyway, she invited Riley and her family to dinner at her house on Friday, and she invited Lucas and me, too.”

“Okay, just don’t fangirl too much while you’re over there,” her father told her with a chuckle, and she didn’t know what to say first, call him out on the use of the word ‘fangirl’ or on the fact that he’d used it about her.

After she hung up, she saw that she’d gotten a reply from Lucas. Yes, he was free, why? Did she want them to go out? All she would say was that she’d explain when she saw him that evening, and he wrote back to say he would be curious until then. She then wrote back to Riley, telling her both about Lucas’ answer and about her call to her father.

_Riley: I have so many questions…_

_Maya: You and me both._

_Riley: Do you think she’ll have pictures?_

_Maya: They better be really embarrassing…_

As the day drew on, it didn’t get any less weird to realize that, all of a sudden, the connective chain they had been building, all of them, over the last several years, between New York, and Philadelphia, and Austin, and Houston, was now sprouting more links. At the same time, she guessed it was kind of something she could come to see as really wonderful, like it made Professor Robinson feel even more a part of her wide and extended world, as more than ‘one of her professors.’ Now she was going to be having dinner at her house, with Lucas, with the Matthews family… She couldn’t even begin to imagine what that would be like… but she couldn’t wait to find out.

TO BE CONTINUED


	69. Their Year in Books

Truth be told, he was going to be working on Friday evening, but he knew he could get out of it easily. Miss Coleman had asked him to come in evenings all this week and the next, to compensate for Pete’s being on vacation, but she had made this request with the promise that, if he was unable to come in on any of these evenings, it would be alright, so long as he warned her ahead of time.

So, when he showed up to the bookstore that afternoon, after the end of classes and after driving the others home, his first step was to find his boss and let her know he wouldn’t be coming in on Friday. When he told her the reason, she looked intrigued.

“You’re going to dinner at Patricia Robinson’s house?” she asked, as though he’d announced he was going to eat at the home of some famous person or another. When he nodded, she let out a breath and smiled. “You know, I started working here years ago, when I was just about Rosa’s age. The first time I was put in charge of an important event, it was an in-store discussion, and the guest speaker that day was Miss Robinson herself,” she revealed, and now Lucas wished Maya was here to hear this. Since she wasn’t though, he was just going to have to hear the story in full so that he could recount it to her later that night.

“That’s amazing,” he said, sensing it would be the easiest path to get Miss Coleman to keep going.

“It was,” she agreed, nostalgia in her eyes. “A remarkable woman, truly, so inspiring to just sit there and listen to her speak, even if you don’t know or care so much about art as she does and, really, she’s one of the best out there. And beyond all of that, she was simply the kindest and most generous of the speakers I’d seen come in until then, and maybe ever since. She comes back every couple of years for these events, and it’s always sold out. She’s been a wonderful supporter of the store, for as long as I can remember.”

“Wow…” Lucas blinked. He would have to let Maya know the next time one of these talks happened…

“Be sure and let her know you’re one of us when you visit her.”

“I will,” he promised with a nod before heading back through the store and toward the registers, presently minded by Rosa. The girl moved out of the way to let him through.

“What was that about?” she asked, nodding toward her mother’s office in the back.

“I was just telling her I won’t be coming in on Friday, I’m going with Maya to a dinner at her professor’s house,” he revealed.

“Just the two of you?” she asked, like she thought it was strange. So, he explained the whole thing, about Riley’s father, how he’d known Professor Robinson, and how he’d come to see her, which had eventually led to the invitation. “Oh, _her_ ,” Rosa nodded, remembering. “She does these talks here sometimes.”

“Your mother just told me, yeah.”

“Did she tell you to mention the store, too?” Rosa whispered, like she expected nothing less from her mother. Lucas chuckled, which was answer enough. “Why don’t you just wear your vest and nametag while you’re at it?” she joked.

“That should be subtle,” he laughed as she went off to her shelving duties.

He’d been hearing from Maya all day, about all these connections she hadn’t known about and was now discovering, and he could only imagine what she would say when she heard about the professor’s ties to the bookstore where he worked.

Weekday evenings weren’t the busiest times, but they were still very much active, which was good, as it helped make the time go by, while also allowing him to get in a few minutes of reading from one textbook or another whenever he had the chance. He’d been shy about bringing them out in the beginning, but Miss Coleman had insisted it was fine, so long as it didn’t interfere with his work. She appreciated his dedication to his education.

He was lucky at least that this week and the next were neither of them shaping up to be overly loaded as far as assignments and reading went, otherwise these added evenings, much as they benefited him financially, would have interfered with his ability to keep up.

“Man, I didn’t think this place had a comics section, look at these…” He looked up, surprised to find Dylan standing across the counter from him, holding up a small stack of books.

“Hey,” Lucas smiled. “What are you doing here? Were you looking for something?” he asked, guessing it hadn’t been because of comics. Dylan shrugged, though in such a way that anyone who would call himself or herself his friend would know to recognize as his ‘I want to ask something but maybe I shouldn’t’ shrug.

They were briefly interrupted when a few customers started coming up to pay their purchases. Dylan stepped aside at once, and Lucas went about ringing up everything, seeing them off with excellent courtesy. Once it was just the two of them again, Dylan sidled up to the counter once again, taking a sweeping look of the store to see whether anyone – Rosa in particular – was anywhere nearby. Once he saw that no one was there, and Rosa was elbow deep in her work, headphones on and everything, Dylan turned back to his old friend.

“You, uh… You’re going to that dinner on Friday, with Maya?” he asked.

“I am,” Lucas confirmed with a nod, still wondering where this was going.

“That’s cool,” Dylan nodded, too, drifting into silence for a few seconds. “Well, it’s just that, uh… Riley came home and she told me all about that thing, and she said that the professor said she could bring someone along if she wanted, and, well, she asked if maybe I would like to go with her.”

“Oh…” Lucas blinked, starting to understand what this was all about now. “What did you say?”

“I said I’d have to check if I’m working and I’d let her know. Then I left and I came here.” Lucas smirked at this, while Dylan took another look around the store. “What do I do?”

“You’re kidding, right?” he had to ask, earning another shrug. “You’ve been, and I’m saying this because you’re one of my best friends, pining like an idiot for the last four years, and now…”

“It’s not like she’s saying she likes me, it’s not a date, it’s just a friend and another friend,” Dylan pointed out. But what if I mess it up, or… You didn’t say anything, did you?”

“You know I wouldn’t,” Lucas promised.

“What about Maya?”

“Haven’t told her either,” he shook his head, and Dylan looked surprised, then relieved. They were interrupted once again by customers, and Lucas could see his friend standing by, his head still clogged with these thoughts he couldn’t chase. When he was clear again, he motioned for Dylan to come up to him again. “You know I would never judge, but why haven’t you told her by now?”

“It’s complicated,” Dylan insisted nervously. “I couldn’t say anything at first, and then she was with Scott, and then she’d just broken up with Scott, so it wasn’t the time, and then… now… well, we all live together, and it’s good. If it didn’t work out…”

It’d be awkward, and one of them might end up deciding to move out, and he didn’t want that. He didn’t say it, but Lucas could fill in the blanks. Dylan cared enough about all of them that he didn’t want to risk it, even at his expense. A while back, the day of the band’s first show, the new clothes, the haircut… Lucas knew what it meant, knew it was Dylan’s way of maybe working himself up to finally saying something. But he hadn’t done it, hadn’t dared.

All this time, he’d known about his feelings for Riley, and Dylan being Dylan, it was like… Anyone who didn’t know his secret would not see it, no matter how close they were to him. But _he_ had known, since the summer before tenth grade, the very same day Riley had uttered the words that had started them on the path to TXNY. _We should start a band…_ And ever since that day, it was like he had been granted special goggles that let him see his old friend’s feeling for their other, newer friend. He’d seen those feelings hold steady as much as they grew, even though he’d played as though he didn’t, per Dylan’s request.

And knowing how he felt about the whole situation, and how it might turn out if it fell apart, he knew that nothing short of a clear-cut sign that Riley felt it all, too, would make him take that step, not now.

“You should tell her you’ll go,” he told Dylan. “If you’re available, I mean. You keep being you, don’t worry about it.”

“Do you think we could invite Sophie, too? The rest of us are going, it’d be weird to leave her out,” Dylan pointed out, and Lucas smiled. _That_ was definitely him being himself.

“Just in case, I’ll suggest it,” he offered. “Then, if something _could_ happen, it won’t look like you tried to make it too much of a friend thing.”

“That could be good…” Dylan breathed. “So, I should say I’ll go with her then…” he nodded to himself. “Are we supposed to wear a suit or something?”

“I don’t think so,” Lucas laughed.

“Wear a suit to what?” a girl’s voice asked, and the boys startled, looking back to find Rosa standing a couple paces behind them, headphones around her neck and still blasting whatever music she’d been listening to. Lucas and Dylan shared a look before turning back to look at her. “You guys are being weird,” she declared, with a confused frown.

“It’s nothing, just the dinner at the professor’s house,” Lucas explained.

“Oh… Definitely don’t wear a suit, she’s real casual,” Rosa informed them.

“Right… thanks,” Dylan nodded.

“Isn’t it time for your break?” she looked to Lucas, and it was indeed. She’d come to replace him at the registers.

“Come on, we’ll go check out the comics section,” he tugged at Dylan’s arm until he followed.

“Do you think she heard?” his friend whispered.

“You’re fine, don’t worry about it.”

Even after Dylan left, with his stack of comics in arm, Lucas couldn’t help but keep an eye on Rosa, wondering at what point in their conversation she might have come up, whether she’d put two and two together… It wasn’t as though he didn’t trust her to keep a secret, but he couldn’t swear her to it, not without running the risk of telling her something she didn’t actually hear in the process. He would be able to tell if she’d realized they were talking about Riley, right?

By the time he finished his shift and left the store, he really did wish he could come clean to Maya about all that he knew, but he knew it wasn’t possible, just as it had been the whole time. This was her best friend of old they were talking about here. Much as she could keep things to herself on a general basis, he didn’t know how she would respond when it had to do with Riley of all people. So, he hadn’t told her, and he wouldn’t, not unless she was told or she figured it out on her own, and even then… Oh, but he really wished that he could talk to her about it. The more this dinner at Professor Robinson’s was growing, the more it was shaping up to be either a really great night or a total disaster…

TO BE CONTINUED


	70. Their Year in Happiness

Friday rolled around before they knew it, the day itself running by as smoothly as they could hope it to go, and soon they were all back home, getting ready for the night’s event. The Matthews trio was driving in from Austin at that very moment, and they would meet their daughter and her roommates at Professor Robinson’s house. In the end, they’d decided to check into a hotel for the night – something particularly endorsed by August, who apparently had designs on spending the following morning in the pool, practicing for an upcoming swim meet – which saved them all from trying to fit all of them in the house.

As much as they’d been told by a few people, Professor Robinson herself included, that the night’s dress code was absolutely casual, it was plain to see, going by the hectic activity in the house that afternoon, that even this was leaving them scrambling to figure out what they’d wear. They’d also called up a ‘shower draw,’ figuring out who’d get their turn first, second, third, and so on, the girls earning the top spots by default, on account of hair drying.

Maya had been given the first go without question today, the better for her to ensure she’d be standing by when her laptop gave the familiar ring of an incoming Skype call, for the call scheduled with her New York siblings. Today happened to be little Eliza’s birthday. The third born of Kermit’s new quartet was turning seven today and, when the call connected, she found her sitting there in her twelve-year-old brother’s lap, smiling from ear to ear when she spotted her oldest sister.

“Hi, Maya!” she waved energetically.

“Hey, Lizard,” Maya laughed, as her little sister giggled at the sound of her preferred nickname. “Happy birthday!” she told her, with matching cheer. “Now how old does that make you again?” she ‘wondered’ aloud.

“Seven!” Eliza hollered, making her brother startle, with the sound so near his ears.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Maya bit back her laugh, seeing the dazed look on Sam’s face. “Now, I think Cara should have something… Cara, you there?” she called, and her other New York sister, now aged ten and still very much looking like her younger self, appeared on screen, holding a box wrapped in colorful and sparkling paper. The bow had been added upon reception by the kids’ mother, as Maya had figured it would just get smashed on the road from Houston to New York. When Eliza turned and saw it, she gasped and leapt off Sam to go and unwrap the thing with great curiosity and hurry.

By now, she was getting to know them all pretty well. Sam was the artist, like her. Cara was all about the music… also like her. Little Wyatt, now three and talking up a storm that could rival Nellie, was big on aliens right now, the scarier the better. As for Eliza, oh, it was horses… She’d been campaigning on and on to get to come to Texas with her older siblings over the following summer, because she’d gotten it in her head that surely, sooner or later, she’d see horses out there. As of yet, she had not been granted her wish, but maybe this would be something to make her dream happily until she got her chance.

She didn’t know exactly what she was looking at when she got the paper off and opened the box. She picked up one of the cylinders, unrolling it carefully as she saw the images, the galloping horses, the horses drinking water, and the ones with a young girl on their backs, looking very much like her. She looked back to the computer screen and Maya chuckled.

“It’s wallpaper,” she explained. “I painted them all, you should have enough to make a border all around your room’s walls. You’ll need help to put them up, but once it’s done…”

Eliza was picturing it now, as she looked at the roll again, and she was in trepidations all over again. It had been a months-long project, painting up the design, getting it printed on the plain wallpaper border… But the result had been so far beyond her expectations that she now wondered what else she could do in that same medium. And going by the showers of thanks she got from her little sister, it looked like she would be on board, too.

She got to talk to both Sam and Cara for a few minutes each, and even little Wyatt, who showed her a picture book he’d gotten, full of aliens. These ones were not scary, though he didn’t seem to mind. Eliza made a return appearance for a few minutes before she finally had to hang up and get back to getting ready for the evening’s dinner.

“Need a hand?” Lucas appeared at her back as she was working the brush through her length of blond hair.

“Well…” she pondered aloud, “Officially, I can do by myself just fine. Unofficially, in the part of me that likes to sit there while you work that brush…” she finished her sentence by handing the thing over with a grin. There had never been a time where she feared he might accidentally pull at her hair. He was careful here as he always was. “Better make that one count,” she told him as he started running the brush through the mass of hair, miming a pair of scissors with her fingers.

“You’ve been saying that for like three years,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, but I think it’s time,” she shrugged. “It’ll be refreshing, you know?”

“How big of a cut are we talking?” he asked.

“I’m not sure yet. I mean, I’m not thinking _super_ short, but it’s definitely going to be significant. I was talking with Chef Isabel the other night, she started telling me about how her daughter donated _her_ hair, so I sort of figure… If I’m ever going to go through with it and cut my hair, maybe it can be for a good cause,” she explained with a smile.

“It could,” he agreed, his thoughts already reaching for a potential addition to this idea. “You could get others to do it, too,” he offered, and she raised her hand at once, to get him to take the brush back before she turned to face him.

“Right…” she breathed, the idea growing in her thoughts, too. By now, it was clear to them all just how much of a reach they had with the band, and the idea that they might get to use this reach to do something good… “Oh… now I’m going to be thinking about this all night!” she huffed before sitting back forward so he could continue.

“Sorry,” he laughed.

“No, it’s fine,” she insisted, though he could just see her knees hopping a bit, like her feet were shifting and shifting on the ground, the rush of new thoughts coursing through her.

By the time he’d finished assisting her, Dylan had popped his head into the room to let Lucas know it was his turn, so he left Maya to carry on getting ready before making his way to the bathroom in the basement. When he returned a few minutes later, he very nearly lost grip of the towel wrapped around his waist, as he startled to find all three girls, dressed and ready to go, piled on to the bed and talking away. They all looked back at him and tried not to laugh at the look on his face as he held on for dear life to the only thing standing between him and nudity.

“We’ll talk more later,” Sophie declared, grabbing Riley’s hand and leading her out of the room. As the door was shut, they could hear laughter from somewhere about in Sophie’s room, and Maya couldn’t hold it in either.

“I can’t believe you didn’t see this coming,” she stood up, notebook and pen in hand.

“Yeah, what was I even thinking,” he let out a breath and she could just tell he was trying to hold his ground even if, now that the shock had passed, he was tempted to laugh, too. “So, did you guys just figure it all out already?” he asked as she went to sit at her desk while he started to get ready.

“Well, not _all_ of it, but there’s some ground work happening,” she told him, looking at the page where she’d started to scribble in some notes. “For one thing, they’re both jumping on board for a meeting with the scissors. Sophie was in right away, Riley took a minute or two to make up her mind, but she swears she really wants to do it and she’s not just saying so. Pretty sure she means it, but just to be sure, she’ll have some time to change her mind before we put out some kind of announcement.”

She was really glad for the idea. It reminded her of everything they’d been doing over their senior year, the money they’d raised for the shelter… But this time it would go beyond their hometown, or at least they hoped it might. They hadn’t spoken to the other girls in the band, present and retired, but it could all go even further than them, other cities, other countries… There was so much to do. Maybe they would plan it for the summer…

“Casual enough?” Lucas asked, and she turned her head and smiled.

“What is it you always tell me? ‘I’m biased forever?’” she sat back in her chair with an appreciative nod. “But in case that doesn’t work, yes, it’s casual enough, and you look very handsome.”

“Well, I’d say ‘you’re not so bad yourself,’ but somehow it just doesn’t seem enough,” he shrugged as she stood up and gestured to herself.

“Oh, you charmer, you,” she gave an exaggerated blushing wave, complete with her favorite southern drawl thrown on. “Do you think we’ll still have time to do something by the time we get back?” she asked, as he opened the door. As expected, the dogs had been right outside, waiting diligently, and they dashed in at once.

“I don’t see why not,” he turned back to her. Over the previous weekend, as he’d agreed to work evenings through the next two weeks, they had made plans for a ‘lowercase-d date’ after he got home on Friday, to make up for whatever they might have been able to do if he hadn’t been working, but now he wasn’t working, and they didn’t know how late they would be at Professor Robinson’s… “You might have cushion face going into work tomorrow though,” he pointed out, recalling how many of these couch dates had ended up with the two of them falling asleep right there and staying right through to morning.

“I’ll risk it,” she declared.

Truth be told, she tended to sleep really well on those nights, and it all just reminded her of how long they’d all been here and how good it continued to be. How could she not want more of that? For how much she knew, in her heart of hearts, that she saw herself back in Austin when she was through with school, back in the same city as her mother and father and her siblings, there was that part of her who knew it would make her sad to have to leave here. And then what would happen with the band? Would they be split up again? How many times could they reconstruct themselves?

“We have a problem,” Riley came hurrying into the room and they both looked up at her. “My mom just called, they arrived at Professor Robinson’s house, and her power’s gone out. She says she checked and it’s some kind of equipment break in her neighborhood, won’t be fixed for hours.” They stood in silence for a few seconds as this sank in, along with what it could mean for their evening. It took only that for Lucas to look to Maya and, without a word, communicate the thought he had. A moment later, she was moving to call out the door.

“Sophie! Dylan!” she called out. They both stepped out of their rooms, and she waved them over.

“What’s wrong?” Sophie asked, and Riley told her and Dylan what she’d just told Maya and Lucas. They looked just as disappointed.

“We could just have it here,” Lucas told them his idea. “If it’s okay with you guys.” He knew, as Maya knew, that if it had just been Riley’s family it would have been one thing, but something about the thought of receiving one of their professors into their home felt the tiniest bit like they needed to scour the whole place and make sure nothing was out of place and everything was spotless, next level from their respectably clean house.

“Casual, right?” Maya looked around, and that sort of decided it.

“I’ll call them,” Riley moved out of the room even as she tapped at her phone to call her mother.

“We’ll take care of downstairs,” Dylan volunteered, tapping Lucas’ arm, and the boys went bounding down the steps, leaving Maya and Sophie to look at one another before moving toward the bathroom. Three showers later, the place was still a bit humid and messy, and they went to work at fixing all this. They may have been able to shut all the other doors, but not this one.

“My mom said to say that they’re helping the professor pack everything up and then they’re on their way, and also to wait about fifteen minutes before putting on the oven at 450,” Riley reported, appearing in the doorway a minute later.

“That’s great, now check the rooms and shut the doors, please?” Maya called out.

“And go see if the guys need help downstairs?” Sophie added.

“On it!” Riley hurried off.

“Nine chairs…” Sophie muttered to herself. “Do we have nine chairs?”

“First thing tomorrow, we’re going to buy more chairs, because this is getting ridiculous,” Maya breathed, as they kept on working, then, “Riley!” she called out again.

“Yeah?” she returned.

“Can you call Rosa, see if they have like three chairs we can borrow?”

“On it!” Riley declared once again.

Minutes later, Maya and Sophie came down the stairs to find Riley alone, working like a cyclone in the kitchen. She informed them that the guys had gone to Miss Coleman’s house to get the chairs.

“I mean, she’s not going to flunk me if she sees dust anywhere, let’s just… let’s just breathe here,” Maya did just that, looking to her friends.

“The oven!” Riley remembered, moving to turn it on just as she’d been instructed, just as the boys arrived, each of them carrying two chairs.

“We only need three,” Sophie pointed out.

“A spare won’t hurt,” Lucas explained. “The way things are going, we’ll probably need it.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	71. Their Roommates With the Arrival

It had been playing in all their heads, probably, the idea that everyone would arrive and they would still be running around the house, trying to make it cleaner than it already was. But before they could get to something like that, they’d stopped and looked around, finding that… they’d really done all there was to be done. If objects could give off sparkling shine like some cartoons did, to indicate spotless cleanliness, that would be happening right now. All that remained to be seen was how _they_ were looking, after this runaround. Hair, clothes, makeup, everything was checked… Okay, _now_ they were ready.

“Don’t ask me why, but right now all I can think is ‘should we start doing yoga?’” Dylan declared, and the others turned to look at him. Whether it was his intention or not, it made them all break into laughter, which in turn broke the tension of the wait for their guests.

“I think I heard a car door,” Sophie turned her head, and at once both Maya and Riley hurried to the window to look outside.

“They’re here!” Riley confirmed, looking over to her old friend.

“We should go out and help them bring everything in,” Lucas thought aloud, and he went and opened the door as the others filed out and followed, including the dogs. They came to find the four occupants of Mr. Matthews’ car in the process of getting out of their seats, Cory already at the trunk with August, while Topanga walked around the car with Professor Robinson.

“Mom!” Riley went to greet her, while Sophie and the guys went to help with the trunk.

“Good evening, Professor,” Maya approached the woman, unsure if she was supposed to shake her hand, or hug her, or just stand there…

“Now, please, Maya,” the woman laughed. “When you and I will be back in class, that will do, but seeing as we are neither of us anywhere near campus, I would be glad for you to call me Patty.” Why did this make her heart go all flippy? Was this pride? Why wasn’t she talking, what was wrong with her? _Come on, Hart, say something!_

“Thank you, I…” Well sure, she’d spoken, but did it have to be _those_ words? With a sigh and a quick shake of the head, she set herself back on track. “Sorry to hear about the power outage, I’m just glad we were able to have a backup plan.”

“You and me both,” Patty sighed with a smile, recalling the events from all of an hour ago. “It’s a good thing we were at a stage where everything could be transported so easily. We’ll have this sorted in no time,” she declared with confidence, and Maya smiled and nodded, as the professor turned her toward the house so they might go inside. “Will you help me?”

“I… sure, yeah,” Maya promised, taking a quick look over her shoulder to see how the others were doing. She’d been meant to help them take everything in, but they looked like they had everything under control, so she went from being led into her own house to escorting her professor up toward the door. Before they could get there, the dogs, both of them intrigued by the people arriving, zeroed in on the one who remained a stranger. They crowded around her feet, staring up at her.

“Hello there,” Patty stopped and crouched, reaching out her hands to pet the two dogs. She’d seen pictures before, after overhearing her talking about them with Franny and Kayla in class one day and asking to see them. Thanks to that day, she also knew their names, knew little shy Lou and Trix with her shorter leg. They had gotten to a point where they were good, meeting strangers – unless they were of the Josie variety – and even for that Maya couldn’t remember them warming up to new people this fast.

Finally, with the dogs still trailing them, they were able to go in. Maya led her professor through the living room and into the kitchen, where some of the bags had already been taken while they’d paused to greet the dogs outside. Patty Robinson walked into the kitchen like a woman on a mission, and Maya was ready to assist her. She reminded her of Chef Isabel in that moment, the way she would come into the kitchen and instantly appear to be in her element. It didn’t matter that she’d never been here, in this kitchen. She pushed up her sleeves, washed her hands, and they were ready to start.

Meanwhile, Lucas and the others had been told that all was under control and they should sit back and relax. This was accepted at once by most of them, although Topanga did look like she thought she might be needed to assist in the kitchen, while Riley looked like she had expected this of her mother and was now charging herself with the task of keeping her otherwise occupied. August quickly took charge of ‘canine entertainment,’ taking both Trix and Lou out into the yard for a game of fetch. Dylan was quick to join him. Sophie excused herself to answer a call, which left Lucas with his former teacher.

“You know, one of my professors last semester looked so much like you, I started to think maybe he _was_ you,” he ended up saying, which part of him regretted at once, like it was too weird to bring up. Mr. Matthews looked at him. “Maybe I just imagined it,” Lucas shrugged, trying to get this to stop sounding weird.

“When I started college, in the back of my head I kept looking for Mr. Feeny,” Cory revealed with a nod, as though to say ‘I understand where this is coming from’ and possibly ‘I’m honored.’

“Didn’t he teach you there, too?” Lucas asked, recalling, and his old teacher blinked.

“Well… yes… but you get what I’m saying.”

“Sure,” Lucas told him, though now he wasn’t sure whether he was telling him that his double was or wasn’t him after all.

In the kitchen, Maya was trying to get herself out of that headspace where it seemed impossible that she was standing here, in her home, with her favorite professor, just cutting vegetables for a salad. Professor Robinson… Patty… was there, next to her, but the way she was going on, talking about the power outage and the process of their getting here, one might have thought the two of them cooked together all the time, that they were friends, even family, instead of professor and student.

“Maya?” she heard her name called and she realized after a beat that this had been the professor, trying to get her attention. Had she been talking to her while she wasn’t listening?

“Yes?” she blinked, looking at her. “Sorry, I… I get stuck in my head sometimes… chopping vegetables…”

“I understand, I’m the same way,” Patty laughed. “But I was asking if this is your work,” she waved to the large painting on the wall of the living room, which they could see from where they stood in the kitchen. Maya froze, just a bit… possibly a lot… In all the runaround since Riley had told them about the power outage and the change of plans, it had never occurred to her that, with Professor Robinson being in their house, it would mean that the woman would see her own art, which hung in many places all through the house, whether they were paintings or drawings or photos. She didn’t know that she was ready to hear a critique from her of all people, who would know so much more, and…

“Uh, yeah… yes…” she was forced to reply, focusing back on her cucumbers, as a sound alternative to observing her painting at the same time as her professor, who was still very much looking at it from where she stood.

“What’s it called?” she asked.

“Home Made,” Maya answered the question. Chop chop chop… The professor made a humming noise she knew so well from class, telling whoever was speaking to expand on whatever they were saying, that she knew she was expected to explain further. “When we all moved here last summer, it was a big step, you know? All of us, leaving home, parents, siblings… dogs…” The professor chuckled, for the dogs, not the rest, no. She was listening. “We left everything that was familiar, and I know what that feels like, I did it before. It can make you unsure about who you are anymore, so I wanted us to have this reminder. We’re all in there, in some way, the five of us, but others, too, the families we left behind, the friends who are studying far away… It was made for us to know what it means, others when they look at it, well…”

She didn’t want to make it sound as though her professor could not understand, but then that was sort of how it was intended, wasn’t it? Not about her specifically, but anyone. A lot of people who had been to the house by now, they had asked the same question, and gotten the same answer, in some way or another, and that hadn’t stopped them looking at it, trying to decipher it. Some of them, of course, were able to figure out some parts of it, and their friends in Boston and New York could understand all of it, but then it was for them, too.

The professor didn’t say anything. She got back to her own vegetables, and Maya wondered for a moment if maybe she was being quiet so to spare her what she might have been thinking, that she thought it was terrible… But she snuck a look to the side, and she could see Patty smiling to herself, and the smile made her heart grow proud again.

Sophie came back down the stairs a few minutes after going up to take her call, and she was immediately pulled into something of a huddle with two of her roommates. Dylan was still outside with August and the dogs, and Mr. and Mrs. Matthews were looking at some of the pictures on the walls, new additions since their last visit. This left Lucas, Riley, and now Sophie, to whisper to one another.

“How’s it going so far?” Sophie asked the others.

“Mostly okay,” Riley reported, taking a look back to where her parents stood. “It’ll be a while longer before dinner can start though.” That was to be expected, with the unexpected delay they’d been thrown thanks to the power outage in the professor’s neighborhood.

“We’re wondering what we’re supposed to do to entertain everyone in the meantime,” Lucas went on. They had all been looking forward to this evening, throughout the week, with the intention of being guests. Now, they were the hosts, and entirely unprepared, and even though for the most part they were hosting Riley’s family, there was also the professor, who existed in this moment like the biggest wild card. They didn’t know what to expect, how to behave. This was Maya’s professor, not theirs, and even she was looking a bit unsteady in her behavior, which was saying something.

“It’ll be fine,” Sophie insisted. “The more we’re acting like this is a big deal, the more awkward we’re going to get. I mean, look at the professor, she’s in there being The World’s Best Granny and we’re out here acting like she’s Meryl Streep in the Devil Wears Prada!” This made Riley smirk for a beat, before taking in what she’d been told and, like Lucas, allowing it to calm her down.

“So, what do we do then?” Riley asked. Lucas looked back to the kitchen, catching Maya’s eye. He couldn’t exactly give her the same pep talk, but he hoped that she could look at him and feel what he was feeling, and that she could let it work for her, too.

TO BE CONTINUED


	72. Their Roommates With the Wait

“Hey, Lucas, get out here!” Dylan called through the door, drawing him to look back at his friend with a confused look. “We need an opponent,” Dylan went on. Lucas could just see August Matthews not too far behind, holding the basketball in his arms.

“Oh… Well, how about two?” Lucas turned back to Sophie with a look as though to say ‘how about it, Zvolensky?’

“I’m sort of waiting on a call,” she shook her head apologetically.

“Another one?” Riley asked, but Sophie just shrugged, and so Lucas went out alone, joining Dylan and August at the hoop.

“So, it’s you two against me?” he asked.

“No, I’m pretty sure he wants to go up against both of us, one after the other,” Dylan revealed.

Lucas looked to the two of them, Dylan and August, both of them with a decent length of hair, in both cases tied back at the top of their heads at the moment and making them look alike. Dylan had always been great with Riley’s younger brother, and knowing what _he_ knew, about Dylan’s feelings for August’s older sister, it could have seemed like he was just trying to earn points with her, but that wasn’t who Dylan was, not in the slightest. He just genuinely enjoyed hanging out with the kid.

“Sounds good, who’s first?” Lucas looked to August, who was clearly in charge of deciding.

“You against me,” August declared, tossing him the ball, and Lucas caught it with ease.

The game kicked off, one on one, as Dylan stood back to cheer and call the score. August Matthews had hit a growth spurt in recent times which had brought him to surpass both his mother and sister and just about catch up to his father. On the whole, he looked like he might have been ideal for the basketball team, but he’d joined the swim team instead, and from what they’d been hearing, he was their star. Now as for here, with the basketball… He did well enough, but he was clearly outmatched against either of the two of them. You wouldn’t know it by looking at him though, no. He didn’t just play, he watched, searched for his opportunities, and Lucas wasn’t sure he wouldn’t find them eventually.

“Alright, good game,” August came up to shake his hand when it was done and Lucas had won, though the look on his face seemed to say ‘if we were in the pool, I would have flattened you.’

“My turn!” Dylan dashed in now, sweeping up the ball into his hands, tossing it in the air and catching it before giving a nod to August. “You ready?”

Lucas stood back now, watching the two of them play. Looking at him sometimes, he had to remind himself how close Dylan had come to never playing again after the incident on New Year’s Eve, back in the 8th grade. But then why would he ever really doubt it? This was Dylan they were talking about. The guy would fall… he’d fall a lot… but then he’d get back up, show you the scar, and get running again. August seemed to see that, too, seemed to respond to it, look up to it.

“How come you’re not in school like my sister and the others?” August asked Dylan after their game, where he had once again lost.

Dylan looked to Lucas, and the two of them shared a look that seemed to say ‘what do we say?’ The last thing they wanted was for August to go off to his parents and declare his intention not to go to college himself when the time came, just because the guy he looked up to hadn’t done it. They didn’t want to inspire him the wrong way, even though Dylan’s reasons had been entirely valid.

“What?” August asked, looking from one to the other. Lucas had a thought then, and he gave a look to Dylan, who understood and nodded for him to go ahead.

“August, do you know what you want to be when you grow up?” Lucas asked the boy.

“Maybe,” August shrugged, letting the ball fall from his hands and bounce back into them. “I don’t know, it’s still so far away.”

“Okay, well, say you get to the point where you do have to decide, and that’s still what you want, then what happens? You go on to college?”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t figured it out yet,” Dylan volunteered now, and August looked back to him. “I didn’t want to go just to go. Someday, maybe, you know?” The boy took this in, considered it, then nodded. Lucas smiled; they’d been thinking it would be tricky, but instead they’d been shown how mature Riley’s kid brother was growing up to be. “So,” Dylan spoke up now, changing the subject and, going from the grin on his face, they could guess what the question would be before he asked it. “How are things going with you and Michaela?”

“Good now,” August answered him, and to know how he would redden and get quiet when his sister or Maya or Nadine would ask him the same question, it was good to see him a bit more open here, smiling openly. “We got back together last weekend.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Dylan asked, and Lucas was thinking the same thing.

“Oh, well, we’d kind of broken up for a few days, but we made up, so it’s fine,” August explained.

“Do… do you want to talk about it?” Lucas asked, and the boy looked confused.

“Talk about what?” Whatever had caused the micro break, it appeared he had put it well in the past. “Oh, that makes me think though… There’s a concert up here in Houston over the summer. I know Michaela would love to go, do you think, if we got tickets, we could all go together, and we could stay here? I can surprise her for her birthday.”

“Shouldn’t you be asking your parents about this? And Riley?” Lucas asked.

“Well, I was thinking, maybe if you guys were okay with it already it would help to convince them?” August gave a strong smile, suggesting perhaps that he had already asked his parents and struck out.

“We’ll see what we can do,” Dylan stepped up, giving the boy a confident nod, and August’s face split into a smile.

“Thanks,” he tipped his head.

“Alright, come on, rematch,” Dylan took the ball from him. “You and me against him,” he nodded to Lucas, who spread out his arms as though to say ‘really, man?’ “I mean, unless you don’t think you can take us…” he threw a look to August, who now matched his expression.

“Want me to get Maya out here, we’ll see who’s being all confident now,” Lucas chuckled, matching them, before getting back on to ‘the court.’ “Alright, let’s go. Losers do the dishes.”

“So, you’re an octopus now?” Dylan asked, and Lucas had played with him for too many years to fall for his distraction tactics. The game was on and he would give it all he had, even if he was alone against two, especially when one of those two was one of the best players in their group.

For a while, it did seem like he would be able to hold on to the win, even as the team up was riding on his heels, but then they squeaked by him and just edged him out in the end. August cheered loudly at this, though, once he’d stopped, he then declared that, although they had beat him, fair and square, they would all three of them tackle the dishes.

“August Matthews, you are a very good winner,” Lucas declared, clapping the boy on the shoulder, and he grinned.

“Can you show me how you did that one thing before?” he asked, looking to Dylan, who took this request in stride at once, going about coaching their friend’s brother with Lucas’ assistance.

The more they went at it, the closer August came to pulling off some new tricks, some of them not even from their showing him now but from what he’d seen them do during one game or another, and those were the ones he was proudest to show.

Eventually they all went and sat around the patio table, feeling increasingly like they just needed it to be dinner time already.

“I told Michaela that, after high school, I wanted to go to school in New York,” August revealed out of the blue. “That was why we broke up, she thought it meant I didn’t want to keep being with her. But that’s not why,” he shook his head, “I mean I… well, I like her a lot. I also… I miss New York,” he admitted. “Not that I’m not happy here, and now we’ve been here almost the same amount of time as we were back there, in the time since I was born… I still remember it. But I’m starting to forget it, too, and I don’t want that, so I thought if I went back there for school…”

Lucas thought back to those early days when Maya was still relatively new to Texas, remembered how much it pained her to be away from the place where she’d been born, where she’d grown up. Things had changed since then, she’d gotten to a place where she could be at ease with her dual identities, a native of New York and a transplant to Texas, but he could understand what August was feeling now.

“I explained it though, like I’d meant to tell her when I told her I wanted to go. I just didn’t get the chance to say I wanted to know if maybe she’d ever consider going out there, too, then it could be the both of us,” August went on, and there was that little smile again. “I might not know if I’ll still want to be what I think I want to be in a few years, but I know I want to be where she is.”

“I get that,” Dylan thought aloud, breathing out, and Lucas coughed, bringing his friend back to attention before he could end up in a place where he’d spill his secret next to someone very connected to it. “So, what _do_ you want to be right now? You never said.”

“I think I could be a lawyer, like my mom,” August nodded confidently. “Just don’t tell her, okay? She’ll cry and then she won’t stop hugging me.”

“Deal,” Lucas chuckled. She would definitely do that.

“Hey, want to have a shoot off?” Dylan asked.

“I’ll be out first,” August shrugged.

“Hey, you never know. See, the beauty here is it doesn’t matter what skill you’re bringing to the hoop. Everyone misses sooner or later, and sometimes, for all that skill, it’s a lot sooner than you’d think. You just have to take your shot,” Dylan went and retrieved the ball before holding it out to August. “So, what do you think? You want to try?”

Soon, they were up, all three of them, taking their shots. August tended to take longer to line up his aim, but he’d throw and it would go in, and he’d breathe out. The more they went, he did relax a bit, and they kept going. Lucas would watch Dylan, giving quick pointers to August as he aimed, and someday he would think back on this specific moment as the one where he’d known in his gut that this was exactly what he was meant to be, long before he would graduate from his job at the community center and on to coaching the high school team back at their old school in Austin.

TO BE CONTINUED


	73. Their Roommates With the House

After a while, in what felt very much like a miracle, Maya realized she’d sort of stopped reminding herself that she was here, in her kitchen, with her favorite professor at her side. Suddenly, it was just her and Patty, chatting away as they worked to prepare the evening’s dinner for themselves and the other seven attendees.

At one point, the subject turned to the trip which Maya and her friends had taken over the previous summer, the long-planned trek through Europe. She spoke of the cities they’d visited, the sights, and the museum hit list. For each one she brought up, her professor would either express excitement or nostalgia, recalling when she had been to those places herself, and they would discuss the collections as they’d seen them, Maya just months ago and Professor Robinson sometimes decades ago. And if she hadn’t had the chance to go to the places Maya mentioned, she would lament the fact, and then she would inquire about the things she had seen, which Maya was all too happy to tell her about.

“It all sounds like a marvelous adventure…” Patty breathed out with a smile, once they’d gone through all the cities. “The kind you’ll remember for years and years.”

“Counting on it,” Maya smiled back. “We were lucky, too. We saw a lot of things thanks to connections we made with fans of the band.” The professor’s smile widened.

“You girls have really done so much to get to this point, and all on your own. Now that I think about it, I believe my granddaughter’s shown me some videos from last summer?”

“Yeah, we tried to do one in every city,” Maya laughed, thinking all at once of the other thing they did in every city. When her professor seemed to sense there was a story behind that laugh, she explained about the bet she and Asher had lost, them and their former museum guide boyfriends, and the ensuing hat/shirt shenanigans. She pulled out her phone and showed her the pictures, Asher and her mugging like dorks in each image, sometimes with an assist from one friend or another.

“I think this one is my favorite,” Patty laughed lightly, when they stopped on the one from Rome, where they had posed themselves like a couple of very dramatic statues, in their very silly souvenir items. “Have you been to many of the museums since moving here?”

“Actually, no,” she admitted. “Between school, and work, and the band, and visits home… I’ve been to the ones for assignments, of course, but just for myself…”

“I will make you a list,” the professor declared at once. “And you tell them that I sent you, your entry’s on me.”

“I… thank you, Pro… Patty… Thank you,” she could only smile, and the woman gave her one in return.

“Right,” she looked around the kitchen, listing things off in her head before nodding. “We’ve done all we can do now, until everything’s ready in here,” she waved her hand toward the oven. “This is _your_ museum, Miss Hart,” she gestured to the painting on the wall with a knowing smirk. “Will you give me a tour?” She wanted to see her art… oh… there went her heart again.

“I-I… Sure, okay,” she wiped her hands and led her from the kitchen. She caught Riley’s eye, and at once her best friend of old sprang from the couch where she’d been sitting with her parents and came to join them.

“Is dinner ready?” she asked casually, as though she’d only come to ask.

“Not just yet, no,” Patty replied, looking at her with that smile both girls knew to be the one she kept having, seeing Cory Matthews’ girl, remembering when he was that young boy across the fence from her friend George’s house. Following some instinct, Riley went to stand next to the professor, looping her arm with hers as though to say ‘let’s go,’ and the woman smiled, turning back to Maya. “Lead on, Miss Hart.”

So, the ‘tour’ started, with Riley there as the covert buffer to her nerves, and Maya made a mental note to give her friend an extra-large helping of dessert later. It was sort of inevitable, seeing as the two of them were right there on the couch and they were starting in the living room, that Mr. and Mrs. Matthews ended up joining them. Sophie had disappeared up to her room again, when her phone had started to ring, so it was just the five of them, with Maya leading the way.

The painting in the living room was observed for some time, the professor and the Matthews parents inspecting the thing like it was the world’s most intriguing puzzle in need of solving, while Maya and Riley would steal looks to one another, smirking because of course _they_ knew what it was all about. They weren’t about to tell the others, no, but that only made it more fun. Eventually, they moved on to the various pictures on the walls which Maya had both taken and developed. This was much less about interpretation, and some of them were a bit on the silly side, but they all meant something to those of them who lived in this house, some of them ‘before Houston’ and others ‘after Austin,’ as they’d come to call them.

Leading the group up the stairs, Maya felt those nerves twist around her again, as pointless as it seemed for her to even be nervous, when everything of this day so far should have told her it was unnecessary, and that Patty only wanted to see everything because she cared and because she was as curious as _she_ was. Hadn’t she been looking forward to seeing what adorned the professor’s walls all week? Was this why she cared for the professor so much? Did she remind her of herself somehow?

There were more pictures as they went, though not always ones taken by her. When they’d been figuring out how they wanted to make the place look, the one thing that seemed to come up the most was a feeling like they wanted to create their own home, sure, but they wanted it to feel that way, too, and the addition of photos, family photos especially, as they mounted up toward the second floor, went a long way to achieve their goal.

It was only as she reached the landing that she realized how, once they got past the paintings in the hallway here, the next ‘exhibit’ in the Museum of Maya would involve her professor walking through her room, which she’d never imagined might be a thing that happened. This wasn’t even about whether or not the place was presentable, it was just surreal.

She opened the door, stepping aside to let the others through, and she could see the professor scanning the walls already. Of all the things she could have locked on to first, she moved to the part of the wall where three identical frames sat in a row over the dresser. She and Lucas had decided it was time to upgrade to frames, as they would look at the three drawings on the wall and see how the edges of the first especially were starting to show their age. They did look pretty good that way…

“Oh, look at you,” Professor Robinson beamed, looking to the first one, of the boy and girl in 7th grade, meeting one another for the first time. She looked to the next one now, almost three years later, and she nodded to herself with a hum as she understood the progression not only of time but of the relationship between the subjects, here in the summer before 10th grade.

Maya always felt that she was particularly proud of these drawings because she’d managed to express the feelings pretty well, going from those two kids looking at each other like they were feeling the first inklings of something they didn’t even know how to put into words yet, to the one in the middle… Those same kids had gone from strangers to friends, best friends… They’d fallen in love… They looked at each other now, in that image, and they could see a future, him and her together.

“This was the last night before we came home from our trip,” Maya told the professor, pointing to the third and most recent image in the series. Their faces couldn’t be seen in this one, as she’d drawn them from behind, but their postures said plenty. They were sitting together and she was leaning to his shoulder as he had his arm around her, and they were looking at the view from the balcony outside their hotel room, the sun already gone away and the stars emerged. As their return back to Texas had drawn closer and closer, it had really felt like they had traced the boundary between past and future, and sitting there that night, knowing everything that was on its way for them… they were at peace, they were ready.

After a few seconds, she blinked and looked to her ‘tour group’ as she realized she’d just been looking at the drawing and quietly smiling. She cleared her throat, looking around the room for a moment, not sure what to show next. It wasn’t like her old room in Austin, they hadn’t plastered the walls, though there were a couple of paintings, and some photos. Once she’d shown those, she was ready to get them all back downstairs, but then Riley, who she’d brought into this as a way of stopping herself spiralling, had to go and say…

“What about the sketchbooks?” When Maya turned to look at her, Riley was still smiling, but underneath she clearly knew she had said too much. It was too late now, as the professor turned to look at her with expectant curiosity. Maya took a breath before moving to the shelf holding the old sketchbooks that she’d brought from Austin along with the ones she’d worked on over the time since their move to Houston. She wasn’t sure which one to pull down, so she turned to Patty and the Matthews, shrugging and indicating the shelf.

“Why don’t we put a pin in this tour until after dinner, yes?” Professor Robinson piped in, and Maya agreed at once, which made the professor smile. As Riley led her parents off, back into the hall, Maya went to follow but was stopped when she felt her guest’s hand at her arm. “You say the word, and I can conveniently forget about these,” she nodded back to the shelf full of sketchbooks.

“It’s fine,” Maya promised, shaking her head. “It’s not that I didn’t want you to look at them, it’s just… I don’t know…”

“Like I said, it’s up to you. What I may want and what you want are two separate things, and the one that takes precedence is that of the artist, and that’s you.” _What I want right now is to hug you, is that weird?_

“I’ll think about it,” Maya finally told her, and Patty nodded, turning back toward the door so they could start heading back down the stairs. As they went, all Maya could think was how different this evening was turning out than what they’d anticipated. At the same time, she was kind of glad it had happened like this, as unfortunate as the professor’s power outage had been. The fact that they were in her own house, hers and her roommates’, had sort of brought Professor Robinson deeper into their sphere. The night was young yet, and she couldn’t wait to see where it would go. “You wouldn’t happen to have any pictures of Mr. Matthews and my dad?” she asked as they went down the stairs.

“Of course,” Patty laughed. “Wait until dessert.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	74. Their Roommates With the Ice

“We’re out of ice, I’ll go and get some,” Sophie appeared, coming through into the yard. Lucas looked up at this, along with Dylan and August, the three of them still standing around the hoop.

“I’ll go with you,” Lucas offered, tossing the ball to August.

“Uh… sure, okay,” Sophie replied, moving to walk back into the house. Lucas looked to the others, frowning, confused. It wasn’t just him, was it? Dylan shrugged. He didn’t know what was going on either. Lucas headed through the door, too, following along. Sophie was still in the kitchen, though, as Maya and Professor Robinson were there.

“I knew I would forget something,” the woman was shaking her head to herself.

“It’s alright, Professor, I’m going out for ice anyway, what do you need?” Sophie asked her.

A few minutes later, Lucas and Sophie were heading out toward the grocery store together, walking up their street. Neither of them spoke for some time. Lucas was trying to get an impression of what was going on, because it really felt now like his friend and roommate was caught up in the middle of something tonight and none of them had picked up on it before. He stole a look now and again as they walked. Whether she noticed, whether she cared, he couldn’t say. She either didn’t notice or didn’t care or didn’t want to talk. Either way, they stayed this way all the way to the store.

“How do you want to do this?” he asked her, peeking at the list in her hand, written in the professor’s neatly looped lettering. There were a few things for them to pick up, the elements of the dessert. From what Lucas gathered, the Professor had realized she’d forgotten to bring those supplies as she was coming back down the stairs from being taken around by Maya. It would all be fine, she could get it prepared and it would be ready by the time they were through with dinner, but they had to get everything to her so she could do it.

“You can grab the dairy stuff and the ice, I’ll get the rest,” Sophie suggested, tearing the list to give him his part. He hesitated for a moment, looking at her before taking it. Once he did take it, she walked off to gather her half of the ingredients they’d been sent to pick up.

Lucas had gotten to know Sophie a great deal through the dance class they’d both been in, before she’d been all of their friend. And since then, much as they’d all grown and evolved, she had never been too different from who she’d been back then, always with that spark in her, most times resolving itself into something like shyness, but, in the times where they needed it the most, she would transform into someone so driven she was almost scary. It made it so that when something was throwing her off her game it translated into that disruption being very transparent. If they hadn’t all been caught up in the madness of their altered evening plans…

He made quick work of finding his half of the list and the ice, too, and soon he was rolling his cart along the aisles, trying to locate his friend. He heard her before actually seeing her, because what were the odds that he’d hear some other person talking away in Italian in this grocery store today?

She was standing in the middle of an aisle, next to the basket holding a handful of items, talking into her phone, he guessed, to Chiara. He knew she’d been getting and waiting on calls since this afternoon, had they all been Chiara?

Lucas walked up to her, not wanting to come off like he’d been spying on her. When she saw him approaching, Sophie looked like she might be thinking of lengthening the distance between them before remembering he didn’t speak Italian. She held up a finger, telling him to hang on, and he nodded. He couldn’t say exactly she was talking about, but he could see her face, and he really got the impression now that she’d been stressing away about something and they hadn’t seen a thing.

Finally, she said goodbye and, though he didn’t understand the words on the end, the look on her face was enough for him to guess they had meant ‘I love you.’ For a few seconds after she hung up, they stood in silence, Sophie looking just a bit uncomfortable that he’d come along when he had.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s okay,” Sophie shrugged, taking a breath before looking at her half of a list. “I’m almost done,” she told him, and they started down the aisle together.

“Hey,” he touched her arm, and she looked at him. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she replied, though it sounded and looked much too much like she was compensating.

“Sophie, come on,” he called her on it. They stopped at the end of the aisle and she turned to him.

“I didn’t want to say anything until it was for sure, but that’s turning out to be way more complicated than expected, so now I don’t know,” she frowned.

“Until what was for sure?” Lucas asked.

“Well…” Sophie bowed her head a moment before looking back at him. “We’ve been talking for a while about how I’m here and she’s out there, and how we really want to be in the same place, to be _here_ , together. I was going to ask you and the others if you’d be okay with her moving in with us.”

“Oh!” Lucas smiled. “Of course, I mean I’m just saying for me, but I’m sure the others would be okay with it, Chiara’s great, and you…” He paused now, winding back a few seconds into the conversation and recalling what she’d been saying. “But… there’s a problem with that now?”

“A few,” Sophie sighed. As they went on walking, he was glad, if for nothing else, for the fact that she appeared to be experiencing some amount of relief at getting to talk about it. “She’s trying to fix it, keeping me updated,” she held up her phone. “But the more it goes back and forth, it’s only making both of us a bit… worked up.”

“I’m sorry,” he told her, and she breathed out again.

“We’re trying to get closer, but what if it only ends up pushing us apart?”

They stopped again here, and he pulled her a quick hug, which she reciprocated at once, holding for a beat before pulling back with a small, thankful smile.

“I know tonight’s supposed to be this big thing, and I didn’t want to wreck it, I mean… Before we found out about the power outage and we decided to move it to the house, I was going to tell you guys to go on ahead without me to the professor’s house, but… yeah…”

“You’re not wrecking anything,” he promised. “Roomie Rule, you know? We got each other. I think you should tell the others what’s going on, too. Tonight, tomorrow, whenever you feel is best…”

“Thanks, Lucas,” she nodded and smiled, and though the situation was by no means fixed, it did seem to him like a bit of the old Sophie was appearing from within, and that was good to see.

They talked along as they finished out grabbing the things from her half of the list, and then again as they left the store and started back toward the house. Sophie explained the overall issues that existed in getting Chiara out here to Houston to stay with her girlfriend. Lucas didn’t know exactly what he might be able to say to contribute, to help, but listening to his friend was definitely one thing he could do and so he did it.

When they arrived back at the house, they put the conversation on the back burner, leaving it so that it would be up to Sophie to decide what she did or didn’t want to say and whether she’d say it now or later if she did want to share. They didn’t have to work too hard to hide anything, as they were greeted by an eager Professor Robinson, who took the ingredients and disappeared back into the kitchen, calling for Maya to join her once again.

Lucas could see Sophie as his girlfriend was walking away though, and he knew she’d meant to talk to Maya. He cleared his throat and, as he’d hoped, Maya turned and looked at him. He casually tipped his head to Sophie, raising his eyebrows. Maya looked at their friend before turning back to the professor.

“Actually, I kind of need to check on something right now, I… I hope that’s okay, I know you want to get the dessert ready as soon as possible and…”

“I can help,” Lucas offered, raising his hand. “If that’s alright, Professor.”

“Well, don’t just stand there, go wash your hands and we can get started,” Patty waved him over without missing a beat, and so Lucas and Maya crossed one another as she left the kitchen and he walked toward it. He watched her go up to Sophie, and then a moment later the two of them headed up the stairs.

Noticing the absence of everyone else, Lucas turned around and spotted the four Matthews now outside with Dylan, the boys and Riley at the hoop while their parents looked on. Mr. Matthews seemed to be asking to join in.

“Everything alright with your friend?” Patty asked, and he turned back to her. They hadn’t told her a thing, but it just seemed as though they should have expected this, expected her to see right through their covert switcheroo.

“Yeah, she’s fine, it’s just… girlfriend troubles,” he replied, hoping to have been sufficiently brief in his response, so not to toss Sophie’s secrets around like they were his to dispense.

“I see, yes,” the professor nodded, as knowingly as ever. “The heart has a way of overriding all other functions, doesn’t it?”

“It really does,” Lucas moved to stand by her, ready to start helping with the dessert preparations.

“I saw those three images of Maya’s, upstairs. She took me in there herself, don’t worry, I wasn’t snooping,” the woman gave him a smirk and he chuckled. “The two of you seem to have really grown with one another, haven’t you?”

“We have,” he nodded, and it was inevitable that the thought would make him smile, which was almost what Professor Robinson had been waiting to see, as he heard her laugh amusedly.

“I wonder what the next image in that series will be,” she added, with a knowing look, and now all he could think about was Sophie’s referring to the woman as the World’s Best Granny. He could really see it right about now. Mostly, it made him think of his own grandmothers, long deceased but never forgotten. Patty Robinson seemed to have adopted the lot of them now as her unofficial grandkids, and he wasn’t opposed to it.

“If things keep up the way they’ve been going, we won’t know for a couple of years, or maybe three…” Three years from now… they would have known one another just about ten years by then, and he kind of liked the idea of that. Ten years with Maya Hart in his life… the ten best years of his life and, with no disrespect to the other good things in his life, in great part thanks to her being in it. “To be honest, Professor Robinson, I wonder about the next one, too.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	75. Their Roommates With the Service

Maya went along with Sophie into the girl’s room, where they ended up sat on the floor, side by side with their backs against the neatly made bed. They would playfully tease her and say she made beds like in hotels, all the while insisting she didn’t do the same to theirs. This wasn’t the time for jokes though. Maya hadn’t been _so_ blind to her roommate’s situation before. But then the dinner and the evening had just gone and taken over, and she’d never gotten the chance to say anything before. Now, suddenly, she was put in the position to do something, and so she did.

“What’s going on?” she asked, and Sophie looked at her. “Did you have a fight with Chiara?” The way her face sort of trembled, Maya guessed she wasn’t too far off. This was definitely about Chiara, and whether or not there had been a fight, there was definitely trouble brewing.

So, Sophie went ahead and told her what she’d told Lucas back in the grocery store. She told her about the plan or, as it remained until they actually brought it up with all the roommates, the idea of her coming from Italy and moving in with them. Maya smiled here, at once, and she said that would be wonderful. But then, she told her about the troubles they were having in making the whole thing happen, and the tension it had created between them, the constant calls, the updates and the frustration.

“Okay, first things first,” Maya reached for Sophie’s phone – still permanently in her hands – so fast that the other girl didn’t have time to stop her.

“What are you doing?” Sophie sat up when she saw she was typing.

“Texting Chiara, suggesting that the two of you stop this back and forth so she can resolve the situation and let you know when it’s all handled, so you don’t keep working yourselves up so much that there won’t be any reason for her to come anymore.”

“No, wait…” Sophie tried to get the phone from her, very nearly tackling her, but Maya was faster again, and…

“There, sent. Don’t worry, I told her it was me writing.” She handed the phone back, and Sophie quickly read what she’d written. After a few seconds, she seemed to relax, looking to Maya now just a bit concerned, not for the text itself but for whether or not it would work.

“What if she thinks I’m the one who wrote it, pretending to be you?”

“That’s why I included that little bit about when we were at her house over the summer, she’ll remember, see?” Maya nodded back to the phone with a smile. “Also, can you get off me now?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Sophie sat back up at once, and Maya did the same, stretching a bit. There was a ding from the phone, and they both leaned in to look at the screen together. Sophie’s eyes seemed to well up even as she smiled, seeing the reply, and she pulled Maya into a hug.

“See? No sweat,” she hugged her back, laughing. “Now, put the phone away, okay?”

“Yeah, I will, I promise,” Sophie stretched out to put it on her nightstand before looking back to her friend. “Thank you, Maya, I…” Maya waved it off, still smiling. “You know, sometimes I still can’t believe that we’re here, living together, friends like we are. It wasn’t too long ago I was just a fan of your music. It didn’t matter you were a girl at school just like me, you were _Her_ ,” she intoned, making Maya snort before melting into giggles. “It’s true!” Sophie laughed, too. “I mean, I… Okay, I’ve never said this, because, I don’t know, I thought it might make things weird, but you… you were the first girl I ever thought about, that made me think maybe I liked girls like that…”

“What, really?” Maya grinned, seeing her redheaded friend get almost equally red in the face. “Zvolensky, you had a crush on me?”

“Little bit,” Sophie gave a sheepish smile.

“Well, I’m honored,” Maya declared, sitting up. “Sophie Zvolensky had the hots for me…” she sat back dreamily, and Sophie gave her a playful shove that sent her teetering on her side as she laughed again. “Feel better?” she asked, lifting her head.

“Yeah,” Sophie breathed.

“Good, because I think dinner’s going to be ready any minute.” She got up, holding out her hands to pull her friend to her feet. “Want to help me with the service? I’m about to break out my mad waitressing skills down there. Professor Robinson may have done a lot of the cooking, but she’s still our guest, and it’s time she got treated as such.”

“Lead the way,” Sophie agreed with a mighty nod.

The girls headed down the stairs again, finding as Maya had predicted that dinner was just about ready. Everyone had come back inside, and they were in the kitchen, sitting around the table while Patty Robinson stood peering into the oven. Maya went over to stand with her.

“Ah, here you are,” the woman smiled. “Would you look at that?” she nodded into the oven.

“Looks great, smells great,” Maya agreed. “Now, please go and have a seat, Professor.” She opened her mouth to speak, but Maya cut her off, something she wouldn’t have done in class, but seeing as they were being so informal today… “I know it was supposed to be the other way around, but it’s this way around now, which means that you are our guest, so please go and have a seat… Patty,” she winked, and this made the professor chuckle and stand back.

“Very well, very well, I know when I’m defeated,” she marched off to sit next to Cory, the seat on her other side remaining empty, as it would be Maya’s.

She had seen hundreds and hundreds of plates in her days as a waitress by now, and right now this translated in her plating the various elements of their meal in such a way she knew would make Chef Isabel proud. She knew _she_ was definitely proud of how it all looked. After she’d made the first, Sophie nodded, understanding what she wanted, and she helped her make the rest of the plates just like the first one.

“One day, you have to show me how to do that,” Sophie muttered to her as she saw her take up more than two plates at a time.

“Deal. I can be paid in cupcakes,” she whispered back as they moved across the kitchen and went about placing the plates before their guests and roommates, who gave appropriate oohs and aahs upon being presented with their meals. Maya caught sight of Lucas smirking back at her, ‘seeing her in action,’ and she gave an appropriate flounce back for the next couple plates, as Sophie brought over the salad and went about dispensing it in the waiting bowls. It was a rare occasion indeed when they got to break out so much of their dinnerware, and they were kind of glad that they now got that chance, even if it had come at the expense of the professor’s power outage.

There was wine, which Mr. and Mrs. Matthews had brought for the professor and now opened here. It was served to the three of them first, and no issue was made when some of the others asked if they might have some as well. Otherwise, there was also water all around, and soon they were all sat around the table, finally, for this long anticipated and so unexpectedly altered dinner. The professor raised her glass to toast her hosts, thanking them for their swift rescue of the evening.

“To old friends and new,” Mr. Matthews added, tipping his head to the professor.

Patty Robinson, as it turned out, was a pretty solid cook. As she told them, after they’d all complimented her – and Maya for assisting – on the food, she’d spent many years honing her skills, first with her husband as her ‘devoted taster,’ and then her son as well, and her grandchildren, though she had really hit her stride following her husband’s death. She had managed her grief through cooking, and this was where they’d ended up.

“What was his name?” Maya asked. “Your husband.”

“Bernard,” Patty smiled fondly. So, Maya smiled back, raising her glass.

“To Bernard,” she called the new toast, and the others followed along, as the professor pressed her hand to her student’s shoulder with a grateful nod.

“To Bernard.”

As they ate, the subjects shifted this way and that, from things of the present to those of the past. They shared stories, and often times laughed enough that they paused in their eating so not to choke. When one or another of them asked for seconds, Maya or Sophie would get up to refill those plates. There would be no leftovers here, but there would definitely be room for dessert, its scent wafting sweetly toward them as their plates were cleared of food and cleared from the table, piled into the sink where they were claimed to be the responsibility of Lucas, Dylan, and August.

They didn’t go right into dessert, especially as it needed to cool after it had been pulled from the oven. They sat around the table and went on talking as they had done before. As promised, the professor had brought along pictures from those old times back in Philadelphia, and she brought them out now, with an amused grin at the look of mild panic on Cory Matthews’ face.

“Now, now, I don’t see what you have to worry yourself over, you were an adorable child. Mind you, some of the stories I heard from George over the years, oh…” she laughed.

“Do you hear that?” Cory turned to Topanga. “I was an adorable child,” he repeated with a proud smile.

“Yes, dear,” she patted her husband’s hand, and he frowned as though unsure whether she was agreeing or mocking him.

“See, here, as I was searching for some of these to show you all, I realized there were times where that little curled head appeared even though it had not been intended to be part of the photo,” she pulled one image from the envelope she’d taken from her bag. They could see a younger Professor Robinson, in her redheaded days, with a younger Feeny, at what they were told had been a New Year’s Eve party, at his house. But as fascinating as it was to see them this way, they could just see in the back, through the window, a couple of curious faces staring in. Lucas, at her side, leaned in to look.

“And not just him,” Maya laughed, recognizing her father, before stretching out her arm to show the picture to Riley, too. She gasped, then laughed along, as both Dylan and Sophie, sitting on either side of her, leaned in to see, too. Cory finally got to see, as the picture was passed to August, and then to Topanga. She looked at the image, her two old friends as she’d known them so long ago, and she could only smile.

“If I remember it right, we were bored back at my house, because there was something wrong with the television and my parents were arguing about how to fix it. Eric was at a friend’s house, and Morgan was sleeping, so we thought we’d see what Feeny was up to when we heard music.”

“Did he bust you?” Maya asked, smirking.

“If _I_ remember,” Patty chimed in, “The moment he turned and saw them there they ran away and disappeared.” They all burst out laughing once again, before moving on to the other photos.

TO BE CONTINUED


	76. Their Roommates With the Guests

The dessert he had helped the professor prepare had been well worth the wait, and Lucas may not have been in charge of the most difficult parts of its preparation, but he had been involved enough that he was sort of happy to see how much everyone was enjoying it. When all was said and done, which included second helpings by just about every last one of them, until there was no more, and coffee and tea and milk to accompany it, the rest of the evening went by remarkably quick.

Eventually, he volunteered himself to drive the visiting Matthews to their hotel for the night, as they had taken a cab to the professor’s house and were driven here by their intended host. Professor Robinson wasn’t ready to head home just yet, and the Matthews had had a long day, a long drive from Austin, so Lucas offered to play driver for them. Riley was coming, too. August had something he’d brought to show her, but he’d forgotten it in the hotel room.

“And you won’t have to drive back on your own,” Riley told him as they walked to the car, grinning happily.

“You all pulled this evening together so well,” Mr. Matthews told him, sitting in the passenger seat next to him. In the back, Mrs. Matthews was watching her children, as Riley pointed out this place and that one as they drove by, telling her brother about them.

“We did what we could,” Lucas shrugged.

“No, you did a lot more,” his old teacher insisted, smiling, almost too much, like he was trying to keep himself from getting too emotional, and Lucas could see him looking into the rear view mirror, to his family… to his daughter, his little girl who was not so little anymore, living away from home and doing better than fine.

When they reached the hotel, Lucas stayed in the car as the others went in. Several minutes later, Riley came back out and climbed into the front with him.

“What did August want to show you?” he asked as they pulled away and started back toward the house.

“Can’t tell you, brother-sister privilege,” she mimed zipping her lips.

“Okay,” he just chuckled as they drove on.

It was in no way by design, but it was very rare that the two of them would end up hanging out on their own. One or more of their roommates or friends would be there, too, usually, and whenever it was just him and her, well… More and more, he couldn’t help but look at her and wonder if she could possibly ever feel for Dylan as Dylan felt for her.

He sort of wanted it for them, he really did. They were two of his closest friends, Dylan for the major part of his life and Riley for the past near six years, and their energy had always just sort of matched. He’d heard the whole ‘opposites attract’ thing a lot, and this wasn’t it. The two of them weren’t necessarily identical, by comparison, but seeing the two of them together… they made sense. Would this only ever translate as a tight friendship? Maybe… That was kind of what he wanted to figure out, though he knew he couldn’t pry, not too much, not without divulging something he wasn’t supposed to talk about or even really know about.

If she only knew though… If she’d only seen what he’d seen, heard what he’d heard over these past few years… If she only knew how she’d gone and gotten their Dylan all caught up in her for all this time, never wavering, never lessening, only growing and expanding. It was the kind of feeling, in the kind of person Dylan was, Lucas knew deep down would survive just about anything. If it came about that Riley didn’t feel for him the way he felt for her… Well, he wouldn’t exactly blink and forget about it, no, but Lucas had a feeling that all Dylan would really want would be for Riley to be happy, whether it was with him or not.

But if it ever came that she _did_ feel the same way, oh…

It took him some time to realize Riley wasn’t talking, which really should have been much easier for him to pick up on. She’d been talking on and on while they were headed up to the hotel, but now she had nothing.

“Tired?” he asked, catching a look of her sitting there, looking out the window as they went. When he spoke his one word it took two repeats and the addition of her name before she rolled her head against the seat so that she was looking his way.

“What?” she asked.

“Are you tired?” he repeated, again, and she blinked.

“A little, I guess.” He didn’t exactly think she was _not_ tired, but he wasn’t sure she was giving the whole story either. It had been a pretty big day for all of them, and it had been a really good one, too, for all of them… well, most of them for a while, then all of them once Sophie had opened up about her situation with Chiara. Riley had been doing just fine this whole time, so whatever had gotten her down must have happened while she was in the hotel with her family. He didn’t even need to ask her what was going on now that he’d figured this much out.

Her family had been here, they were _still_ here, back at the hotel… but she wasn’t with them, and it hadn’t felt good to think about that.

Lucas thought about Maya right then. They had been planning to make the most of whatever was left of their Friday night once all the guests were gone, but now… If it didn’t feel right to him to let this feeling in their friend just keep on festering, then he could imagine how it would sit with the girl who’d been Riley’s best friend longer than any of them had known either of the former New Yorkers. As deeply as the nostalgia and the distance had hit for Riley, they were all going to make sure she was able to bounce back as much as possible.

“Earlier when we were playing with him outside, August mentioned this concert he wanted to go to over the summer,” he recalled even as he said it out loud. At the mention of her brother, Riley grew attentive again.

“He did?” she asked.

“Yeah, well… he sort of wanted to test the waters first, I guess. It’s here in Houston… and he wants to take Michaela with him. Actually, he knows she’d want to go so he wants to take her there,” he explained with a smile. “They’d have to stay with us, and…”

“That’d be great,” Riley cut him off at once, clearly excited all over again.

“Your parents and the Zhus don’t even know about any of this yet, they could say no,” he pointed out.

“Oh, I can get them to say yes,” Riley waved this off like the absolutely smallest of inconveniences. “Me and Nadine, we can talk them into it.”

“So, does that mean you’re warming up to the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing?” he asked, teasing.

“I wasn’t… I’m not _against_ it, it’s just weird,” she admitted. “None of you guys have little brothers or sisters back home. Well, Maya does, but they’re either too little or she hasn’t seen them grow up since they were tiny babies, but August… Auggie…” she sighed. “It’s like it all happened so fast and now he’s tall… he’s so tall… and he’s growing up, and…”

“And he has a girlfriend now,” Lucas nodded.

“Yup,” Riley sighed.

“But it’s a good thing though, isn’t it? The growing up part, I mean. He couldn’t be little forever.”

“Couldn’t he though?” Riley insisted. “Everything’s changing, everyone… Farkle and Isadora are married, and before we know it it’ll be Zay and Nadine, too, or Asher and Ray, or Joey and Rebecca, or…” she turned to look at him. _Or you and Maya._ “And now Chiara is coming to be with Sophie, or she’s trying to… And…”

She grew quiet now, and he tried not to look too much like he was staring, trying to see the thoughts on her face. Was she thinking about Dylan now? What was she thinking?

“You know that whatever comes, we’ll always be friends, all of us, right?” he asked her, and if nothing else she _did_ smile at that. “And there’s still the band.”

“Yeah,” that made her smile, too. Of all of them, she might have been the one who came as the most unexpected member of TXNY, which sounded almost like a bad thing even though it was anything but. It was true though, that Maya, and Rosa, and Kayla and Willow, they all sort of gave off a vibe of these stage personas. And before them, Nadine had done the same, even Isadora, to some extent, just came off as the quiet one but still had that about her, whereas Riley might have been the only one of them who could tell people she was in a band, vastly popular or otherwise, and be met with the most surprise and disbelief.

As they reached the house, he wasn’t sure anymore if their assistance would be needed anymore, to perk Riley up again. He’d just sort of managed it once he’d gotten her talking. When they walked through the door, they found Dylan and Sophie sat on the couch, watching a movie that was playing on television, passing a huge bag of chips between the pair of them.

“How are you guys still hungry?” Riley asked, surprised, though all it took was for Sophie to offer up the bag and the brunette was hurrying forward to dig her hand inside.

“The professor’s still here?” Lucas asked Dylan. Her car was still outside, as he’d seen.

“Yeah, she’s upstairs in your room with Maya. I think they’re looking at more of her art,” Dylan explained before turning to Riley and nodding to the bag of chips with solid pleading eyes. Riley chuckled and held it out to him. He took it with a bow of the head in thanks, even as Riley came around the couch and plopped herself down at his side, so now it was the three of them watching the movie.

“Come on,” Sophie tapped the space next to her. He was curious to know what was happening upstairs, but he figured he might as well sit over here and wait until they came back down. Sooner or later, the professor would have to head home for the night, right? Or was she planning to just sleep over? That was kind of a joke, but then there was that mannered part of him that wondered, what if her power was still out, it wouldn’t be right for her to go home to no power if she could be here _with_ power. Or maybe it was just that her presence and her essence felt like it belonged here from the moment she’d walked through the door.

As the minutes ticked on, he could just see Riley adopt Dylan’s shoulder as her new pillow. It was hardly out of the ordinary for her, and they’d all filled out the job one day or the other. Either way, while they were here, while the chosen one happened to be Dylan… Lucas’ old friend looked like he’d never been entrusted with so valiant a task, while Riley looked contented in such a way that it started Lucas wondering all over again. He really needed to put those thoughts out of his head… especially before Maya came back down and joined them again.

TO BE CONTINUED


	77. Their Roommates With the Departure

When Riley’s family had started to talk about heading back to their hotel for the night, Maya realized this would mean Professor Robinson would be leaving, too, as she’d been their ride. Remembering their ‘tour’ through the house earlier, all those sketchbooks, she wondered if maybe she should have shown them to their guest back then, even if it would have made her kind of uneasy, with her and the professor and Riley and her mother and father, all together, staring at these images she’d drawn in great part sitting on her own, quietly bent over the page… It wasn’t as though she’d never shown them to anyone, but for the most part when she _had_ shown them, it had been a sort of one-on-one thing, a purposeful reason behind it, but now…

But then, almost as soon as Mr. Matthews had brought up the wish to bring this evening to an end, the professor had surprised them all – Maya likely most of all and in the best way – when she declared that she wasn’t quite ready to go herself. She wanted to stay here a little while longer.

“I’d be glad to pay for your cab,” she’d added, and even as Mr. & Mrs. Matthews were insisting that it wouldn’t be necessary, Lucas had stepped up and offered to drive them, so, just like that, everything was settled. Riley would accompany Lucas in driving her family to the hotel, while Professor Robinson… Patty… would remain here.

Maya waited until Sophie and Dylan had said their goodbyes to Mr. & Mrs. Matthews and August before moving forward to do the same. She got some good hugs in, which they promised to pass on to her parents and siblings when they were back in Austin the next day, and then, once they’d said goodbye to the professor, they followed Lucas and Riley to the car.

Sophie asked Dylan if he wanted to throw the ball around for a bit, which Maya guessed was her way of pulling him aside and telling him about the possibility of Chiara moving in with them, just as she’d told Maya, Lucas, and Riley already.

“Well,” the professor turned back to her student and host, with a smile as innocent as it was mischievous. “Here we are.” Maya smirked, seeing through to what she was asking without asking.

“You said this was my museum earlier, so… Would you like the… curator’s tour?” she asked, and the professor’s smile grew.

“Lead the way,” she gestured toward the stairs, and Maya did just that.

“This won’t get either of us in trouble with the school, will it? I mean, you being here and all… Like preferential treatment or something?” she asked, not so much because she wanted to but really because it felt like she had to, as the thought occurred to her.

“Not at all. My work speaks for itself… and so does yours,” she assured her, and Maya gave a nod, hoping she was right. She didn’t know that she’d ever felt so inspired by a teacher as she’d done by her, and the last thing she’d want would be to lose her.

Stepping back into the room now, just the two of them, she didn’t feel the same hesitation at pulling from her sketchbooks. Before, she’d felt more likely to stand before that shelf to hide it from view than to reach in and pull one free. Now… she just had to figure out which one to take out first. She hadn’t brought all of them, only the ones she felt she couldn’t part with for any extended amount of time. She would peruse them sometimes, calling back memories, calling on inspiration… She would remember everything, where she’d been, what she’d been feeling… It was better than a diary, or it _was_ a diary, the kind that could be shared, with the right people.

“Uh… here…” she went to her desk, moving a few things out of the way. She’d thought of maybe getting some reading done later tonight, when all was said and done, and she’d left her things there as a reminder. By now though she doubted she would crack a book open until the next day.

“Thank you,” the professor tipped her head to her before taking a seat. She smiled, looking at the pictures of Maya’s family – the one in Austin, and the one in New York – sitting in the corner of her desk. Meanwhile, Maya was at the shelf, crouching and tracing her fingers along the spines of her sketchbooks. Many of them were identical in brand and format, the one she preferred. Even without identification, something in the wear of each one, after being held in her hands or on her lap so many times, allowed her to tell them all apart. Others were different, bought specifically to stand out, like the ones she’d used over the summer. And… the very first one.

“This one,” she saved the smile for herself before standing up again and bringing the book to the desk, setting it before the professor.

“Tell me about it,” Patty looked up at her, attentive.

“We moved from New York when I’d just started the 7th grade, and I was… I was not happy. I was being taken away from everything and everyone I knew, and I just… shut down. My mother and I drove the whole way to Texas, it took a couple of days. Somewhere along the way, we stopped, and… my mother found a store, and she bought me that book, some pencils. It became like… a lifeline. If I didn’t have that, I don’t think I’d be the same.” _And after that, Lucas, all the others, they got me the rest of the way._

“May I?” the professor asked, touching the cover, waiting for her to give the go ahead. Maya nodded, smiling.

Even if she hadn’t paged through it as often as she did, she would have known exactly what the professor would find at each turn. She pulled the chair around from Lucas’ desk and came to sit with her. She thought she’d feel shy about showing these. She’d been so much younger, and her skills had evolved greatly since then, which wasn’t to say that it was bad, far from it. It was just different, and she was proud of what it represented. It was a piece of her younger self, preserved on paper.

If she hadn’t been in the woman’s classes as she was, if she didn’t pay attention in those classes, she might have been concerned by the fact that she wasn’t saying anything, wasn’t really giving any clear signs of what she might be thinking of these drawings. But because she did pay attention, she knew that the professor would disappear behind her mind’s eye as she took it all in. The fact that she continued to turn the pages, stopping at each one for a good amount of time, was all she needed to see. If she didn’t see anything she liked, she would have stopped already. She didn’t coddle her students, and maybe that was what she’d meant when she said her work spoke for itself.

“Ah, what are these?” she finally spoke, when she’d reached the back and found some loose pages.

“These are from before the move,” Maya told her. “When we were going to be leaving, I just… I wanted to remember everything. Our old apartment, my old room, my school, my friends…” She smiled, seeing the drawing she’d done of Riley and Farkle… They felt so much younger there, which, of course, they were, but still…

“There are so many things I only wish I’d been able to capture as you did, when I was younger,” Patty shook her head with a smile. “I could never quite get under the expression ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ ‘Pictures can tell a thousand lies’ is more like it. Not always, no, but more often than not they’ll show what they want to show, no heart at all… I look at these though,” she pulled the pages back, one by one. “There’s no lie here. I see you, Maya,” she smiled at her, and Maya smiled back. “I know it took some courage, to bring me in, to let me see you be in any way vulnerable.” The page where she’d stopped, Maya looked at it and remembered how she’d been crying that day, crying for missing New York and her friends, her whole world.

“Here…” she stood and went back to the shelf, reaching deftly for the one she sought out now. Patty received it gladly, setting it atop the first and opening it out, starting her quiet contemplation. This time, she did stop, but it was not for dislike. Instead, she leaned in, fingers following lines without ever touching them, and when Maya saw which image had brought her in for closer inspection, she knew she’d picked right. She didn’t even have to tell her a thing.

Patty turned her eyes up after a moment, looking to the trio of framed drawings on the wall. This could just as easily have been part of it. This was what she’d drawn, coming home from her first date, where she’d gone out with Joey Garcia after he’d asked her, and where, unbeknownst to them, Rebecca Fitz had been sitting opposite them and had her heart taken by the boy she’d yet to see. It was the night where, riding the bus back home, everything had clicked, and she’d known… she’d known just who really and fully had her heart from the beginning.

“He gave me this book for my birthday that year… and the pencils at Christmas before that,” she revealed. There was no need to specify who ‘he’ was. “I was waiting for a special occasion to break them in.”

“And what was it that brought it on?” the professor asked.

“Uh… a date… with another guy,” she revealed, which made her laugh. “It all worked out for the best, I mean _he_ met his girlfriend, he’s still one of my closest friends… He’s on Broadway now, which is really weird to think about, he’s like the shiest guy you’ve ever met.”

“Oh, is he?” the professor asked enthusiastically. “Musical or play?”

“Musical,” Maya smiled, trying to keep herself from going to that giggling space, imagining him dancing up there. Her quiet little Joey friend… “We’re hoping to head up there and see him over the summer. From what we’ve heard, I think if we didn’t have an ‘in’ with him, we probably couldn’t get tickets. It kind of blew up over the last few months, now it’s everywhere.”

“Oh, that’s what he… Which one is he?” Pulling out her phone, Maya found a picture and showed it to her.

“Him, here,” she pointed, as both Garcia twins were standing side by side in the photo.

The professor eventually went back to paging through the sketchbook with Maya’s bus ride revelation, once again in quiet contemplation. When she was done, she sat back, nodding to herself.

“I would love nothing more than to sit here and look through all of those, too,” she indicated the shelf. “But I’m afraid I need to start making my way back. Much to be done tomorrow.” Maya nodded, rising from her chair. “What would you say to our calling this… to be continued. You and the others should come by the house next week, I can receive you all as had been intended, show you a few items from my own collection… and you could bring a few more of your books.”

“I… That’d be great, thank you,” Maya didn’t even try and hide how happy this made her, and the professor smiled, nodding.

“Excellent. We’ll confirm a date in a few days, yes?”

They made their way back down the stairs, where they found all four of Maya’s roommates piled together on the couch, watching television. When Maya cleared her throat, they all sprang up to their feet, some more gracefully than others. They came around, each one thanking the professor for the meal and the evening, even if she hadn’t been their host anymore. They saw her out to her car, loading in the containers of all she’d brought over.

When her car had driven away, Maya breathed in, out, before turning to where Lucas stood. After playing it cool all evening, she could only contain all those giddy, overwhelmed feelings for so long, and the way her face lit up, it just made him grin right back.

“Good evening?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

“Great enough that I think you know exactly what I want to be doing right now,” she tipped her head, hugging him back.

“Does it involve a sketchbook and some pencils?” he guessed.

“If it wasn’t so late, I’d break out the paints and canvas.”

“Wow, sounds serious,” Lucas teased. “What’s the next tier after that?”

“I don’t know, I could finally give sculpting a shot,” she played along.

“Need a model?” he turned his head up, angling for a pose.

“Pretty sure if I ever reach that ‘tier,’ it will probably be because of you already.”

In the end, she settled for the sketchbook and pencils. After the time they’d spent looking through her old ones, it felt like that was exactly the medium for her to immortalize everything she felt about this evening. She got into her regular spot on the couch with the others, though she couldn’t say she paid too much attention to whatever the others were watching, she did look at them every so often, as she’d recall some part of the evening or another.

She looked to Sophie, and she hoped so much for her and Chiara to work things out, to get to be together at last.

She looked to Riley, and she could just see traces of something like sadness in her, which made her think saying goodbye to her parents again must have gotten to her, though she looked like she was working through it.

She looked to Dylan, between the other girls, listening to Riley as she whispered to him about the show they were watching. He’d been so great with August earlier, she’d seen them outside as she worked with the professor in the kitchen, and she could tell August really looked up to him. Maya had always known Dylan to be so reliable where Riley was concerned, and it looked as though this extended to her little brother, too. The way he was looking at her now…

The tinkling of her pencil dropping in the binding of her sketchbook made her blink, and she must have made a sound, too, as Lucas turned to her, asking with his eyes if she was alright. She could just sit there, her jaw raising and dropping, but she couldn’t think straight, and she didn’t trust herself to speak. But then Lucas’ eyes went a bit wide, and maybe she didn’t need to say a thing at all.

TO BE CONTINUED


	78. Their Advance Toward Progress

They were just days away from finals. Soon they would be through with their first year of college, it would be summer… It would be different from all previous summers, but they were more than ready for it. Just getting to sit those finals was already proving to be a never-ending climb up into The Stress Zone, as Shawn had called it when Maya had last called home.

The last few weeks had not kept them twiddling their thumbs either. There were the last few weeks of class, with all the work they entailed. And there were other things to play at their minds, too… some of them.

That night, after the Mathews family and Professor Robinson had gone away, when they’d been unwinding on the couch, the five of them, and the realization hit her…

Lucas pulled for Maya to follow him up the stairs, leaving the others to make of it what they would, which would, if nothing else, promise them that no one would try and barge into their room once the door was shut. Maya set her sketchbook and pencils down on her desk before spinning back around to face Lucas, waiting for him to say something, to explain, to confirm or deny…

“Say something,” she finally pleaded, stepping up to him when he didn’t speak up.

“About what?” he tried for innocence and she frowned at him, showing how little chance he had of her buying that, when he had been the one to drag her up here just then. “Alright, okay, fine, I…”

“ _Riley?_ ” she whispered, and he stood there for a moment, scratching at the back of his head before letting out a breath.

“Yeah… yeah…” he could only confirm now, and she started pacing around, unable to process it all just like that, two words, really one word repeated, as though it could capture the magnitude. “Okay, but look, you can’t say anything, not to her, probably not even to him.”

“Of course, I’m not going to say anything, I’m not new at this,” she pointed out, still pacing.

“Are you upset though?” he asked, and she stopped, turned.

“What do you mean?”

“About Dylan and the whole…”

“I am still trying to wrap my head around it, I haven’t had time to make up an opinion, but _you_ ,” she pointed at him like she was remembering something, and he took a step back like he thought he was about to get smacked. “You’ve known about this, you said so. How long?”

“I…” he blinked, unsure what to say or not say.

“Oh, come on, I already know it’s her, I earned this, so come on, spill, please?” she came right up to him, hitting him not with the pinch of a smack but with the pull of a pleading look. He frowned, unable to counteract the effect.

“Okay, okay, it…” he sighed. “Remember that time, the Babineaux party, the time you all sang together, you and Riley and Nadine and Isadora, and then Riley said that you should start a band?” Maya thought for a moment, briefly smiling to herself at the memory but then just as quickly blinking and shaking her head like it would realign her thoughts.

“Wait, but that was like three, no… four years ago, that was… that was _four years ago_ ,” she stared at him in awe.

“It was, yeah,” he slowly nodded. She stood there for a few seconds, letting it all sink in properly. Four years… Four years Dylan had feelings for her best friend and she’d had no idea… _Four years_ …

“Wow…” she breathed, she… laughed, smiling. Something in her felt like the lightest feather could have knocked her right into happy crying. Truth be told, now that she really, _really_ thought about it, about them, the possibility of them… She’d always joked that whoever came to claim her Riley had better be worthy of her or they’d have Maya Penelope Hart to answer to. Well, right now, all she could say was that if that person turned out to be Dylan Orlando… He had worthy written all over him.

“You alright?” Lucas smiled, a little too much, like he was calling her on her ghost tears.

“Shut up, yes,” she did smack him now, though without any sort of force.

And that was that. Now she knew, and as promised she played like she had no idea. In the back of her mind though… The one thing that remained to be seen, and on this Lucas had at least managed to pick her brain, was whether the feelings were mutual. For as long as Riley had been a part of their group of friends, none of them could claim to know her half as well as Maya did, so if there was anything there for them to see that no one else would spot…

As Maya had told her boyfriend though, she genuinely didn’t know. She hadn’t seen any signs that Riley did, but as she’d told Lucas, it didn’t mean they weren’t there all along if she _did_ like him. The fact was that, as she got to thinking about it, maybe she’d been blind to it all, all those years, because it had never occurred to her to look. That might have sounded bad, as though there was any kind of blame to be put on Dylan, like there was anything wrong with him. That wasn’t it at all though, no. She’d just never thought about him like that, because, well, he’d never had a girlfriend – or boyfriend, for all they knew – or even been a date. Maybe he didn’t feel for people that way, and that’d be fine, too. Of course, now that she knew what she knew, it introduced a new option: there’d been no one else, because of her, of Riley. But if that was the case, then wouldn’t it be just sad? Would he be forever alone if she didn’t end up liking him back?

A week later, Saturday morning, the five of them made their way to Professor Robinson’s house, not for dinner but for breakfast. As the professor told them, much as she loved any kind of cooking, breakfast was favored by plenty and plenty more, and for good reason: it was the best.

“Hey, don’t tell her I said it, but this spread is putting your mother to shame,” Maya whispered to Lucas when they arrived.

“I won’t if you won’t,” he whispered back, caught between awe and hunger.

They’d eaten as well as they’d done the week before, better even. Patty loved her breakfast foods, no doubt about it, loved them so much she’d mastered them all. She could have had her own restaurant, and maybe she would, someday. Maya could picture it, that smiling woman using her life to bring joy and pancakes to people when she was done with teaching.

If the food wasn’t enough, the house… It was everything she’d imagined and plenty more she couldn’t have known to imagine. If a house could be made in the image of its owner, this one was definitely Patty Robinson. It was vibrantly colorful and full of heart, all of it. Pictures on the walls chronicled much of her life, and then there was the art. She recognized pieces from artists she’d mentioned as being some of her favorites.

Maya could have stood there and stared at them all for hours, like she would in the museums.

And there’d been her sketchbooks, too. As promised, Maya had picked out two of them, in this case her two travel logs, the one from her vacation with her parents, and the one from their trip the previous summer. They were some of her favorites, couldn’t help but being that way. They represented days in her life she had never thought she could ever possibly live, when she’d been little, when it had been just her mother and her in the old apartment, getting by as best they could. How far they’d come from those days…

The professor had been more talkative as she paged through this time, only for recognizing some sights she’d been to herself or inquiring after others she hadn’t seen with her own eyes. The others had been around them this time around, but then they had been there with her, too, for the second sketchbook’s tales at least, and it was good to hear their own stories. It all brought them back to those great days together, and it took the professor right into it with them.

It wasn’t the last time they shared meals with her, in the last few weeks. She’d been back to their house, and they’d been back to hers, sometimes all of them, sometimes just Maya and Lucas, or Maya alone. Sometimes they shared lunch or dinner at school.

“How would you like to assist me on a project, in September when the new semester starts?” Patty asked Maya one afternoon when she’d been over at their house. When she heard the professor chuckle, she guessed she must have been sitting there silently stunned. “Is that a yes? There’s pay, it’s not much, but it’ll go toward your degree as well, and…”

“Yes… yes,” Maya finally spoke, then, realizing she’d cut the professor off, she covered her mouth before muttering a quick ‘sorry.’

“Good, then it’s settled,” the professor beamed happily.

The last few weeks, leading up to now, to the finals’ approach, that had all been part of the load of thoughts, _her_ load of thoughts. They all had theirs. Finals, and work, and summer, family, and friends, and the band, plans made and plans to make… If nothing else, it all worked to give them balance, having not only the present to think about, with all associated stress, but also the future, with its promise of good things aplenty.

Alright, so the stress wasn’t so ready to be brushed off, and the closer they got to the start of finals, the more pronounced was the feeling it gave them. But they’d made it through before, and they would do it again, and again… And if it ever got to be too much, well they had each other to turn to, and that was the part that mattered the most.

“We should have a party, when this is all over,” Sophie declared, that morning, as they drove over to school. “Kind of like the team party, only just our friends, not like Halloween.”

“That’d be great!” Dylan declared, sitting in the back between Riley and Sophie. “I wonder if I can hire the catering for it.” He was coming along with them today, as he said it, to be moral support and also the fetcher of snacks and meals, as they were bound for a day of studying at the library. He had the day off, and he felt it was a better use of his time than to sit at home and do nothing productive.

“We could tell everyone to put on fancy dress,” Riley piped in, turning to him, and Dylan grinned and nodded at the idea. In the front, Lucas and Maya shared a quiet look and a smirk before Lucas put in his piece with a straight face.

“It’ll be good, won’t it? To look like humans again after we’re through with finals.”

“Yeah, I’m planning to devolve into full on crazy eye, lion hair,” Maya gave him a preview, before melting back into her smile. “Just you wait until that party though,” she drew her hand over her face, unveiling it now in full glamor pose.

“And cupcakes, we need cupcakes,” Riley added.

“And music,” Sophie added.

“And for old times’ sake, a shoot off at the hoop!” Dylan closed off, winning approval all around.

TO BE CONTINUED


	79. Their Advance Toward Finals

“When we go down to Austin this summer, we could go camping with Pappy Joe like we used to,” Maya told him on Saturday morning. They’d just gotten off from their regular call with Maya’s little sisters and her parents and, rather than to go from their room to grab breakfast with the others, Lucas had preferred to grab hold of _her_. He pulled her back into his arms, where she laughed before settling contentedly and putting her arm over his. “Do you think he could?”

“Maybe,” he considered this now. They hadn’t been able to have one of those trips in so long, for one reason or another. If his grandfather felt up to it, it would be great for them to get to reignite the old tradition. And if he didn’t… should they still do it without him?

“You’re working early today, yeah?” Maya asked, turning so she might look at him properly. He stretched his head back to get a look at the clock before looking back to her face, swimming over his.

“I have to be there in an hour,” he confirmed with a sigh. “In there all day, but Tracy’s cool with me studying when there’s lulls. Tomorrow I’ve got the day off…”

“So do I,” she nodded. “Another day in the stacks, huh?”

“I don’t know, I wonder if maybe we could settle in at the Nook, like we did before…”

“At Ma Maggie’s,” she remembered, smiling. “I know we’ve been there a few times…”

“Three times a week at least…”

“But they don’t _know_ us the way they did at Ma Maggie’s, do you think they’ll just let us settle in all day?”

“If we keep buying food, why not?”

“So, to recap,” she started to enumerate, tapping his chest with one finger and another at each item, “You, me, books… pancakes… more pancakes… bacon… fruit… more pancakes…”

“Potatoes,” he pitched in, and she grinned.

“Potatoes,” she tapped this one in. “Waffles… coffee…”

“So much coffee,” he breathed.

“Did I mention pancakes?” she pondered.

“Couple of times, yeah.” She hummed, leaning forward to kiss him, and for a minute or so it was all they did, might have done more if not for the fact that he _did_ have to get to work. Instead, she pressed her forehead to his, both of them breathing deep.

“Sounds like we have a plan then,” she told him. “For tomorrow. For _today_ … you go ahead and get ready, I’ll see what kind of breakfast I can get ready for you before you head out.”

“You’re working from lunch to closing, what are you doing until then?” he asked, pushing himself up on to his elbows and watching her go as she climbed out of the bed and started toward the door. Now she stopped, thinking about the question before smiling.

“It’s a nice day… Might be nice to hang out in a bookstore for a while… browsing… getting to interact with the stellar staff…”

“We’re very friendly that way,” he agreed, and she moved off with a chuckle.

He thought she’d just drive to the store with him, but when he asked if she was coming, she gave him a look before pointing out that she would be a client today, and she would come in on her own time. So, he headed out, arriving to find Rosa working at setting up a new window display, presently aided by Pete. The store wouldn’t be open for another half hour, so he went to see if they needed any help from him, too, but he was assured that everything was under control, so he moved to start going through his usual routine for opening days.

After getting to do a bit of reading before the store opened, Lucas finally had to slide his book back on top of his bag, which now sat at his feet behind the counter. He was kind of looking forward to the start of the day. He knew that, like Maya would say about the restaurant, getting to slip into the usual rhythm of work for a few hours, away from all those thoughts of finals and grades and what it would mean for the next year… it was a relief.

It would be easy for him to just decide that he was doing great and he didn’t have to think about it all so much. He was pulling in good grades in all his classes, and if he kept up what he’d been doing all along then there really was nothing to worry about. He didn’t want that line of thinking to end up making him slip up, wrecking the end of his first year. So, he’d keep studying as he’d done, which included here, in the store, whenever the occasion presented itself.

“Hey, Maya!” he heard Rosa’s voice, an hour after the store’s opening, and when he looked up, he spotted his girlfriend standing just inside the store, chatting with her bandmate.

Going by the look on Rosa’s face, it looked like she was telling Maya about what she’d told him earlier, about her mother wanting to have some of the band’s CDs by the registers, for people to buy. As nice of a gesture as this was, Rosa seemed to be thinking otherwise. She didn’t want it to look like her mother was trying to push the album on people, especially when _she’d_ be right there for them to look around and spot her when this sales pitch was likely to be made.

“Hey,” Rosa came over to the counter a few seconds later. “I’ll take over here, there’s a customer asking for some recommendations?” she played along with a smirk.

“You know, sometimes, when you look at me like that, you look so much like your mother,” he whispered before moving around the counter, which required his ducking away from his co-worker’s swatting arm.

“Good morning,” Maya greeted him with a smile.

“Good morning,” he replied in kind. “How may I help you?”

By some chance, she’d shown up at a time when he could take a few minutes with her before he had to go and see to customers, while she went and settled in at one of the few tables, where people could go and sit and read. She was wearing her work clothes, one of the handful of variations on the basic white top/black pants or skirt she would rotate through. Her long blond hair had been worked into a braid before being twisted into a bun. All she was missing was her nametag and her black apron with the pockets and her pad and pencil and she’d be all set.

“She knows you keep staring at her, doesn’t she,” Pete told him, after he’d just served one of their regulars, nodding to indicate Maya over at her table.

“Of course, she does,” Lucas smiled, barely keeping that smile from rising all the way to a grin. “She knows what she’s doing.” Maya was sitting over there, reading from one of her textbooks, looking to all the world like the picture of concentration. But she had a small smile of her own, the kind that said ‘ha ha, I’ve got you right where I want you.’

“Lunch break?” she asked when he came up to her table sometime later.

“Yep,” he tipped his head, and she got up, gathered her things, and followed him out of the store. They made their way up the street and to the diner where he often went for lunch. They sat across from one another in one of the booths, and when the waitress had come and gone, taking their orders, he looked back to his girlfriend to discover she was holding a stack of familiar index cards. “Where’d you get my flashcards?” he asked.

“I asked Rosa to sneak them over to me,” she shrugged innocently. “I figured it was only fair that I help you review a bit, seeing as you probably didn’t get the time to study in ‘the lulls.’ I think there were a few distractions?”

“More like one,” he smiled, while she straightened up the stack of cards with a couple taps against the table, cleared her throat, and assumed her serious face. “Alright, hit me, I’m ready,” he sat up straight.

He headed back to the store on his own when they were done, while she made her way to the restaurant for her own shift. As it turned out, he found a different kind of distraction waiting for him back at the store, this time in the form of Bishop and Willow, sitting at the very same table where Maya had been not too long ago.

“Hey,” Lucas went over to them. Willow raised her hand in a smiling wave, while Bishop stretched out of his seat to grip his friend and classmate’s hand before sitting again.

He looked so different than he’d done when they’d first met, Bishop and him. Physically he was the same, sure, and he hadn’t looked exactly unhappy at the start of the year, far from it. But meeting and getting with Leona had added all this brightness to him, and now, having moved out of his father’s house and into the apartment shared by Willow and her boyfriend, Lion, he looked even brighter. He was the happiest that Lucas had ever known him, plain and simple. He had grown to care for his two roommates as much as they cared for him, which was a great deal. He was like their very tall, very built little brother. And from what Lucas had been hearing, now that they didn’t live together anymore, Bishop and his father were the closest they’d ever been to having something like a working relationship.

“The apartment upstairs is redoing their floors. It’s loud and there’s a smell, and the library’s too crowded for my taste these days,” his friend explained.

“You’re welcome to set up shop back at the house,” Lucas offered at once. “Dylan should be back there right now.”

“Yeah, maybe, thanks,” Bishop nodded.

“And if we’re all out here, then Lion, Maya, and Leona will know where to find us when they’re done at the restaurant,” Willow laughed, like she’d just realized the three of them out here all had a boyfriend or girlfriend presently down at Chef Isabel’s restaurant.

Before long, the two of them were gone, having taken Lucas up on his offer. As he returned to the registers, seeing his long abandoned book at his feet, he sighed. So much for his plan to sneak in some studying through the day, right? They were about to head into what was generally their busiest time on weekends, no lulls to be seen, and even if he did get a couple minutes, he knew better than to assume it’d be worth pulling up his book, finding the page where he’d stopped, before he’d have to put it away again.

It would be alright. Tomorrow, it would be just him and Maya down at the Nook, and they would get into that old rhythm they’d developed. These hours at the store were meant to be his time of peace before they moved headlong into finals, and that was what they would be. And when the day came to an end, he got into his car and headed off to the restaurant, to pick up Maya and her co-workers before driving them all back to the house, where Bishop and Willow would be waiting for them, hopefully having had a much more productive day than they might have done back at their apartment.

He looked at the new window display Rosa had created as he drove off. _Summer Reads._ It wouldn’t be long now…

TO BE CONTINUED


	80. Their Advance Toward Success

Maya crept out of bed when, finally, after a solid hour of sleeplessness, she couldn’t help herself anymore. Padding across the bedroom floor with the stealth of a master cat burglar, she went and grabbed her bag and quietly opened and shut the door again once she’d passed through. When she got down the stairs, she heard the very light sound of the dogs, as though her arrival had woken them up, though they didn’t bark. She set her bag on the couch before moving to them, crouching to pet them into returning to sleep. Once this had been achieved, she turned on a lamp and sat down, rubbing failed sleep and the exhaustion of her work day from her face, blinking briefly before reaching into her bag for one of her books. She yawned, and she started to read.

She knew that she’d have a full day tomorrow, a great, full day of studying, just her, and Lucas, and a lot of breakfast food, but if she couldn’t sleep now then she knew what for. The day had sort of gotten away from her, and maybe that was her fault. She could have stayed home earlier, before she had to go to work, could have stayed shut up in hers and Lucas’ room and gotten some work done instead of heading to the bookstore and doing what could only be described as flirt studying. And, sure, they’d all more or less written this day off as a wash, their last hurrah before the big one, when finals would be over, but she couldn’t do it, not entirely. She needed to feel like she’d at least done something.

Even after all these years, even after she’d achieved so much, there were still times where she feared being revealed as some fraud, like she was still that kid who hated school and had the bad grades to show for it… as though she should have been ashamed of that part of her life, when she really shouldn’t. So, she worked, and she worked, and she kept proving to everyone… to herself… that she was the real deal, that she deserved everything she got.

Earlier that day, when she and Lucas had gone their separate ways, as he returned to the bookstore, she’d taken off toward the restaurant, with her schoolbag balanced from her shoulder. The plan was to use her breaks to sit in a corner somewhere and study a while.

As soon as she’d arrived, she should have known it wouldn’t happen. One of the other waiters was out sick, and another one had to leave on a late flight the night before due to a family emergency. By the time this had been known, much as Chef Isabel had attempted to pull in some of the others who weren’t working that day, they still ended up understaffed, which meant more tables for everyone, and on a Saturday, one of their busiest if not the busiest day. They’d still get breaks, of course, they needed them more than ever, but they’d be shorter.

Would that keep her from studying? Not one bit. She had her own flashcards, and they were stuffed in one of her pockets all day long, next to her order pad. If she were bolder – which was saying a lot, because of course she was plenty bold already – she would have left them on the tables in her expanded section, the better to get quizzed by her patrons. Some of them were regulars, they probably wouldn’t even have minded, but no. This would be good, actually. Like she and Lucas had agreed, today was a day for clearing their heads before they headed well into finals… well, mostly cleared…

Her first break was a non-starter, as she spent most of it in the bathroom, trying to clean off a spill on her skirt and the edge of her shirt and sleeve. By the time she was done, having restored herself into as close to spotless as possible, she was due back. And then her next break…

“Hold still, let me see,” Lion stood over her, inspecting the palm of her left hand, while one of the kitchen staff, Fidelio, was approaching with the first aid kit. “Doesn’t look too deep. Bleeding a lot though.”

“Yeah, kind of noticed,” she breathed as Lion stepped aside and Fidelio took his place and set to cleaning the cut in her palm. It wasn’t the first time there had been a broken glass, cup, plate, anything like that, and she’d always been so careful to pick them up, not to cut herself, but now… Maybe she was distracted, she couldn’t say for sure. All she did know was that she’d been picking up the shards of glass with the small broom and then she’d felt something sharp, and then pain, and the blood… There was definitely no salvaging her shirt sleeve in a bathroom sink this time.

“Are you okay?” Leona popped up behind Lion now, looking worried and just a bit pale when she saw Maya’s hand. She turned to look away. “Do you have to go to a hospital?”

“We’re all good here,” Fidelio told them smoothly as he went on cleaning the cut. “No glass, and the bleeding’s stopped. Is, she’s good,” he called out over his shoulder.

“Good, then you two should go back out there, go on,” Chef Isabel called out, and after a moment and a quick nod back to Maya, her friends went back to work while she sat and watched Fidelio finish up cleaning and then wrapping up her hand.

“How’s that?” he asked. “No stitches, nothing. It’ll sting for a while, but hey, could have been worse, right?” he gave her a smile.

“Thanks, it’s good,” she replied, smiling back before wincing as she tested her grip just a bit. “Not my writing hand, I kind of need that one right now,” she put in with a sigh as she got up, slowly, like she was afraid she might get lightheaded.

“Hey, come here,” Isabel called her over and she went at once. Setting her knife aside and wiping her hands, the chef inspected the wrapped hand, held it as she looked up again. “Take the rest of the day, okay? Ease up, and…”

“No, I can’t, there’s barely enough of us as it is. I’ve got this, really,” Maya shook her head, keeping the chef’s eye. “I promise, I just need… well, a clean shirt,” she looked to the drops of blood on her cuff. “I’ve got one of those though.”

“Are you sure?” Isabel sighed like someone who knew a fair counterpoint had been made. “Forget all of this, if we weren’t missing people…”

“I’d stay anyway. It’s a cut, I’m fine.”

One shirt change later, she was back out there, having to compensate with the sting in her left hand but still just fine to keep working. By the time her next break came around though, she didn’t even think about studying, didn’t even remember she had her flashcards with her. When they got to the end of the night, all she wanted was to get home and go to bed. She stood outside the restaurant with Lion and Leona, her head leaning to the girl’s shoulder as they waited for Lucas to arrive.

When the car pulled up to the curb, Maya doubted it had even stopped completely when she saw her boyfriend’s brow furrowed. He had already seen the white bandage wrapped neatly around her hand and now he was looking to her face, concern all over. She moved to the passenger side door while the others went and climbed in the back.

“I’m too tired to make jokes here, had a little incident with a broken glass, but I’m fine,” she promised him, holding out her hand so he could do his thing and look it over, seeing for himself that everything was mostly fine. “Feel free to coddle later, I just want to get home and they probably do, too,” she tilted her head to indicate the pair in the back as she settled into her seat.

“Okay,” Lucas sighed and let her hand go, facing forward again and starting them on their way back to the house. “Bishop and Willow are back there, too,” he let the others know. “They said there was construction in the building?” Lion and Leona both gave some variation on grumbling in confirmation.

“Man, they start _early_ ,” Lion shook his head. “They’ve been at it for days.”

“Smell’s so bad…” Leona added, and Maya was happy to let the rest of the ride be narrated by her friends’ description of the ‘situation’ back at Lion’s building. She got to sit there and let the exhaustion do its thing so that once they got home, she could just head right up to bed, resting up for the next day’s activities. They had arrived and, after a few minutes of Willow and Bishop and her roommates fussing over her hand, their visitors had gone on their way, and she and Lucas had gone up to their room to get changed and go to bed.

But now here she was. Sleep had failed her, and all she could do was sit here and try to read along. She couldn’t help looking at her bandaged hand, poking it lightly, turning it about, flexing it. She knew it would hurt and she did it anyway, because… well, she had no idea why, but she did it, and then she went on reading. After a while though…

“I’m not even going to retain any of this,” she sighed, shutting her book with a frown, sinking into the couch, staring at the ceiling. No matter what she did, sleep just wouldn’t come. She hated nights like that, hated how her thoughts would wander… When she was back in Austin, living with her parents, she’d start drawing, sometimes falling asleep still holding on to her book or her pencil… Out here, more often than not, she would nudge Lucas until he’d wake up, and he would happily talk with her until sleep finally agreed to take her. Other times, they did other things, and that worked just as well. But tonight… all she could see was him growing weary that maybe her hand was worse than it was, and besides, he’d had a long day, too, would have long ones to come. If he was sleeping right now, she wanted him to get to keep going as long as possible.

She lay there for a while, listening to the quiet, if one could call it that. The light hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen, the sleeping dogs’ noises, cars rolling by every once in a while, outside… After a while she held up her arms, miming her playing the guitar, to see if she could still do it with the cut, the bandage. It was uncomfortable, and she didn’t know how she’d fare playing too long and with an actual instrument, but it wasn’t like she’d have to worry about it for a while. They’d suspended practices until after finals were over for all of them, her hand should have healed a bit by then, if not completely.

She didn’t know when she finally fell asleep, only that she woke up to sunlight streaming in from the windows, a blanket laid over her, and her textbook on the coffee table. Turning her eyes up, she could just see Lucas in the kitchen, standing at the coffee machine. Her eyes still felt a bit heavy from her delayed rest, but right at that moment, she didn’t so much care about that. She cared about getting to spend the next several hours with her boyfriend, studying and eating at the Nook.

TO BE CONTINUED


	81. Their Advance Toward Year's End

Maya and Lucas realized on that Sunday morning that maybe they _had_ gotten to make something of an impression at the Nook, the way they’d done at Ma Maggie’s back in Austin, when they walked in and not one but two of the wait staff stopped and inquired after what had happened to her hand in such a familiar kind of way. It quickly erased any thought that anyone might take issue with their settling in for the day, and so they went and found a booth in the corner, sitting across from one another with heavy bags at their sides.

Lucas knew she could see right through him, that she expected to find him keeping a watchful eye on her with that hand, but then how could he not? He’d heard the story from her the night before, but also from Leona and Lion. He’d seen the splatter on her shirt sleeve, and the extent of the bandage around her hand. It was impossible to say who he was drawn to believe, if he thought that Maya undersold it, or the others exaggerated it… All he really had to go on was what he saw, and what he knew. He doubted that Maya would downplay it to the point that she’d ignore any symptoms worth a trip down to the hospital, but then she’d also gone to the trouble of keeping her left hand out of camera range when they’d called to her sisters and her parents before heading out to the Nook, so what did it all add up to?

“Make me a deal?” he found himself saying, as they were pulling out their things to set up at their table, as they waited on their breakfast. She looked up to him. “We work here all day, fine, but once we’re back home, we sit, put on a movie maybe, no more studying for the day.” She went on looking at him, and he could see calculation in her eyes. She knew what he wanted, to ensure that she didn’t overwork herself, that she took some time to sit and relax and heal. After a moment, she crossed her arms on the table and leaned forward.

“Who gets to pick the movie?” she asked with a smile. “We both have a certain number of things to do today, so maybe whoever finishes first gets to decide,” she waved her good hand across the table and the collection of their books and papers and laptops. He took in this posturing, this challenge, smiling before he moved to copy it.

“Won’t do us any good if we rush to finish first,” he pointed out. She considered this now, nodding in agreement.

“Alright, then,” she leaned back in her seat. “When dinner time comes, we’ll have a quiz. Winner picks the movie. It all depends on how well we’ve worked all day,” she repeated her sweeping gesture exactly as she’d done it before, as though she was reissuing the challenge.

“That works for me,” he held out his hand, closed to present a fist to bump. “Shakes are overdone,” he shrugged. She laughed, and they bumped on it.

If nothing else, the spirit of the challenge had set the mood for them, and from there they had gone right to work. The arrival of food had gone a long way to sustain this spirit. He’d look at her as she went about working knife and fork, like he waited for a sign of her hand giving her any trouble. As soon as she saw him doing this, she squinted and responded by swiping a few of his potatoes. He smiled, holding his hands up in ‘surrender,’ and he let her carry on.

The hours started ticking away, plates came and went, cups were filled, refilled… Most important of all, goals were met on either side of the table, and as it had happened in the past, all those small victories grew upon one another, kept them thriving, all the way to dinner, and the very decisive quiz. Maya went in with great confidence, calling on her old quiz team days as proof that Lucas was toast and she needed to come up with a movie for them to watch when they got home.

“If we tie, two movies,” he pointed to her, and she waved her hand.

“Sure, sure.”

“What if we pick the same movie?”

“You’re thinking about this way too much, come on, quiz me!” she told him, lifting her hands to tap the table with emphasis, just barely stopping herself and keeping her left hand back before carrying on with the right.

“Alright, fine,” he sat up, pulling her notes to his side of the table while pushing his own to her side. “Question one…” he looked for something to ask her.

Sometime later, they left the Nook, getting back in the car. As Lucas drove, he was the one under observation now, as Maya carried her suspicions that he had rigged the game, making sure they’d tie when it looked like he might overtake her. After a while, he started hearing her whisper, her head tilted to look at him.

“Cheeeeater…” she called. “Cheeeeater…”

“I didn’t know the answer,” he insisted, trying not to look amused, in case it led her to believe she had him cornered.

“Cheeeeater…”

“I could be really insecure about not remembering, you know?” he shrugged, as the car pulled to a stop at a red light. She took this in stride, leaning across to stare him in the eye, holding his gaze, waiting for him to blink. “I can’t play this game, I need to watch for the light,” he nodded ahead of them.

“Hey, want to hear my new song, it’s called ‘Cheater,’” she sat back in her seat, still looking at him.

“You want to stop for snacks?” he asked, and he was spared having to listen to the first chorus of ‘the new song,’ as Maya considered this offer.

“I will have the truth out of you soon enough,” she drawled, pointing her finger at him. “But first, I will have licorice.”

As they stopped at the store, they agreed that this movie night would be for them alone, and that wouldn’t happen if the others saw them come in with the heap of candy they had gathered.

“Let’s just stuff it all in our bags and pretend like we’re just heading up to bed,” Maya suggested.

When they arrived, both Riley and Sophie were set up at the kitchen table along with Leona, books and papers everywhere, while Dylan was playing video games in the living room, headphones on to cut the noise. Still, they played their charade and headed up to their room after wishing the others a good night.

“Feeling good for tomorrow?” Lucas asked as they settled in, the laptop placed ahead of them on the mattress, their snacks laid out within reach. “Your first test?”

“Yeah,” she nodded with a smile. “It’s not one of my biggest ones, I mean I’m not going in like anything’s an easy pass, but…” But it kind of was. “You?”

“Trying not to think too much about what I heard about this teacher and finals,” he admitted. “Reminding myself that I know my stuff, and when it’s over then he’s out of my hair.”

“I mean, I can see why he’d want to be,” she teased, reaching up to run her hand through his hair.

“You get your fill?” he asked, grinning as she kept on messing his hair up more and more.

“Almost… There,” she nodded, and he kissed her forehead. “See, now you did that, and I can’t leave you like this,” she reached up again and set everything back in place before leaning to him so they could start the movie.

“How’s the hand?”

“Itches,” she frowned, prodding lightly at her palm. “I’ve decided to look at it like a symbol.”

“Okay?” he replied, unsure where she was going with this.

“Every day, every test, I’ll be one step closer to this cut being gone and healed up. Then it’ll be better, and it’ll be summer, and boom, one year in the can,” she mimed dropping said year in said imaginary can.

“Hey, if that works for you,” he nodded.

“It’ll work even better when it’s the day after finals are done and we just sleep… like, all day.”

“What about the party?” he reminded her.

“Oh, yeah…” Maya remembered, lowering her voice as the movie started. “We’ll just sleep until the party then.”

“Fine, twist my arm,” he whispered back.

For how little sleep she’d gotten the night before, and how long they’d worked back at the Nook, Maya was sure – and so was Lucas – that they wouldn’t last two whole movies, and yet they did, without so much as nodding off. It was always sort of easier to last on like this after they had come out on the other side of whatever they had to do, feeling like they’d accomplished something. By the end of the second movie, it was well after two in the morning, and it wasn’t so much sleep that called to them as the need to move a little. Between their three meals at the Nook and the load of candy they’d worked through over the last few hours, it was anyone’s guess how long it would take them to settle down.

“Want to go for a walk around the block or something?” she asked him, and he was hesitant, looking at the time. “Don’t worry, anyone so much as looks at you funny, I’ll have them dropped in the blink of an eye,” she grinned, and that settled it, not so much the part where he might need rescuing, but her showing him he was being ridiculous.

They snuck their way down, finding everyone else had either gone home or to their rooms. The dogs were the only ones there to bust them, so they decided to bring them along for a late walk.

“So, last night,” he started to ask.

“The whole day was kind of a wreck,” she frowned. “All I wanted to do was work my hours, no sweat, maybe get a little reviewing in. I had this whole plan, like the stealth student-slash-waitress I am,” she mimed, making him smirk. “Except it turned out to be one of those times where everything goes so, _so_ wrong.”

“Hate those,” he chimed in.

“Right?” she gestured toward him. “And this, well…” she huffed, holding up her bandaged hand. “Just turned everything upside down, and there was no coming back from that… But I tried, not that it worked, as you saw.”

“Yeah, I did.”

Truth be told, even though he wouldn’t say it, out of a desire not to make her feel worst about it, he’d woken up not long after she’d left the room, and when he’d seen that she was gone, he’d figured she’d just gone to the bathroom and gone back to sleep, only to wake again a half hour later and find that she was still gone. He’d been about to get up and go look for her, in case she’d gone and passed out or something, but then he’d seen her school bag was gone, too, and he’d figured out where she must have been. He didn’t know for sure how much or how little she’d actually slept until morning, but he was confident she hadn’t gotten any further with her reading. He didn’t have to be told it had been a bad day, bad night, but that was only one more reason to give her a great one today.

“But that was yesterday, and this is today…”

“One day out of the scar,” he declared, and she nodded in complete agreement.

“One day out, and tomorrow another.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	82. Their Advance Toward Release

Once finals had started, the days all seemed to melt into one another until they were an endless loop, all of them… most of them… caught up in the midst of one test and another and all associated preparation, all of this sandwiched between the odd slice of sleep, and food, and human interaction, work shifts… Mostly, it was this sense of frenzy, constantly moving on to the next thing, and the next, like they were digging through debris after an avalanche, and getting ever closer to the light that would be summer.

Finals time had a way of keeping their moods in a constant state of randomization. They’d be focused here, anxious there, tired, snappy… It was a wonder they hadn’t pulled each other apart.

Actually, maybe it wasn’t exactly a wonder they kept it together. It was a Dylan Orlando and a Rosa Del Vecchio.

Their roommate had plenty of his time to give them, in what way it might have been needed. He took over on the vast majority of household chores. Laundry, dishes, groceries, cooking, he was their guy. There were a few hiccups here and there, mostly with the cooking, but they were never in trouble of being poisoned and it was all still edible enough that they could power through. They never quite managed to eat in the kitchen, only stopping in to grab a plate or bowl, thank the cook, and scamper back up to their rooms to get back to work.

“Thanks, Chef,” Maya would get him by the chin and plant a kiss on his cheek as she’d pass. Lucas would give some evolved form of a handshake they’d created – along with Asher and Zay – when they were kids. Sophie would inquire about what he’d made, almost as though she was trying to covertly discover just how edible the day’s offering would be. The only one who would stay and eat with Dylan for those few minutes was Riley, something which had not gone unnoticed with Lucas and Maya.

“Don’t…” he’d whisper, smiling despite himself as he’d get her moving up the stairs instead of remaining parked in the steps with her bowl to spy on whatever was going on in the kitchen.

“Hey, I need entertainment, please?” she’d complain innocently as she followed. They hardly had the time to stop and wonder if this was just Riley being Riley, the good friend who just didn’t want to leave Dylan to eat on his own, or if she might be tipping her hand and showing feelings of her own. If they gave any room whatsoever to a distraction, it would grow and infest everything. So, they left it alone, let whatever was or wasn’t happening between their friends bloom as it would. Maybe it would benefit them in the end.

As for the young bass player, she didn’t have her finals just yet, and being just a few minutes away when she wasn’t at work or school, she was all too happy to do her part. Mostly, and because they knew it would make her happiest, she saw to the dogs. She would take Trix and Lou out on walks every day, played with them at the house, where she’d back up Dylan in some of his tasks, both of them combining in holding up the house and giving Lucas, Maya, Riley, and Sophie as much time as possible to dedicate to their studying and reviewing.

In Rosa’s case it also involved playing backup to Lucas when they were working at the bookstore. She’d been entrusted with the flash cards, and she would almost chase him down, popping up at random, startling him and quizzing him.

“Did Maya put you up to this?” he’d blink, looking down to the books in his hands, remembering he’d been in the process of returning them to the shelves after a customer had decided not to buy them at the last minute. Rosa would only give an innocent shrug, which in itself was as good as confirmation, for how much that shrug seemed to just have come inspired straight from his girlfriend. She would not leave him be until he answered the question which she’d put to him, also like Maya.

And now here they were, all of them, a few days into ‘the madness,’ and their intrepid supporters had seemingly decided they were all in desperate need of a short respite from the never ending cycle. They were there in the kitchen together when the others arrived home, immediately informing them that dinner would be eaten at the table that night, and if they didn’t comply, they would not be fed, end of story. How could they not comply?

So, when dinner was ready, Rosa went to the bottom of the stairs and called up for the four students to come down and take their places at the table, like Captain Drill Sergeant or something, which must have done what it was meant to do, because they all came almost at a run. The last of them to pass, which was Maya, stopped there when she reached the girl, and she just held her hands together before pulling her into a hug, like she had to declare how proud she was.

There was no doubt, as they settled in around the table, that this was not meant to be one of those meals where they ate quickly, the better to carry on working. No, they were here to breathe, and clear their minds, as much as they were here to eat, and even though a part of them felt like it should resist, like they really just needed to go back upstairs, there was another part, just as big, which saw this chance presented to them and just… relaxed.

“How goes the party planning?” Sophie asked Dylan and Rosa, who were naturally put in charge of this on top of everything else.

“Oh, it’s going great,” Dylan grinned at once, turning to Rosa, who gave a firm nod to this. At the same time, both she and Dylan had this look about them which made it clear to the others that they would not be read into too many if any details at all. The whole thing would be a surprise. “Just a few more things to take care of, but it’ll all be sorted out by the night of the party, you’ll see.”

The dinner, the food itself, was probably the best they’d had since the start of Dylan’s tenure in the kitchen, which they wholly believed had something to do with Rosa’s presence and cooperation. Sure, Dylan had been improving over time, not just this week, but he still lacked stability in his victories, enough that they could only classify him as having some way to go. They had dipped into the well of recipes sent by Chiara some time ago, which had been of a particular pleasure to Rosa, as she had been exploring more and more of her Italian roots from her father’s side. She had his features and his name, so she might as well acknowledge them. So far, it had been an unexpected pleasure.

As to the Chiara situation, Sophie’s faraway girlfriend had expanded the agreement they’d made via Maya’s interference. The agreement was that she would not bring up her attempts to sort out what needed to happen in order for her to move out here and be with Sophie unless she had something substantial to share, a result. It had now become that she would hold off in addressing the whole thing until after Sophie’s finals were all done and the answer, whatever it was, wouldn’t risk becoming an interference.

It was really the best option, for the both of them. As much as Sophie was anxious to know the answer, she didn’t try to pull the reveal out of Chiara, and instead the two of them would just talk as they usually did. Sometimes, walking past Sophie’s room, they could swear Chiara was quizzing her over Skype, doing her part, no matter how far she physically was.

After the main course came the dessert, which was light in a way that seemed specifically designed to soon send them back upstairs feeling more refreshed than weighed down. They had given in sufficiently to the spirit of the ‘mandatory’ sit down dinner that they didn’t run off like speedsters as soon as they were done eating. Instead, they remained there, chatting with their friends, for a good ten minutes more before finally rising and starting back up the stairs, where they would settle in for the evening.

In their room, Lucas and Maya sat down at their respective desks, facing one another, which was almost reminiscent of their day down at the Nook, except that the combined depth of their desks was much wider in comparison with the booth’s table. There was no casual game of footsie going on here, but then it was enough that they were here together, as it tended to be.

In some ways, they would both be of the belief that they hadn’t needed the dinner in the same way as the others would. Sophie and Riley, they were off in their rooms, on their own, but Maya had Lucas there with her and vice versa. It had long been the case with the two of them that just having the other’s energy to share, right there with them, often in complete silence, would be a power in itself. Sitting here, as they’d been doing for days, whenever time allowed, they were thriving, working away.

“Ten minutes?” Maya called, a couple hours after dinner. Lucas looked up from his book, checked the time, then after looking at where he was in his pages, he nodded to her. This was part of their routine, too. Sooner or later, they had to stop, they knew, and so one of them would usually put out a potential stopping time, when they either felt it was time to call it a night, if they had any hope of having the night’s rest they desperately needed, or they were just almost done with whatever they needed to do.

After those ten minutes had gone by and they’d both gotten to the point where they could and did stop, they closed up books, notebooks, laptops… They left their desks and they got changed for bed, though they didn’t just turn in, not right away. They needed to give their minds the chance to breathe, too, to let go, or else they’d be stuck in strange dreams all night, pestered with some fact or another they’d just been reviewing.

“Is it just me, or does it feel like we’re always at this part lately?” he asked, as they climbed under the covers and sat there, looking at each other.

“Getting into bed at the end of the day?” she guessed, and he nodded. “Not just you, no, I know what you mean. It’s like we just did this, except we didn’t and that was yesterday… and the day before that… and the day before that…”

“Exactly,” he breathed out. “It just keeps repeating, and nothing changes.”

“Hey,” she put on her soothing voice, reaching to put her arms around his neck, which made him smile at once, of course. “At least the more it repeats, the closer it means we’re getting. Remember?” she held up her left hand. The bandage, the first one, the one Fidelio had wrapped so carefully on Saturday night, had since been removed and replaced by a smaller one. Its removal had allowed them to see that the cut, much as it still stung and itched, was in fact healing, and in due time it would likely disappear completely, without any sign of a scar.

“I remember,” he nodded, reaching to take that hand in his as she leaned in to kiss first the side of his head and then his lips. Eventually they both settled in, with him holding her near, the big spoon to her little and with that healing hand still in his. No matter what, they were moving forward, looking forward. The party… They couldn’t wait for that one…

TO BE CONTINUED


	83. Their Advance Toward Celebration

The days went on turning, the wheel of repetition carrying on and on, until it brought them to this day, this moment, driving home on the last day where any of them still had final exams to sit. Now it was all done. Their second semester, first year of college, done, and though it wouldn’t feel completely real until the next morning at least… summer was here. But first, there would be the party.

They had parted ways with their friends before getting into the car. All of them were headed to their respective homes, the better to shower, clean up, and change, better to shed the last few days and ‘become human again’ as Franny had put it. When this transformation would be done, they would make their way over to the house and the party would begin.

“I’m so tired,” Riley sighed from the backseat. “But then I’m not… It’s so weird…”

“Just to be on the safe side, I might lock you into your room tonight, so you don’t go off like you’re late for a test tomorrow,” Maya turned to look at her with a grin, recalling the ‘incident’ following the end of the fall semester.

“Either that or stick a paper on her door that says, ‘Go back to bed, Matthews, school’s out,’” Sophie held out her hand to set each word, and Maya clicked her fingers at her.

“Or that,” she nodded, smiling back to the baffled Riley.

“It was one time,” she protested.

“Woah,” Lucas drew them back to attention. While the girls had been addressing Riley’s sleepwalking-like situation, he was the first one who saw the house as they drove within view.

“So, Dylan got started,” Maya blinked.

“Started? This isn’t finished?” Sophie pointed to the outside of the house and its decorations. “He knows it’s a small party, right?”

“No, I think this is the right amount,” Riley declared confidently. When the car came to a stop, they all climbed out, approaching the house, and taking in the outdoor portion of Dylan’s work. There were balloons, and streamers, and lights… It all looked great, never let the opposite be believed, though it did leave them to walk on slowly, taking it all in.

“I’m almost scared to see what it looks like on the inside,” Sophie was first to the door, key in hand, as the others stood at her back, the better to grin at leisure while their friend walked in. Sophie turned her head, following the movement in her periphery, of someone rising from where they sat on the couch. A tall girl with a head of chocolate curls and eyes like ocean... Had they not known what awaited the future officer right then, they would probably have run right into her when she froze to a stop.

No one would expect either of them to be able to calculate how many hours they had spent talking to one another across a screen, through video or phone calls, or how much they’d spent in postage for letters and packages. But they could count how long it had been since they had stood in the same room, and that amounted to something so close to an entire year that it hardly mattered anymore. It had been a year since Sophie Zvolensky and Chiara Mantovani had seen one another in the flesh, which made it to be expected for there to be some amount of shock, especially when the arrival had been kept a surprise.

“See, I am very real,” Chiara was better able to get hold of her own functions and take the steps that would bridge this last bit of distance, closing her hand over the one of Sophie’s that was still in mid-air, holding her house keys, dangling from a chain given to her by Chiara herself the previous summer.

And when that contact had been made, it broke the spell from Sophie, and she blinked, and then she very nearly propelled herself, throwing her arms around the girl who went ahead and did the same. She was still speechless, yes, but they could hear plenty… crying, laughing, all muffled as her face was buried in the Italian girl’s shoulder. Chiara, for her part, was whispering words they didn’t know but still understood. English or no, the meaning was clear.

Around this encounter, this reunion, the audience of five – Maya, Lucas, and Riley still at the door, and Rosa and Dylan, who’d been on the couch, too – was experiencing its own share of weepy smiles. For all that they’d already known, it didn’t diminish the joy they felt for their reunited friends.

It had felt just the tiniest bit cruel to allow Sophie to go on not knowing just how close she was to seeing her girlfriend again, but then the reasoning behind it had mostly been what they’d led her to believe. They didn’t want to distract her over her finals. But underneath all that, there’d been a secret, one nurtured under a secret code Maya had slipped into the message she’d written to Chiara on Sophie’s phone, the night of the dinner party with Professor Robinson. It was something even Sophie didn’t know about, which made sense, of course, as it was meant to be something that they could use in order to surprise her, not just now but in general, and they’d used it before, though never to this extent.

From that first message, the two girls had started to plot this moment together. When Chiara had finally sorted out everything and her move to join them all in Houston was good and finalized, she’d let Maya know, and they had gotten to work. One by one, the others had been pulled into the secret. Right down to the suggestion that they even have this party, still for the end of their first year, yes, but also as a welcome to Chiara, they had been setting everything in motion. And now, seeing the complete joy on Sophie’s face, and Chiara’s, too… They could see it had all been worth it.

When the initial shock had finally worn off, they all had to remind themselves that they still had a party to prepare themselves for, and the old ‘dance’ started, alternating showers, hair, makeup, clothes… Meanwhile, downstairs, the two party planners and their surprise guest were all seeing to the last of the decorating and preparing as they awaited the arrival of the other guests.

Soon, they started to arrive. All of them were aware of who Chiara was, though they’d never met her, and they didn’t know she would be here, so each time the surprise would start all over again, right along with Sophie’s gladness at getting to introduce her to everyone. Her smile was never completely gone, and the two girls’ hands never seemed to get very far from one another’s.

“That right there, that’s the start of summer,” Maya smiled back to Lucas as they watched their roommate… and their new roommate, too. “That first year, it’s done now, it was the time before she was here. This is summer, this is the new year.”

“It kind of is, yeah,” he nodded, understanding what she meant. “I’m just glad we don’t have to keep any secrets anymore.”

“Don’t we?” Maya looked back to him, passing a covert look toward Riley and Dylan, sitting with Willow and Lion and laughing away.

“Alright, one more,” Lucas had to agree, tapping her hand so she’d look back to him and not them. She just smiled at him, looking down to her hand which now sat bare, no more bandage of any kind. As though she’d predicted it just this specifically, they could only just see the cut anymore. It had lost itself in the lines of her palm, and maybe it was just all gone, faded into a thing of the past like their freshly ended year.

As great as the Halloween party had been in the end, in all its chaotic and crowded glory, their end of year party felt even more joyously wonderful with its small crowd, the six roommates, their closest friends, classmates and co-workers both. The food did not disappoint, and the dancing was endless.

At its heart, the night belonged to Sophie and Chiara, and rightly so. Any of them here tonight with a boyfriend or girlfriend they loved, even those who didn’t, they could just imagine what it would have been like, to be physically parted from the person they cared about the most. Maya thought about what it might be like, to be separated from Lucas for that amount of time, just as he thought of the reverse. The two of them had lived something different but similar enough, in all those months when they’d been kept apart by the ban. Even then, for all the terrible parts of it, they had still been able to see each other, at school especially. Thinking of being completely apart like that… Well, they found themselves reaching for the other’s hand, too, all of a sudden.

“You’re not mad at us for not telling you, right?” Lucas asked Sophie when they crossed paths in the middle of a dance. She still had that vast smile stuck to her face, stealing a look to Chiara, presently dancing with Rosa. The two girls had been conversing in Italian here and there throughout the night, as Rosa took the opportunity to practice her father’s language whenever she could. Suddenly, her opportunities had increased beyond expectation.

“Are you kidding?” Sophie laughed, looking back to Lucas. “This is the best surprise anyone’s ever given me. The only thing now is I’m wondering how I never saw it coming. I should have picked up on the clues, what kind of detective will I be if I couldn’t tell something was up,” she joked, laughing louder.

There were a few times throughout the night where one or more of them experienced that whole double take of stopping and believing they should start thinking about calling it a night, only to realize they were saying this out of some need to be ready for a day at school that wouldn’t come, because they were now on holidays. And then the party would just keep on going. It stretched far past midnight, though sooner or later it did have to start shrinking, with some of their guests bowing out to head home, until finally there was no one left except the people who lived at the house, now counting not five but six humans and two dogs.

“You two don’t worry about this,” Dylan told Sophie and Chiara when they started to move to help with the clean-up. “Just go on up, we’ve got this, yeah?” he looked to Riley, Maya, and Lucas, and all three of them nodded. With a smile, the girls agreed, and they started up the stairs.

“When Chiara’s things get here, I think maybe they should take my room and I would move into Sophie’s. Mine’s the biggest after your room,” Riley nodded to Maya and Lucas. “It’s only fair, since they’ll be sharing now.”

“If you’re sure, yeah,” Maya smiled to her friend, and she nodded in reply.

By the time they made it up the stairs and to their rooms, it was so far into night to qualify as the next morning, but then that wasn’t a problem. None of them were working that next day, and none of them had any studying left to do, no finals to sit for… They could sleep the day away, like Maya had said she wanted to do, and right now they couldn’t think of any better use of their time on this day that would be their first of summer, their first in a house of six.

TO BE CONTINUED


	84. Their Advance Toward Summer

“We left the door open,” Maya spoke quietly. Lucas was just barely awake and it took him a few moments to pull one eye open, even as it didn’t get him much more than the sight of the back of her head.

“What?” he asked, barely awake. “What door? Did we get robbed?” he mumbled.

“No,” she snickered. “Bedroom door, see?” she asked, just as he felt something nudging at the fingers of the hand and arm he had draped over her. Lifting his head just a bit, he now discovered Trix, standing on her back legs at the edge of the bed and nuzzling at his hand.

“Oh,” he smiled, giving the dog’s head some scratches. “What time is it?”

“It is…” Maya blindly reached to the night stand for her phone, finally getting hold of it and pulling it in sight. “Almost one in the afternoon,” she reported.

“Sounds about right,” he breathed out, pulling her a bit closer, pressing kisses to her shoulder, which made her smile.

“We better get moving, we have so much to do today…”

“No, we don’t,” he reminded her as she turned around under his arm so she could see him, catching his face in her hands.

“Oh, that’s right, we don’t,” she grinned, kissing him. “So, I guess we’re not going anywhere then,” she breathed, before he took his turn kissing her back.

“Guess we’re not,” he agreed, and she returned the volley with the third kiss, this one not in such a hurry to end.

It still felt like such an unexplainable thrill that they could have moments like this. Even after nearly a year of living together, they would sometimes think about how they were not so far off from the times when they lived back in Austin with their parents, when they’d find themselves sneaking around or just bolting apart whenever they thought they heard someone coming…

“Head feels all light right now,” she breathed after a while, trailing her fingers along his jawline. “Like I’ve been holding on to all this information and now that I’ve let go… Not that I’m just going to forget everything now that the tests are over, but I mean…”

“I know what you mean,” Lucas assured her, making her smile again. “Especially the feeling light part.” She stared at him with that smile of hers, and he just chuckled.

“What?” she asked.

“You were going to make a ‘then you better hold on to me’ joke, weren’t you?” he asked, and she sighed.

“Well, I can’t do it now,” she declared dramatically.

“Sorry,” he went on smiling, looking at her, dragging his fingers up and down her back… All this time, with finals, the studying part and the actual test part, he was pretty sure he’d been doing it all with this moment in mind, this image, just the two of them and the prospect of a whole summer ahead of them. Even if they still had work, which would be even more now that they didn’t have to factor classes into their hours, it would be different, better, and that was for certain.

And this morning, waking up with her and being able to just quietly have this moment with her, nothing else… It had been his goal all along, and it had been worth the wait. Everything they’d built together, this little life here in Houston, it was so perfect sometimes that he almost had to pinch himself, would have done it, too, if the beat of his heart when she was near didn’t prove everything was real already.

Feeling how Maya’s hand pressed to his chest now, just where his heart was, it was like she’d seen right into his thoughts.

“I really wish that door was closed right now,” she spoke, looking up at him, and oh, she could definitely feel his heart drumming now, there beneath her hand. He could see it in how her smile expanded into a smirk. “Think the others are up yet?” she turned her head, listening, trying to hear anything from beyond their open bedroom door.

“Voices,” he said even as she heard them, faintly. Even then, after all these months, they’d gotten pretty good at situating where sounds came from, which room. That was Sophie’s room… Sophie and Chiara’s now, though soon it might be Riley’s, if the switch indeed happened. For now, they could hear the two voices of the reunited girlfriends, in the hush that was halfway between a real whisper and normal volume, the kind where it was early morning and you didn’t want to wake anyone.

“Dylan’s probably still asleep,” Maya estimated. “And Riley, if she hasn’t gone and forgotten we’re on break, should be awake but still in bed right now, maybe looking at her phone or something.”

“What do you want to do for breakfast… or is it lunch now?” Lucas asked.

“Well…” she breathed out, thinking. “It’s Chiara’s first morning here with us, so I’m torn. Do we take her out for… brunch… or do we eat here?”

“Compromise? We go grab something from the Nook and bring it back?” Lucas suggested, and she kissed him for that.

“Good rewards for good ideas,” she told him. “Come on,” she moved to get out of bed, no matter how much her body felt betrayed for being taken out of hold.

A survey of the rooms revealed their guesses had been correct. Riley was awake, Dylan was not, and Sophie and their newest roommate were sitting up on her bed, talking away, when Maya knocked at the door. They got Riley’s order, could guess Dylan’s without getting any input. When Maya asked the others what they wanted, Sophie started to tell Chiara about the food at the Nook, which didn’t even go into what was good or not, because all of it was without a doubt on point.

Soon, Maya and Lucas took off for the restaurant, having already called in their order for pick up. They wouldn’t even have minded the extra wait, getting to sit around and talk about anything and nothing, just because they could, but then they knew that if they were starting to really feel that hunger, then the others wouldn’t be far behind either.

“Hey, can you go ahead and get the food, I need to go grab something, won’t be long, I’ll meet you back at the car?” Lucas told her as they walked toward the Nook.

“Uh… okay?” she blinked, sensing he was up to something, but also feeling this ‘something’ was something that had to do with her.

He stayed with her as far as the door to the Nook, which he of course opened for her, and then he went off at a jog. Maya was tempted to spy and see where he was going, but as soon as she walked in, one of the waitresses who knew her saw her and called to her, and they started talking while she went to pay for the order which was all set to go already. The conversation went on this way for a couple minutes, truth be told, the better for her to give Lucas time to run this ‘secret’ errand of his.

When she finally walked out and started back toward the car, with the two bags filled with three containers a piece, she could see Lucas was back, waiting for her.

“Did you run?” she asked him, inspecting him. “Looking a little out of breath there, Friar. And sweaty…” she squinted at his face. “Where did you go?” she asked, and he paused for a moment like he’d realized there was a fault in his plan, before taking the bags from her and nodding to the passenger seat.

She leaned to look through the window and spotted a paper bag folded over. She saw the store logo on the front and smiled as she reached in and took the bag, from the new stationery store that had opened up the street from the Nook. She opened it and reached in without looking inside, pulling out what she had guessed easily would be a brand-new blank sketchbook. It was not one of those of the kind she bought often, which already suggested what its purpose would be in the end.

Here they were now, on holiday at last, and this would be a summer like they’d never had. Of course, she would want to chronicle it, in all the ways she loved to do it, in pencils and pens and any other medium fit to be used on these pages.

“Thank you,” she looked back to Lucas with a smile, fitting herself in the space between his arms, even as he couldn’t close them around her. He still had the bags of food in his hands. “Although now I’m just going to want to break it in as soon as we get home.”

“Really?” he asked, holding one of the bags near enough to her face that the scent would reach her. She breathed it in, humming.

“Alright, you’ve made your point, let’s go, I’m starving.”

By the time they arrived back at the house, everyone was up and waiting for them downstairs. Dylan looked like he clearly hadn’t been up for more than five minutes, but then he was never a grumpy person in the morning. He was more like a morning zombie, having to be coaxed back into being wakeful and alert and able to speak like he usually would. He was sitting at the kitchen table, where Chiara appeared to have taken it upon herself to get him to that state. Sophie and Riley, for their part, were pulling together some plates and utensils.

“Food!” Riley proclaimed, moving to relieve Maya of the bags, the better for her and Sophie to get started putting everything on the plates.

“How’s he doing?” Lucas asked, nodding toward Dylan.

“He has stopped looking at me like he does not know me,” Chiara reported with a proud smile, in that pronounced Italian accent of hers. She still looked so happy to be here, not just because of Sophie, but the whole idea of her being in America, in Houston, with all of them. It only made them all happier for her in return. In no time, it would be like she’d always been one of them, part of the household.

“This should help,” Riley told her, as she and Sophie and Maya all came carrying a plate in either hand, depositing them where they belonged on the table. When Dylan saw his food, he straightened up just a bit in his chair, cracking his first smile of the day.

By now, it was already two in the afternoon, their first day of ‘freedom’ already shaping up to be a short one, with the way they were going, but that was fine. It left them feeling like they existed in this small bubble of time that was all their own, the five of them slowly weaving this new roommate into their routine and their lives.

“You know what this reminds me of?” Lucas asked the others as they all got to eating. “It’s like when eighth grade started, when Riley moved over from New York to Austin and joined us.”

“Yeah, it kind of is,” Maya agreed, along with Riley and Dylan, and Sophie, too, though on her part it had been told to her by the others, as she hadn’t been with them at the time. She explained now to Chiara, about how a year after Maya had moved to Austin, Riley had ended up moving there, too. Chiara reminded them that she sort of knew about this already, to a point, from one old conversation or another. In its own way, it really was similar, in how Sophie had come into their group, though she’d been in it for some time before she’d even known about the Italian girl, but then once she had, and once they’d started their long-distance relationship…

“Swap out girlfriends for best friends, yeah,” Sophie nodded, smiling, as the two former New Yorkers leaned sideways in their chairs to bump shoulders with one another.

“In another universe, who knows,” Maya grinned, giving Riley a wink.

“It’s not even a question,” Riley grinned back, making them laugh.

“Reminds me of when we all moved in, too,” Sophie went on, and again they agreed. “Oh, maybe we could all go to the movies tonight,” she suggested as the idea struck her.

“I’m in if you guys are,” Dylan agreed, soon to be met with nods and yeses all around, Chiara especially. She was very happy at the prospect of going out there with all of them. They could see that, as much as they could see she would need time to adjust, to stop feeling like the new girl, the outsider, and realize she was fully accepted and welcomed as one of them. She was not a guest, she belonged here. Then again, it was clear this adjustment would have to go both ways. The rest of them already knew there’d be some hesitation in making her do any of the chores they all did, seeing as she was still new.

Breakfast… brunch… had done its work in bringing them all into full wakefulness, especially those who’d needed it the most. This led into giving Chiara the complete and official tour of the house. After she’d arrived here the previous afternoon, driven from the airport by Dylan, she hadn’t wandered very far, or anywhere at all, and they had all just gotten caught up in the party the night before, never getting around to giving the newcomer a tour.

“There’s going to be four of us up here using the bathroom now,” Maya realized aloud.

“Maybe we can alternate, every week, one of us uses the downstairs?” Riley suggested. Chiara looked to Sophie at this, not sure what they were all talking about, so Sophie explained about the ‘girls’ bathroom upstairs and the ‘guys’ one in the basement.

“I do not mind going to the basement,” Chiara shrugged.

“There will be time for us to decide that later, I think there’s plenty more interesting to discuss about this place than the bathrooms,” Sophie took her girlfriend along to get a look at the backyard. When Chiara gasped and smiled, seeing the small patch in the corner, the others understood now where this new interest in gardening had originated in Sophie. She’d gotten it started a couple months back, so there wasn’t much to it just yet, but it had promise. And now, with Chiara as part of the household, it looked like their little patch would be in good hands, the better to grow, right along with the six of them here together.

TO BE CONTINUED


	85. Their Plans For the Newbie

By the time Chiara’s belongings finally arrived from Italy, she had been with them for a week already, and they had been working, whenever they could, to get everything ready by the time the shipment arrived. They had been helping Riley and Sophie to pack up their own rooms, before they executed the switch Riley had volunteered for. The difference in room size wasn’t so notable as to have been an issue when everyone had picked their rooms, but it was enough that, now that it would be shared by two people, it would be just larger enough to matter. Sophie had been so thankful to Riley when she’d revealed this idea, this offer.

It had taken a couple of days, but they had all settled into this rhythm of their first Houston summer well enough. All four of them who had been splitting their time between school and work were now working more hours than before, which was more than fine by them, knowing how close they’d get sometimes, even with five of them providing, to having to call on one another to pitch in on whatever had been meant to be their own expense. Of course, now with Chiara there, too, they would have someone else helping on that front. It wasn’t as though they’d agreed to have her there solely for this reason, because if it was then they would have had Sophie dip into her mother’s money long ago, even though she chose not to.

She hadn’t started yet, but Chiara would soon be joining Lucas to work at Coleman’s Books, and it hadn’t even been his doing. That was all Rosa, who’d immediately clicked with the new girl, her fellow Italian. That was what the two of them had been discussing, the afternoon they’d all come in to find Chiara there with her and Dylan, waiting for the party to start. Once again, their little Houston network had worked its magic, and they were so thankful to it.

As they helped unload the truck and get Chiara’s things up the stairs and into hers and Sophie’s room, they could see how relieved their new roommate was. She’d been nervous all week, waiting for the shipment, thinking about how basically her whole world, everything she’d accumulated throughout her life, could have been lost if anything went wrong at all. She’d been checking that tracking information more often than they could even count anymore, and they had all discovered a handful of Italian swears in that time, even as Sophie swept in to ease her girlfriend’s mind.

Oh, Sophie had been over the moon all week. The rest of them hadn’t realized just how much she’d been waiting and hoping for this moment, for Chiara to be here with them, in the year since they’d all met her in Italy, when their TXNY fan/guide had revealed herself to be someone Sophie had been talking to online for some time, quietly pining until they’d come face to face and things had evolved to what they were now. They’d known Sophie missed her a whole lot, sure, but now, to see the two of them together… It was like she’d been holding her breath all this time, and now she could finally exhale and breathe again.

Even as they were getting everything up to the room, save for a few items which were to be her contribution to the house’s décor, they couldn’t help but think about other things, Maya especially. Two of those things, two of those events, concerned her directly.

The first was the ‘The Big Cut,’ as they’d come to call it. The event had been announced shortly after they’d thought of it, and they had been working toward this moment, still a few weeks away. When the day would come, she and some of the others here, and plenty more in a number of cities across the country and around the world, would be cutting and donating hair. Everything was coming together, and the support they’d been receiving had been phenomenal. Here in Houston and in a few other cities, from what they’d been seeing and hearing, it had received local news coverage, which had in turn boosted the number of people committed to the event and, in a side-effect, which had in no way been the goal, the number of people they saw coming to their pages online, buying their music…

By now, Maya was ready, as were Sophie and Riley, and even Ellie from the bakery. All of them were ready to get their hair cut, as though their commitment to making it happen had helped them to sort of part mentally with whatever length of their hair they’d be letting go of. Riley, who’d been the most hesitant to go in on this at first, kept frowning and saying how her hair was working against her, looking all nice as though to say ‘no, keep me!’ But she was determined. She knew what it was for and she wanted to help. Even her mother was doing it.

She wouldn’t be the only family member to pitch in either. Maya’s little sister, Cara, who would be here at the time, wanted to donate her own blond locks to the Big Cut.

That was the other thing on Maya’s mind, the impending arrival of two of her New York siblings. Sam and Cara were to spend the summer here with them, in Houston and then in Austin whenever they’d be out there with their families. It had taken some planning, naturally. Much as they trusted the pair of them, they were still kids, and while all of them were working, they couldn’t leave Sam and Cara on their own, in a city they didn’t know… So, they’d gotten them into summer camp, which was more than fine by them.

“Maya, phone!” Dylan called from upstairs as she and Lucas were carrying up a couple boxes.

“Did you pick it up?” she called back.

“Yeah, it’s Abigail!” he appeared at the top of the stairs with her phone. As soon as she reached the landing, he set her phone on top of the box, took the box from her hands, and she grabbed the phone and cut into hers and Lucas’ room.

“Hey, Abigail,” she greeted her siblings’ mother. “Sorry I’m a bit out of breath, we’re moving in our new roommate’s things…”

“Yes, your friend said as much,” Abigail replied. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you about this summer, with the kids.”

“Oh…” Maya blinked, feeling like her stomach had just dropped. Was it happening again, like Christmas? They’d been supposed to come, and then there’d been a change of plans and…

“Oh, no, no, I’m still sending Sam and Cara to you,” Abigail went on, like that one short sound of a word had carried whole sentences. It certainly carried Maya’s insides back where they belonged.

“Good, I…”

“What I wanted to say, to ask, actually, is if you could possibly have Eliza and Wyatt there as well.” Maya froze, surprised. All along she had not expected the two youngest. It was one thing to send a twelve and a ten-year-old from New York to Texas on their own, but the others, aged seven and three, had always factored as too young, or… “I know it’s short notice, and if you can’t, I…”

“No, well, I… I mean I’d need to… Can I call you back after I talk with the others?”

“Sure, yes, of course,” Abigail told her, and soon they hung up. Maya stood there for a moment, the thought of bringing four kids into the house for the summer…

“Hey, everything alright?” She turned, finding Lucas at the door. The look on her face must have been telling, as he took the three steps needed to join her. “Maya…” She told him about Abigail’s call, her request. He slowly nodded at this, understanding now. “Wow…”

“Do you think we can? If not, I don’t know if I’d even ask the others, or…” she shook her head. Even as she was saying it though, it felt like something in her heart was betraying her. Truth be told, she _wanted_ them here. She wanted the chance to spend all this time with her New York siblings, the younger ones especially. It wasn’t as though they didn’t know her or were in any way uncomfortable around her, no, far from that. Eliza and Wyatt would talk to her over the computer like she was their superhero instead of their big sister far away in Texas.

“I think… I think we should do everything we have to in order to make it work,” he declared, looking down into her face.

“You _would_ say that,” she sighed, smiling, before stretching up on her toes to kiss him briefly.

So, they went to find the others, and they told them about Abigail’s call. Sophie was curious about this sudden change, and on that Maya was with her, but what mattered for the time being was to decide how to handle these potential new additions. Dylan had already volunteered to give up his room and sleep on the couch for the duration of Sam and Cara’s stay, but they couldn’t well have all four of those kids sharing the one bed.

“We can keep Wyatt with us,” Lucas looked to Maya. It wouldn’t be the first time they slept with a small child between them.

“I’ll take Eliza,” Riley raised her hand with a smile. “Always wanted a little sister… Just don’t tell August that.”

“What about in the day?” Maya asked. “If there’s still time to register Eliza into camp that’s fine, but what about Wyatt, he’s little…”

“Pete’s wife might be able to watch him, she’s at home with the baby. I’ll give them a call,” Lucas told her.

So, while the others continued with the unpacking, Lucas called his co-worker, while Maya got in touch with the camp. Pete and his wife were happy to help out. As for the camp, they would have to get back to her.

“Maybe they can take Eliza, too,” Lucas told Maya when she told him about her own call.

But, not long after she’d hung up with them, the camp called back to confirm they had space for Eliza. Maya called Abigail back, letting her know it was all settled, as soon as she called the camp herself to make the arrangements.

“Thank you, Maya, this means a lot,” Abigail told her, and there was something there. She didn’t ask, but it definitely felt like she wasn’t being told everything.

“How are they going to come out here? Still the same flight, unaccompanied?”

“A friend of ours is headed to California the day before we were going to send Sam and Cara to you, so if it’s alright with you, we’ll send the four kids with her, they’ll land in Houston and she’ll carry on to California after handing them over to you.”

“Sounds great, I can’t wait to see them,” Maya smiled.

“I haven’t even told them yet, I have a feeling you’ll hear Eliza’s reaction all the way down in Texas,” Abigail chuckled, making Maya do the same.

“I think you’re right,” she nodded.

Not too long after, as they were helping Chiara unpack, Maya heard her phone give off a few chimes one after the other and she grinned to herself, knowing this would be either Cara or Sam or both, reacting to the news that all four of them brothers and sisters were Houston bound for the summer. Their household of six humans and two dogs was about to get a little more crowded for several weeks, and frankly that was fine by her, by all of them. Every day it felt like they’d never believed so much in the expression ‘the more, the merrier’ as they did until they moved here.

TO BE CONTINUED


	86. Their Plans For the Four

They left early that morning, just the two of them together but also apart. Lucas drove his own car, while Maya had borrowed Sophie’s. The two of them were both bound for the airport, where they were to pick up Sam, Cara, Eliza, and Wyatt, and all the luggage that was sent along with them, everything they would require for the next eight weeks spent in Texas with their big sister and her friends and family. There was just no hope of fitting everything and everyone in a single car.

The past week had been spent in great part in the preparation for this arrival. There wasn’t so much that they needed to do, really, except maybe to go through the house, trying to get the place ready to host ten people – two of them under the age of ten – and two dogs, for the next two months. The closer they got to the big day, when they’d be flying in with their mother’s friend, the more Maya could just feel her anticipation ready to burst. And she wasn’t alone.

“Our neighbor, Mrs. Darvish, she makes jewelry, and I’ve been helping her. We made all these barrettes and hair pins and ribbons, and I made some to bring for when we get our hair cut, look,” Cara had told her, two days before over Skype, holding up a few of these items to show her sister.

“Ooh, can I have that red one?” Maya had grinned, pointing to the screen. Her mini-me of a sister had gone ahead and committed to donate a length of her own golden hair, too.

Maya bought a new sketchbook for Sam. Her oldest sibling had always shared her love for drawing, and in the past year she’d seen that love grow along with skill. He had a style all his own, and she had a feeling he would enjoy commemorating his summer here with them in those pages, just as she did in the sketchbook Lucas had given to her a week ago.

Riley had been making it her mission to prepare for Eliza’s arrival, as she would soon be her ‘bunkmate’ for the summer, her summer sister. The rest of them had been joking around, claiming she was off ‘plotting,’ as she wouldn’t tell them what she had in mind to make everything special for the seven-year-old. Eliza would be the first one to discover it all, before any of them.

“Are you going to be okay sharing the space with Wyatt and me all summer?” Maya asked Lucas as they walked through the airport hand in hand. “It’s going to make some things a bit more… complicated,” she tossed him a look twisted into a smirk. He took this statement in with a moment of ‘deep’ contemplation before looking back to her.

“You say complicated, I say open to creativity,” he finally returned her look, making her laugh. “And yes, I’m all for it,” he added with a smile. “All this time away from home, and he’s all little… It’ll be easier for him not to get scared, right?”

“Right,” she smiled back. She didn’t fear for Wyatt’s being at ease with them though, not really. The little guy was more likely to keep them awake because he just wanted to keep on talking or to hear another story than because of being scared or missing home.

As they watched the arrivals screen, waiting to see any news on the flight out of New York, Maya could just feel her senses all over the place with the anticipation she felt over her siblings’ arrival. Time had gone by so fast since they’d come into her life, and as much as they were a part of her now, no longer strangers in the slightest, on the whole… The fact was that they lived so far away from one another, that they so rarely got to see each other and spend time together without two screens and miles in between. They’d had those days she’d spent in New York with them, two whole summers ago, but so much had changed, especially with them, growing up as they did. As surprised as she was to get all four of them, truth was she couldn’t have hoped for anything better.

“Look,” Lucas pointed, and she saw it, too. The flight was coming in. “You’re going to cry, aren’t you?” he leaned in with a smirk, and she gave his shoulder a light shove.

“You want to play, creative guy?” There was no point denying it, was there? She was definitely going to cry.

When the doors opened and the passengers started coming out, they both started scanning through the faces, as though they’d have trouble spotting those kids coming through. In no time, Maya saw them, Sam holding his little brother’s hand, Cara holding her little sister’s, all four of them seeking her out.

“Maya!” Eliza was the one to find her first, and she shouted her name loud enough that she could not have missed her if she was even further away. Lucas looked to his girlfriend, and as expected, there were those first tears, those happy, ecstatic tears. He held his hand to her back as they waited until the little group and their accompanying adult passed through to where they could take off running toward her, which they did, like the wild bunch they were.

“Welcome to Hous…” she lost the end of the word in the middle of a breath-stealing hug, her sisters’ arms the first to find her, which hardly deterred little Wyatt, taking what he could by grabbing on to one of her legs, leaving Sam to shyly put his arms around all three of his sisters. Maya managed to find his hand in all this, and when he looked to her, she gave him a smile and a wink. _Hey, brother._

Getting the kids’ luggage at all was a major task, and then loading it all into the car was another. It would test anyone’s patience, but especially someone very young after a flight. Sam did his best to keep his young brother occupied, recruiting Eliza into the effort in a sort of covert attempt at keeping _her_ distracted, too. In the meantime, Cara had helped Maya and Lucas load the luggage into the cars. It didn’t matter how they split everything, so it was all about space.

Finally, though, _finally_ , they all got into the cars. Lucas would drive with the girls, while Maya had the boys. As they made their way from the airport to the house, the two groups had a similar journey. The two drivers would be asked about this thing or that thing when one of the kids would see it out the window, and they would answer as best they could, though they didn’t always get to finish whatever they’d been in the middle of saying before the next question was put to them, forcing them to stop and start again with a new topic. It went on and on, until they arrived.

“Here we are!” Maya announced to her brothers, sweeping her hand to indicate the house. Little Wyatt was stretching this way and that in his car seat, strapped into the back of Sophie’s car, to see the place, even as his big brother undid his seatbelt to look up to his sister’s house, too.

“You guys really live here?” he asked, amazed.

“Yeah,” Maya nodded with a grin. It felt strangely good, seeing how impressed they were about something and then remembering when it had been new to them, too, and how it had felt back then. “And for the next two months, so do you. Come on, let’s go.”

The other car had pulled up right behind them, and as Maya went to get Wyatt out, Lucas was holding the door for the girls to climb out of his car like he was the world’s best chauffeur, offering his hand and everything. When he looked back at her, she just smirked and tipped an invisible cowboy hat.

The rest of the household had still been asleep when the two of them had left for the airport, but now they were back, and everyone was up and waiting for them. They barely got to the door when it was opened for them, and the first thing they saw was a rush of giddy dogs. Trix and Lou came out and were at once all over the four unknown new children. Needless to say, those unknowns reacted very favorably to their arrival. They all crouched and knelt as they met their big sister’s dogs.

“Don’t you just wish you were a puppy sometimes?” Sophie chuckled, standing at the door with Chiara, Riley, and Dylan.

“Oh, all the time,” Maya nodded.

Slowly but surely, they got everyone and everything into the house. The cars were unloaded, with Sam and Cara’s things going up to Dylan’s room – or their room, for the next two months – Eliza’s things going to Riley’s, and then Wyatt’s to Maya and Lucas’ room. This came in the midst of a tour of the house, given by not one but six tour guides. Each of the roommates had a turn at sharing some bit of information or another to the kids as they followed along.

“I like how you talk,” Eliza commented to Chiara, leaving the others to chuckle, seeing how touched the Italian girl was.

“I like how you talk, too,” she confided in the seven-year-old, who proudly grinned.

They ordered pizza for lunch, which went over very well on the whole, even if it led to Maya’s siblings pointing out how good it was back in New York. Between the four of them and Maya and Riley, it was hard for the others to deny the claim, although Chiara would insist that she had the true winner back in Italy. It was the kind of memory they would know was bound to claw at nostalgia without even looking at their new roommate. Sophie had them covered as far as comforting her. Her girlfriend had not just moved to a new city but a new country, new continent. It would have been stranger if she didn’t show signs of missing it even a little.

The day went by in the blink of an eye. They played around for a while out in the yard with the dogs, they watched a movie… It wasn’t until dinner came around and they started to look toward evening and bedtimes and routines that it finally sort of got to feel real. They were in charge of those four kids, and they would continue to be, for weeks and weeks. They weren’t just hanging out and then sending them back home at the end of the day. _This_ was home, and they were their guardians.

They laid out Wyatt to sleep in the middle of their bed, staying with him until he fell asleep, though they were warned by his older siblings that this would not stick, and he would definitely show up again. Eventually, it was Eliza’s turn, and Riley saw to getting her to sleep. Maya was coming back from her second round with Wyatt’s bedtime when her two eldest siblings were coming on their own bedtime, and she pulled them both into her arms.

“I’m really glad you guys are here, you know?” she smiled, squeezing them good and tight even as they gave as good as they got.

“We are, too,” Cara told her.

“Is it okay if I stay up for a bit?” Sam asked, and she knew from the look in his eye what he wanted to do. He’d been so happy to get that sketchbook.

“Twenty minutes,” Maya told them. It would have been easy to say there were no rules here, but she fully intended to do right by them, which meant rules existed. “You tell him when time’s up, deal?” she looked to Cara, who smiled with pride for being put in charge. “Alright, then good night, both of you.”

“Good night, Maya,” said Sam.

“Good night, sis,” said Cara.

TO BE CONTINUED


	87. Their Plans For the Hair

Many mornings spent at the Hunter-Hart house had seen the two of them waking with not one, but two toddlers wedged in between them, and now as it was only going to be the two of them and Wyatt in between... It was a lot of the same but completely different, too. As they’d been led to understand, the boy had a tendency of waking up a couple of times in the middle of the night. Sometimes he’d only manage to wake his sister up in the process and Maya would be able to get him back to sleep quick, holding him close and rubbing his back, keeping him from slipping too far out of his sleep.

Other times, she couldn’t swoop in fast enough, and before long Lucas was awake, too. They both knew enough, from dealing with the twins, that the further they went from just trying to get him back to sleep, like if they resorted to bringing in stories and games, it would only make him want to keep doing that every time.

Her siblings had been with them for nearly three weeks already, which didn’t seem possible. It still felt to them that they had been riding for the airport a day or two before. Instead, they had been diving deeper into summer, all of them together. There had been no struggle as they figured out how to live all of them together, the six roommates and their four young guests. They were all eager to give Maya’s young brothers and sisters a great summer, and so far, they had answered the call.

After three weeks of work, and summer camp, and band practice, and home life, they were finally coming up on the one day they’d all been anticipating, all of them… It was the day of the Big Cut.

“Is it weird I wanted to… say goodbye?” Lucas whispered. They were both awake, but their little guest slept on, stuck like glue to his big sister and keeping her unable to move, and so they whispered.

“To who?” Maya asked, frowning and laughing silently.

“Not who, just…” he shrugged, reaching out his hand and giving a light tug at a strand of her long blond hair. He gave a small smile as he let go, and she laughed again, quickly resting a hand to the back of Wyatt’s head, making sure she hadn’t woken him.

“The hair?” she whispered, looking back to her boyfriend. “You know I’m not going completely bald, right?” she teased him. “It’ll be new, fun… Lighter, so much lighter,” she hummed. “Less upkeep… And it’s hair. It’ll grow back.”

“Yeah, no, I know,” he nodded.

“Oh, you know what though, you could always compensate,” she suggested with a twist of mischief in her smile. “I’ve always wondered what you’d look like with facial hair,” she winked, reaching out to trace a ghost line of hair along his upper lip, around his chin. “A nice handlebar? Get it long enough, you could play S-A-N-T-A this year,” she could barely keep her voice from breaking into laughter.

“You complain whenever I kiss you and I’ve barely got any hairs up there,” he pointed out.

“It tickles,” she shrugged innocently. “But I could get used to it…”

“One hairy situation at a time, okay?” he told her, just as Wyatt started to stir. When he raised his head, he met his sister’s face with a yawn.

“Hey, kiddo, how’d you sleep?” Maya asked him.

“I was dreaming. I was a dog, and I could fly,” the three-year-old declared with a smile just like Sam’s, a little like hers.

“Big dog, little dog?” Lucas asked. Wyatt dipped his head around to look at him.

“Like Trix,” he replied, bending his arm in like it was shorter.

Everything was set for the Big Cut. The last few weeks, they’d been doing final preparations, here in Houston as much as in the other cities where others would be taking part in the event. They’d gotten back on the morning show, and on the radio, to promote it all. They’d been counting down the days, getting closer and closer, and the closer they did get, the girls in the house who were going to go for that cut were all starting to feel like it needed to happen already, like it was time they finally got to see their shorter-haired selves.

“You haven’t changed your mind, right?” Maya turned in her seat to look at Cara, sitting in the back of Lucas’ car as they were headed to the salon. “If you do, you can just tell me, you know?”

“I still want to,” Cara promised, smiling. “Sam’s going to draw me after and send it home to Mom and Dad. He can draw the two of us together if you want.”

“Sure,” Maya smiled. It was hard not to feel like they were tiptoeing around the subject of their father, the one who made them all brothers and sisters together, but then that was sort of what they were doing, wasn’t it? The summer two years before, when she’d gone up to New York to see them for a few days, she’d stayed with Farkle, bypassing the need or possibility of dealing with her birth father, and now he was so far away, not something she had to deal with.

There were the five of them getting their hair cut that day, Maya, Riley, Sophie, Ellie, and Cara, but they knew there would be others, of course, and some of them right here in Houston, so it was no more of a surprise when they showed up at the salon and found two other girls there, waiting for their appointments. They were sitting with Willow, Rosa, and Kayla, talking along. The other girls in the band did not have the hair needed to participate themselves, but it didn’t prevent them from being there, in solidarity for their bandmates and friends.

“Thank you so much for being here,” Maya smiled upon being introduced to the girls. They were sisters, aged fourteen and seventeen. They went to Rosa’s school, though they had never really interacted.

They checked in with some of the other cities. They knew Isadora was at a salon in New York, checking in with some participants there, while Nadine did the same in Boston. They didn’t want to make it into something that would feel too much like some publicity stunt, because this really wasn’t what this was about. They’d never said where they were all headed to. They’d take pictures, before and after, put it on their various platforms, but that was about it.

The first to sit in the chair and get her cut was Sophie. They’d all debated long and hard about how big of a cut they all intended to get. There was a minimum length they needed to be able to part with, but then once they’d pulled Sophie’s light curls down to their straightest and longest length, her ginger hair reached almost to the start of her legs. When the stylist picked up her scissors and asked if she was ready, Sophie sat there, with all the fire they got to see whenever the ‘other Sophie’ needed to be summoned. She was ready. The elastic had been set, a loose braid had been made, and with a few snips, the ginger braid was separated from the rest of Sophie’s hair.

By the time when the stylist would be done with her, another near inch would be gone, too, but already the change was notable and just… amazing. They’d only ever known Sophie with the long hair, but then the same could be said about the rest of them, too, couldn’t it? The girls fully expected to spend the better part of what remained of the summer just constantly startling one another.

“Well? What do you think?” Sophie came back to them for ‘the reveal,’ and there were the appropriate gasps and cheers as she stood there, the fire returned where it came from in favor of the blush of the shy girl they’d first come to know, as she touched the ends of her hair. Already the old curls had gone about reasserting themselves, which just barely kept her hair from grazing her shoulders. Chiara said something in Italian, and the smile on her face was enough for them not to need too much translation; she loved it very much, and the feeling was mutual all around. It would take some time to get used to, but the cut suited Sophie so well… Now they were ready for the others to get their turns.

The first of the sisters was next, while the other went fourth, after Riley. As they waited for her to unveil her new look, Maya was feeling very conflicted, caught between her own curiosity at what her best friend of old would look like and another curiosity, in this case a curiosity over how Dylan would react. Thank goodness for the pictures she was getting from Isadora, Nadine, and any number of others in various cities, or she would have been caught sneaking looks.

“Woah…” she swore she heard Dylan breathe, and she looked up, along with the others. Riley stood before them now, grinning and turning to show them how her brown hair now measured about halfway between chin and shoulders. Tucked behind her ears as it was, the instant impression it left was just how much of a mature air it gave her.

When it came to Cara’s turn, the girl asked if her big sister would stay with her, and naturally she did. She wasn’t scared, not at all. She just wanted to share this with Maya, and minutes later, when _her_ turn would come, Maya would keep her little sister nearby, too, returning the sentiment. Cara had her own hair cut to the chin, finished off with two of the hairpins she’d helped to make. It was the perfect finishing touch, and Maya told her as much, making her sister grin with pride.

And then it was her turn. Maya had to admit, when the elastic bands were secured into place, for the briefest of moments, she allowed doubt to seep in. Would she regret this? Would it be a mistake? She’d let the questions in, but what she found once this happened was that… no… She was fine, and this was no mistake. She watched as the scissors snipped, snipped, snipped their way over that first elastic, watched the shortened hair cascade around her face, freed. The biggest step was over, and she was smiling.

Back in the waiting area, Lucas was only vaguely listening as those who’d gone before continued to inspect their own hair and the others’, along with the rest of the group there that morning. The anticipation for this last reveal was the one he felt the most, as was to be expected. He couldn’t even picture what she would look like; he’d only ever known her with long hair. It hadn’t been near as long as it had gotten in the last few years, but it had still gone long enough to be called that. Now, as far as he had been told, it would be about shoulder length, too.

He just wanted so much to see her…

“Here she comes,” Cara came back to them suddenly, and they all looked back at her. The resemblance that she bore with Maya here already helped to put some idea of what his girlfriend would look like now, but then no… Cara was ten, and the short, straight hair, came off sweet on her. Maya’s hair, just a bit longer and with an inherent wave to it, looked… He didn’t have the words for it, nor the breath to even say them, because she’d taken it from him.

“Thoughts?” she asked, looking to him expectantly, shaking her head about to set her hair in motion. Lucas stepped over to her, reaching his hands up to run his fingers through the shortened hair, and she smiled, seeing how he couldn’t help but smile either. One hand settled just at the back of her neck and he nodded.

“Oh, I could get used to this,” he told her, leaning in to whisper the rest, making her bite back a laugh. Before they knew it, little Wyatt was standing there next to them and demanding for his sister to ‘come down.’ When she crouched, he reached to get a feel of her hair, too, like he needed to make sure it was still her. Now she couldn’t wait until Nellie and Gracie and the rest of her family in Austin saw her new look…

TO BE CONTINUED


	88. Their Plans For the Concert

A little over a week had gone by since The Big Cut, and the wonder of looking at one another, of seeing those of them who’d parted with great lengths of the hair they had all unintentionally associated with them for these past several years… Oh, it was still so bizarre… wonderful, absolutely, but still bizarre. Even for themselves… Maya, Riley, Sophie, and Cara as well, they were so used to living with that long hair, to having to move it a certain way, maintaining it, all things they now had to alter, it seemed, for the first time ever, because they’d never had their hair so short.

“Are you laughing at me?” Maya turned her head to squint at Lucas one night as they sat watching a movie, all of them spread out either on or in front of the couch.

“Me? Never,” he promised with a smile she still met with suspicion, like he thought she really believed he hadn’t seen her return from putting Wyatt to bed, absently doing the usual reach to sweep her hair aside only to come up empty, and that it hadn’t made him start to laugh before he’d managed to catch himself.

“Yeah, okay, if you say so,” she leaned to set her head on his shoulder when he held up his arm in invitation. As she settled in, he curved his arm around her, letting his fingers weave into her shortened locks. For his part, for as much as the images he had of her in his memories continued to be summoned with the length she no longer had… It hadn’t taken him more than a second, from the moment she’d stepped into view back at the salon, to know that the new style suited her. It felt like a step forward and, deep down, it felt like falling in love all over again.

The next day, the house was live with energy. It usually was, but this was different. Maya and Riley were taking off in Sophie’s car, driving halfway to Austin even as Mr. Matthews was doing the same, escorting his son and his girlfriend to hand them off to his daughter for the next two days. It was simpler than to have one side or the other drive all the way to and from one city or the other.

Maya hated to leave things as they’d been when it had been time to hit the road. Eliza had wanted to come with them, and when Maya had told her she couldn’t, her little sister had started to cry before running off to hide somewhere.

“We got her, it’s fine,” Dylan had told Riley and her, and already Sophie and Chiara had gone to find Eliza.

So, they’d gone, the hour’s drive turning out much less cheerful than they’d anticipated. They’d been doing Eliza a favor, really. They knew she would have gotten bored before long, and she would be much better off staying here, playing with her siblings and the others, but of course all she’d held on to was the fact that she wasn’t going with them. It was the first time Maya had seen any of her siblings be upset with her, and as much as she knew that it wouldn’t last, that all would be well again by the day’s end, she wished more than anything that she hadn’t needed to leave things like that before going.

The nearer they came to the meeting point, both she and Riley made it a point to try and pull themselves together, so not to show up to meet Mr. Matthews, August, and Michaela, and look upset. They thought about where they were headed, who they were going to see, and what would happen after that, and all was well.

When they pulled up, August and Michaela were out of Mr. Matthews’ car in a second, like they’d been waiting a while and anxiously awaited the moment where they could get away. Riley got out and dashed to hug her not-so-little-anymore little brother. She hugged August’s girlfriend, too, because no matter how awkward it still was for her at times to think of her baby brother being in a relationship, she _had_ known Michaela Zhu for years, and she supposed if he had to get a girlfriend then she was a solid choice.

Once they’d said goodbye to Riley and August’s father and gotten back on the road, it was like their two passengers suddenly woke up, rattling off about how the conversation had gone off while they were driving up from Austin. Mr. Matthews had apparently been trying to ‘put the fear’ in his son, as he was being sent off away from parental supervision with his girlfriend. It hadn’t exactly achieved what he’d intended, and both Maya and Riley could imagine it all too well.

“If he wanted you guys to get ‘the talk,’ he should have just asked me, I’m way scarier than him,” Maya grinned, looking to the pair in the back through the rear view mirror. Almost proving her point, August and Michaela – who’d been holding hands when she looked up –suddenly let go and pulled their hands back into their laps and looked out the windows.

Arriving back at the house, they found everyone waiting out front, in some kind of mixed dodgeball/tag/catch game. If there were rules, they were chaotic and barely observed. All that seemed to matter was that everyone was having fun, including Eliza. If Maya wondered how long it would take before her little sister forgot about being upset, she knew it was well in the past already, as she came running up the moment that she saw her.

“You’re on my team, come on!” she grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

“Yes, ma’am!” Maya didn’t resist, throwing looks to her roommates, hoping one of them could explain the aim of this game of theirs.

Fitting the four kids from New York into the house had been one thing. Sam and Cara had been satisfied enough to share Dylan’s room, Eliza loved bunking with Riley, and Wyatt was playing the part of clinging monkey every night, the moment Maya got into bed. But August and Michaela were another thing. They didn’t want to treat them like they didn’t trust them, but there was still this feeling like they should be careful to hold things up at least close enough to what their parents would want.

They set August up in Dylan’s room with Sam and Cara. It amused Maya and Riley, thinking about their siblings getting to know each other. Sure, August knew the twins, and MJ, but it was hardly the same, when one of them was a teenager and the others were toddlers and a baby. August and Sam had hit it off quick over the afternoon, and Cara looked like she’d already adopted August like one more brother. As for Michaela, she’d been recruited into spending the next two nights in Riley’s room along with Eliza. It was going to be their very own sleepover, no one else allowed.

The concert would be happening on the following night. They couldn’t just let the two of them go on their own, and since Riley hadn’t been able to get off work and go with Maya to co-chaperone as they had planned, Lucas came in and claimed her ticket.

“So does this count as a date?” he asked Maya when he told her he was free to go with them.

“You, me, a couple of teens, and a few thousand other people, I mean… maybe?” she laughed. “If there’s any wiggle room between a lowercase d date and a capital D Date, that would probably be it?”

“Like one of those small capital letters,” he offered, and she laughed again. “Dress code?”

“Casual but cool?”

It was probably just as well that Riley wasn’t with them. August and Michaela already knew not to try and pull a fast one on Maya, and Lucas had that whole tall guy thing going for him, no doubting his authority. They headed down to the venue, took a detour at the souvenir stand. August bought a couple of things for Michaela and she thanked him with what she thought was a covert kiss. Lucas and Maya shared a look, silently agreeing to pretend like they totally hadn’t seen a thing.

“Think we should add to your shirt collection from last summer?” Lucas asked, nodding to the displays. She turned slowly to look at the selection before turning back to him.

“Match me or no deal.”

Before long, they were finding their places in the already packed audience. While they had bought some shirts, they decided not to simply slip them over their clothes. It could have been that they knew better than to add extra layers when they’d be sweating in no time, but really, they would both own up to wanting to honor their ‘lower capital D Date’ and keep from ‘breaking the look.’

“This is amazing!” Michaela had to shout to be heard over the drone of so many voices. She looked so happy to be here, and she was holding tight to August’s hand, while Riley’s younger brother just looked back at her like he didn’t even realize just how many people there were around them. The only one he saw was the girl stood at his side.

“It got weird for you, too, didn’t it?” Lucas would ask Maya later that night, back at the house, while they quietly changed before getting in on either side of the sleeping Wyatt.

“What did?” she asked.

“August, Michaela,” he explained. “I know he’s Riley’s brother, but you’ve known him all his life, too, you know?”

“Oh, I do know,” she smiled.

“Well?” he pressed on, and she sighed.

“Fine, maybe a little,” Maya admitted, and Lucas smirked, though only just a bit about what she’d said and more for realizing they’d both put on their concert shirts to sleep in. “He’s so tall now, and just… person shaped…” she frowned.

“That’ll be MJ and the twins someday, and him, too,” he nodded to Wyatt.

“You stop that right now, Lucas Friar, or I’m telling your mom,” she pointed at him.

“Woah, harsh,” he laughed, coming around to her side and pulling her into his arms in what soon became something like a slow dance. “Did you have a good time tonight?”

“I had a great time,” she smiled up at him, swaying along to whatever tune was playing in his head to lead them on. “It’s nice to be on the other side for once.”

“Okay, rock star,” Lucas smirked.

“Yeah, don’t you forget it,” she nodded with a pointed look.

“Are you kidding? First thing I tell people, no names, nothing, just ‘my girlfriend’s a real life rock star, hello, I’m Lucas, can I help you find a book?’” She laughed at this, loud enough that both turned their heads at once to see that Wyatt hadn’t woken up.

“I’m going to miss not having him there when he goes back to New York, it’s so weird…”

“You won’t be alone,” he reminded her.

“Oh, I know that… Big Spoon guy,” she turned a smile back to him. “I just wish…” she sighed, looking for the words.

“I know,” he promised her. There just was no way around this situation of hers. Half her family was here in Texas, the other in New York. No matter what they did, there was always going to be a part that was on the other side of the country, out of reach. “But he’s here now,” he reminded her, kissing the side of her head. “They’re all here, with you, with us.”

“You always know what to say, don’t you?” she hummed.

“It’s a gift,” he nodded. She snorted, and they went on swaying.

TO BE CONTINUED


	89. Their Plans For the Twins

“They’re here, they’re here! Yaya, they’re here! Lukey, come on!”

They were lucky, at the very least, that they had been a tiny bit awake when Nellie came dashing into her sister’s old room/guest room and climbed on the bed, hopping and ready to pounce, accompanied as she was by her twin and their guest of the moment. It wasn’t long that Nellie, Gracie, _and_ Wyatt were all competing to get their sister and her boyfriend to come along and see for themselves that ‘they’ were here.

“Who is?” Maya played along, sitting up and pretending like she didn’t know. A moment later, Gracie had her arms around her neck and was sitting in her lap, knocking the breath from her lungs just a bit.

“Riley,” Nellie declared, “And Sophie, a-and Dylan, and… uh…” She frowned.

“Kiki!” Wyatt helped, laughing. That’s what he’d been calling Chiara, and she had never seemed to mind, so he’d kept on doing it, which had passed on to the twins since they’d all come over, the previous week, Maya and Lucas and the four siblings from New York.

With everything they had coming up which required for them to be in Austin, they had seen to it that they’d be able to relocate there for two weeks. They would still need to return for the Babineaux party in a couple of weeks, but by that time Sam and the others would have returned home, which would make it easier for the roommates to drive back into Austin for that one day.

Maya and Lucas had been up here for a week now, while the others could only make it up for the second week. They had been staying at the Friar house for that first week, and to see how they all welcomed their accompanying set of young brothers and sisters, they could easily have stayed there both weeks. Really, when they’d left to resettle back at the Hunter Hart house the night before, there had been a part of them left to wonder if Melinda Friar wouldn’t make some attempt to get them to stay longer. Neither Lucas nor Maya would have put it above her to bribe them with treats or toys.

“I just had a very weird flash forward to our future,” Maya had whispered to Lucas as they finally drove off from his parents’ house.

“That makes two of us,” he breathed, which in turn made her stifle a laugh.

Heading over to her parents’ house, Lucas knew Maya had been nervous and excited all at once. It wasn’t the first time her mother met some of her ex’s children with his new wife, but now they’d all be staying there in the house together for the week to come. If there was anything in her mother that was working at the back of her mind, any subconscious feeling about them… It might come out, no? Already, she had sensed something like holding back in her mother since the start of her siblings’ extended stay. If she did feel something, it was none of those four’s faults, and she didn’t want them thinking they weren’t supposed to be there.

Playing more or less fifty-fifty with her nerves was her happiness at the thought of seeing all of her brothers and sisters of both sides together for the first time. She was so used to dealing with the twins and MJ on one side, and then Sam and the others as a separate entity, and sometimes she had to pause to remember she had seven siblings… It was still so wild of a thought, wasn’t it? From a lonesome girl with little more than a mother, to here, now, with all those boys and girls who not only shared her blood but looked up to her and loved her as much as she loved them…

They had arrived the night before because today was the day. Today was the twins’ third birthday. Three years ago, already, she’d been stuck in an elevator with her mother when it had all started, and hours later she had been presented with Penelope and Grace Hunter, her little sunny sister, and her Mouse-Mouse… They were getting bigger by the day, more and more, it felt, but at heart they were still those same girls she’d held in her arms that August night, three years to the day. Gracie was still as soft-spoken and shy, and Nellie was still bursting with that bright energy of hers, a spark in the shape of a girl.

It had been Lucas’ idea to get all of them talking to each other over the past few weeks, whenever she’d call home over Skype. The more they’d interact with each other, the more they’d bypass the potential for early awkwardness, right? And he’d been right. When they’d finally shown up the night before, all the kids had been excited to be together at last. Even MJ, not quite eight months old now, had been seeing enough of them through the screen that, when he met them in person, he was all smiles and laughter like he was being reunited with friends.

“Hi, MJ!” Cara had been possibly most anxious to meet the little guy, and when she’d asked Katy if she could hold him, Maya could just see her mother so briefly taken with how Kermit’s ten-year-old daughter looked so much like the one they had brought into the world together. Cara hadn’t noticed any of that, too busy smiling at the baby boy, letting him hold on to her fingers…

“O-of course,” Katy had finally breathed, handing her son over to the girl who showed immediate care in maintaining a proper hold of him.

The sleeping arrangement here in Austin had been different from how it was in Houston, which was to be expected. At the Friar house, they’d all piled up together in Lucas’ old room. The kids easily fit in the big bed together, the little ones in the middle and the older ones on the edges. As for Maya and Lucas, they had created themselves a mattress of cushions and blankets rather than to ride a sleeping bag on the hard floor for a whole week. More often than not they had still woken up with Wyatt having climbed down from between Eliza and Sam to come and rest between them, clinging to his oldest sister as he’d done before.

At the Hunter Hart house, they had set up Eliza and Wyatt in the twins’ room, while Sam and Cara set themselves up at either end of the couch in the living room. Up until the twins and Wyatt had come barging in, it had been looking to be the first morning in over a month where Maya and Lucas might have managed to wake up in something that looked a lot like the peace they had been accustomed to, and yet when they had been summoned to witness that ‘they’ were here, they had not been upset for the intrusion. Like their stay here over the holidays, after MJ was born, they had gotten accustomed to the new routine.

“Did you leave home before sunrise?” Maya asked Riley as she hugged her in greeting. “I thought you were stopping over at your parents’ before coming here or something…”

“Yeah, well, last night we were packing, and I remembered that box… you had me hide for you…” she spoke very quietly, sneaking a look around.

“What bo… oh!” Maya gasped. The box… the presents… How had she not thought about those at all, not for a whole week? If Riley hadn’t found them and brought them… “I owe you a big one, what’s your favor? Candy, cash…”

“I’ll think of something.”

After working to be as discreet as possible, which involved getting the box from Sophie’s car to Lucas’, the roommates went on their way to visit their families and settle in before changing for the party and returning in the afternoon. Sophie was particularly antsy, as this would be the first time her mother met Chiara. Diana Zvolensky had been out of the country since shortly before her daughter’s girlfriend had flown in from Italy to move in with the rest of them, but now she was back, and it was time.

“Remember, breathing is important,” Maya told the redhead, and she breathed in and out with all the intent of someone doing as they were told.

“Come see,” Gracie came to find her sister as she was coming out of her room some time later, having just finished showering and dressing.

“Got something to show me, Mouse-Mouse?” Maya asked her, and the little brunette nodded, pulling at her arm. She took her to the door leading into the basement, and they went down the steps together. Gracie was very meticulous in the way she went up and down steps, like she would do everything in her power not to fall.

The space which had once been her room had been invaded by a number of toys, including a great big ‘house,’ which Shawn had built himself, with assistance from both Cory Matthews and Tom Friar. It had been his gift to the girls for their birthday, and while Maya had been aware of its ‘secret’ construction, it was the first time she got to see the completed project. It was kind of massive, enough that the twins would continue to fit inside it as they grew over the next few years. It was also big enough that at least one other person could enter.

“Password!” they heard Nellie’s voice shout after Gracie knocked.

“What is it?” Maya whispered, looking down to her sister, making her laugh.

“Password!” Nellie requested a second time, growing impatient.

“Six!” Gracie shouted back, although a lot of the time, like now, her ‘shouting’ came off more like a lion cub trying to roar and failing adorably. Maya looked down at her. “She’s three, I am three,” Gracie replied, her face like logic personified, and Maya wasn’t sure if she blinked first or laughed.

“Okay, good point.”

They were allowed into the playhouse, and ducking her head and shoulders to walk through the doorway, Maya was amazed. They had done wonderful work. She was proud to see her second foray into creating wallpaper had been put to use. Her father had recruited her to make this contribution, and of course she had accepted. She could have come and snuck a look the night before, but she had preferred instead to wait for the twins to get to show her.

“Look, it’s us!” Nellie pointed to a picture hanging from the wall, taken at Christmas, with Shawn and Katy and Maya and the twins and baby MJ. It seemed like not one of them looked the same anymore, for having grown, or in her case for having significantly less hair…

“I see that,” Maya smiled, sitting on the ground a moment before both of the birthday girls piled into her lap. She gave them a good squeeze of a hug and they reciprocated with all the strength of their tiny girl arms, which was a lot more than one might assume. “Did I ever tell you guys about the day you were born?” They shook their heads. “Did Mommy or Daddy tell you?” They shook their heads again. “They didn’t?” she asked, with extra surprise. “Well, would you like me to tell you? It was a very big day, a very big, important day, the kind you never, ever forget.” They followed every move of her head like the captive audience they were.

“Tell us!” Nellie demanded at once.

“Tell the story,” Gracie nodded along.

“Right, well, all of us had been waiting for you guys to come along. We were excited to meet you, and hold you in our arms… like this…” Maya smiled. “And then, Mommy and me, we decided to go to the mall…”

TO BE CONTINUED


	90. Their Plans For the Camping

The days following the twins’ birthday had been spent much in the way they’d spent the week leading up to it. None of them were working while they were in Austin, which left them the option to do pretty much anything they felt like doing. They took Maya’s visiting siblings and the twins to go swimming a few times, at a public pool in the first week, accompanied by Franny and Kayla who were back in town to see their families, too, and then at Sophie’s mother’s house this week. They went to the movies a couple of times, leaving the three-year-olds behind for one of those. As much as they enjoyed themselves, it was clear a couple of them didn’t have enough focus in them to sit there calmly the whole time.

If he had to guess, Lucas would say Maya’s favorite part of all this was the time in the evening, after the little ones had gone to bed, when they’d go outside with just Sam and Cara and they’d throw the ball around. Her siblings improved notably in their skills over those weeks, in Austin and Houston both, and by the end of it, by now… they were getting pretty good.

This _was_ the end of their time here. In a few days, they’d be flying back to New York. None of them were looking forward to that moment, Maya included, but she’d been putting on a brave face the whole time, the better to encourage the four of them to do the same. Lucas could already tell that wall would crumble after they were put on that plane and it was just the two of them again. He’d be there for that, always. But until then, well… they had the perfect closure to these great weeks they’d all spent together.

For his own part, he’d been looking forward to this moment for reasons of his own, too. For a time, he wasn’t sure they’d manage to pull it together, wasn’t sure they’d all be there, but now here they were, on their way to the old spot, him, and Maya, and Riley, Dylan, Sophie, Chiara, Franny, Kayla, Sam, Cara, Eliza, Wyatt, Shawn, Nellie, Gracie… and his father and grandfather.

When he’d first approached his grandfather, asking if he’d be up to camping, he’d been careful not to make it sound as though Pappy Joe might not be physically able to do it. It was coming on two years since he’d fallen down the stairs, and on the whole he was much better, but… He’d never entirely recovered, nor would he. As solid as he’d been before, the incident had brought his age to the fore. This frustrated Pappy Joe to no end, and he hated to have anyone fuss over him like he’d drop at any second.

“I’ll let you know,” had been his response when Lucas asked him, a few weeks ago. All grievances aside, he wasn’t about to do something he didn’t feel ready to do. It would have been so much worse to end up going and then ruin it for everyone by having to return early and in haste.

But then when they’d arrived, Lucas and Maya and the four, to stay at the Friar house, his grandfather had pulled him aside and told him they were on. He would go camping with them. They would even bring Tom with them, to appease everyone. Lucas was more than fine with the idea of camping with his grandfather _and_ his father. So, they were on.

When they arrived at their camping spot, it left him feeling just… happy. He had so many memories here, from days when he’d been as little as Wyatt and the twins, some of his first ever memories really. In the old days it had been him and his grandparents and parents, then after they’d lost his grandmother it had been just the four of them, and then his mother had stopped coming, and so it had been ‘the Friar Men’ for a good while. After that, when his friends had come into the picture, it would be just him and them and Pappy Joe. That roster would grow, with Zay, and Asher and Dylan, and then Nadine, and Maya, and Riley… When they hadn’t been here for the first time in as many summers as he could remember, it had felt like something had broken, something had ended. But now here they were… and he never wanted to miss another one of these.

“Alright, how about the five of us go and take a walk,” Pappy Joe turned to Eliza, Wyatt, Nellie, and Gracie as they all got out of their cars. “We’ll let the rest of them do the boring stuff,” he made a face to the four of them that made them laugh before following him.

“He never liked putting the tents together even before all this,” Tom Friar revealed to his son as he and Maya started on the one they’d share with her New York siblings. “That stays between us, yeah?” he clapped Lucas’ shoulder before moving on to start on his own tent.

“I already knew that,” he confided to Maya, who smirked back at him. “As soon as I was old enough to do it on my own, he gave me one of those ‘Now, son, you need to learn how to do this, so I’ll just sit here and watch you and tell you when you’re doing something wrong.’” Maya laughed, nodding to herself. She could hear it in her head.

“Can we help?” Sam came up with his little sister in tow. Lucas turned to Maya, knowing what had to be going through her mind now.

“Sure,” she simply said though, deciding not to pass on the task like Pappy Joe would.

By the time his grandfather and the little kids came back from their walk, they were all established and ready for the two nights they would spend here. This was so new to all of them, which turned what might have looked like a handful of tents into some kind of magical forest village. They all wanted to know which one was theirs, and when they were shown, they took off running at once to go and discover it.

“Maya?” Eliza poked her head back out of their tent, looking for her sister. When she found her, she dashed over to her, locking her arms around her.

“Hey,” Maya laughed, matching the hug. “Do you like it in there?” Eliza nodded, but Maya could see there was something else on her mind. “Hey… What’s up?” The seven-year-old didn’t reply, just went on hugging her. Maya sighed, carefully getting hold of the girl so she could pull her off her feet and into her arms. “You’re sad about going back?” she asked, rubbing at her back. Eliza nodded again. “You know, I am, too,” she promised, setting her forehead against her sister’s. “But we’ll still talk all the time, same as we did before, you know that.”

“Don’t want to go,” the girl whimpered. “I want to stay with you.”

“Hey… hey…” Maya hushed, reaching one finger to carefully brush tears from the little face. “What about your mom and dad though? I’m sure they miss you a lot. Don’t you miss them?”

“Yeah…” Eliza admitted.

“We’ll see each other again at Christmas, yeah?”

“We didn’t last time…”

“I know,” Maya sighed. “But if you guys can’t come this time, we’ll find a way. I promise, okay?” she held up her little finger, and it tugged a smile out of her sister. She linked her own little finger with Maya’s, sealing the promise. “You’re not gone yet, and while you’re here we’re going to get to do so much… Tell me… have you ever had s’mores?” Eliza shook her head. “You haven’t?” Maya cranked up the shock in her voice. “Oh, just you wait, sister of mine… just you wait…” When Eliza laughed, Maya knew they had pulled through. They had one more good hug and she set her down on her feet.

“Maya?” she asked, looking up at her again.

“Yes, Eliza?” she crouched to be at eye level again.

“If you’re my sister and they’re your sisters,” Eliza indicated the twins, who were presently running around with Wyatt, all three chasing after Sam. “Does that mean they’re my sisters, too?” Maya blinked, unsure what to tell her. She could tell it plainly, that she alone had that bond with every one of them, but in some ways, it felt more complicated than that. “I want a little sister, but Mom and Dad say I can’t,” she explained, frowning.

“Right,” Maya nodded, understanding now. “Well… They’re my sisters because we have the same mom, and you’re my sister because we have the same dad, so technically… no, they’re not your sisters. But that doesn’t always matter. You like them a lot, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Eliza smiled.

“You know, Riley and I, we both have our own parents, too, but if you ask me, she’s always been as good as a sister to me. So, if Nellie and Gracie feel like sisters to you, even if they’re not really, it doesn’t mean you can’t treat them like they are, you know?” Eliza nodded, grinning. “You have to be careful though, right? Same as with Wyatt.”

“I know, I will.”

The next two days were just the thing they all needed, all they could want to bring these last eight weeks to a close. They did all the things they would do on their old camping trips, and it was just that much more of a thrill to be back here this time because they got to witness a lot of firsts. All the kids, from Sam on down to the twins, had never been camping before, and over those days they all found something wonderful to hold on to, memories that would forever mark this summer in their minds. Maya had a feeling Eliza was always going to remember the first time she’d had s’mores…

Lucas would remember this trip for everything they’d done, the swimming, the fishing, the campfire, the six of them in that tent and Maya’s voice resonating inside it as she’d sing her littler siblings back to sleep… Maybe most of all, he would remember looking at his grandfather, seeing how just being back here seemed to have returned something to him. For how much they had all worried about one thing or another, they had made it so smoothly that they might not have remembered anything about the old accident and the aftermath.

And to be here with all of them together, his family, and her family, and the friends who were very much their family, too, it was the kind of thing that would remain permanently seared into his brain. Sitting around the campfire, looking to one side and seeing his father, and his grandfather, and Shawn, talking away about this thing and that, looking to the other side, to Maya tucked under his arm even as she had Sam tucked under hers, as she watched him draw in the sketchbook she’d given him… Across from them, there’d be Franny showing Cara a new pattern for friendship bracelets, and Kayla, Riley, and Dylan stacking so many marshmallows to roast, while Sophie sat on a log, braiding Chiara’s hair as the girl treated them to some old Italian songs… The little ones, off sleeping in their tents, would come sneaking back out again before long, and they would just be welcomed back, sitting with them until they fell back to sleep.

They’d be back again, the next summer, and the one after that, and the one after that… Someday, who knew how many summers from now, he could just see it, his grandfather, and his father, and him, and whoever would come to follow…

TO BE CONTINUED


	91. Their Plans For the Fall

The days following the return home – to Houston for the six roommates and to New York for Maya’s four siblings – was going to be rough on all of them, and there really hadn’t been any point pretending as though they wouldn’t be. They’d gotten so deep in this bubble of theirs that to suddenly find themselves expelled from it… it felt like they had to learn how to be just the six of them all over again. With how many of them lived in that house, human or canine, one might have thought it would still have been plenty noisy that the absence of Sam, Cara, Eliza, and Wyatt wouldn’t have been felt so strongly, but it was. Something was missing, something was gone.

Maya did not lack for support. They had all known it would be roughest on her. They could see it, those of them who’d stayed behind, as she and Lucas took off for the airport with the kids, much as she tried to hold those feelings down until after they couldn’t see her anymore. And Lucas could see it, before and after that. He could see it as she laid in bed that morning, holding the little brother clinging to her as he’d done for the better part of the last two months and gently brushing at his hair in silence. He could see it as they got back to the cars, just the two of them, and started the drive toward home. She was off in Sophie’s car again, and he wasn’t sure he could have reached her if she’d been sitting right next to him either. For a while, he just had to let her be.

The best they could do was to be there without necessarily forcing a smile back on to her face, which they knew. They were there, and sooner or later it would be enough.

And, slowly but surely, it all started to take the turn they’d been hoping for. The last stretch out of that funk was forced out of her, just a little bit, though not by any of them but rather by the band being called on to perform at a local festival. It meant recalling Kayla from Austin, as she was supposed to be spending a few more days there with her family, but she agreed at once and both she and Franny were back in Houston by the next morning. For the next few days, the girls practiced down in the basement, and the music went and did its thing.

The morning after their final performance – they’d been hired on for three appearances – they were due for a ride back into Austin, for the Babineaux family party. The six roommates were all invited, as was to be expected, but then Zay’s aunt, who hosted the event as she’d done every year for as long as any of them had been on the guest list, had extended that invite to the rest of the band, if they wished to come, and any others they might have had to bring along, which in this case translated to Lion accompanying Willow, and Franny tagging along with Kayla, as she so often did.

“Just carry me to the car like this so I can keep on sleeping?” Maya grumbled when she was told it was time to get up.

“Post-show hibernation?” he guessed as she curled up almost into a ball, like if she made herself as heavy as possible, she would not be moved. He could have lifted her out with ease, but he still appreciated the effort.

“Too early,” she went on protesting.

“Serious words coming from you,” he chuckled.

“Right?” she turned her head so she might look up at him. “Five more minutes… and then another… eighty-five after that…”

“Okay then, back to option number one,” he stood up, sliding his arms under her and starting to lift her out of bed.

“Okay, okay!” she startled. “Put me down, I’ll go, I’ll go!”

Much as exhaustion had made her protest, she wouldn’t have missed this one for the world, none of them would, none. This party was always a special occasion, but this year there was the added celebration of GiGi Babineaux’ hundredth birthday.

The day had already come and gone, a few months back, but GiGi had insisted that, if they were all going to make a fuss over her, then they might as well wait until summer, when they’d all be getting together anyway. So, that was just what they did. They all imagined what it would look like, in a number of ways, but from what Zay had been telling them, it would be riding the fine line between extravagant and understated. GiGi would not have them pull out all the stops just because she’d lived her way ‘into a third digit,’ but she wouldn’t stop them from doing what came naturally.

Dylan took the front seat on the drive into Austin, as Maya went and sandwiched herself along with Riley between Sophie and Chiara, so that she might join her oldest friend and fellow post-show zombie in a bit of road napping. They had awakened some by the time they were nearing their destination, leading the second car and their friends along the way.

“Want to go do a lap around the block?” Dylan turned to look at them with a grin. “Like that night when we were a painting?”

“No, please, no running,” Riley frowned pitifully.

“You just manage to keep her awake, okay?” Maya caught Dylan’s eye with a nod. He smiled, accepting the task at once. It was so easy to mistake his kindness toward Riley as just Dylan being Dylan, but then she knew something he didn’t know she knew. She knew about his feelings for her best friend of old, and it made her trust him in ways she might not have trusted many others when it came to looking after her.

“The festival really wore you guys out,” Lucas commented as they started toward the house. He had his arm around her shoulders now as they trailed up to the house, two by two, two couples and one ‘to-be-determined’ couple.

“I feel like I’m the one who’s a hundred years old,” Maya agreed. “Maybe I should start going to the gym with you or something.”

“Won’t say no to that.”

They would have been lying if they said there wasn’t a great part of them that was more excited at the prospect of seeing their friends than anything else today. Right until the very end, they hadn’t been certain which of them would be able to make the trip down to Texas or when they’d fly in, so as they came through the house after being greeted by Zay’s aunt, they didn’t even know who they’d find once they reached the yard.

“Maya, Riley!” a familiar squeal heralded the approach – at a near sprint – of Nadine Zhu, as she came up and pulled both of them into a tight hug. They were so happy to see her, they felt as though for a few minutes they forgot to be tired. “Zay’s out with GiGi to ‘keep her occupied’ until they surprise her. He says there’s not really a point, because she knows the party’s today, but…” she shrugged. “Are you two okay?” she asked, grinning.

“Living that rock star life,” Maya sighed weakly.

“Oh, right, the festival! How was it? I mean Isadora showed me the videos, but…” she went on, gesturing blindly over her shoulder, and it was only now that they spotted the pair of them coming their way, the husband and wife of near on a year already. And not far on their heels came Asher and Ray, which turned the next little while into a lot of mixing and matching for hugs, stories passed left and right and repeated a couple of times.

A few introductions and reintroductions were in order, especially with Chiara and with the newer band members, who had not spent so much time with the Boston and New York contingent of their widening circle of friends.

They’d barely gotten through all of this when they were informed that Zay and GiGi would be arriving any minute now.

“Listen, before he gets here, Zay is ‘trying something’ right now, and I’m trying really hard to be the supportive girlfriend here, but if you can find a way to gently change his mind, I’ll owe you a big one,” Nadine muttered to the others, just as the honored guest and her escort made their entrance, to many cheers from the assembled Babineaux family members and their many guests.

The ‘something’ their friend was trying turned out to be something that tried really hard to be a beard but didn’t quite manage to come off like anything more than something he’d pulled out of a stage makeup kit. There were many stifled laughs among the group, some more successful than others.

“See, this is why I don’t try it,” Lucas leaned in to whisper to Maya.

“I’m sure it would look so much better on you though,” she countered at once. She hadn’t let go of their little debate since the day of the big cut, and he was well aware that she could see him grinning every time she brought it up, which didn’t help in bringing the topic to a close.

Any of them who had come into this group of friends after the core of Lucas, Zay, Asher and Dylan had been solidified could testify to how they had each one of them been given a pass into being part of that great and extended clan that was the Babineaux family, to the point where the old woman now making the rounds with that great smile of hers felt like she was all of their great-grandmother and not just Zay’s. The older she got, it was like she had some kind of endless resource of energy, of life, even though they could see she had lost some of those reserves. Just a bit, which left her plenty strong, all things considered, but… still, some…

“I tell everyone, I tell them, this is the place, right here, where those little girls started doing their music,” she declared with a proud and toothy smile as she beheld the gathered members, past and present, of TXNY, getting a round of smiles and giggles in return. “You need to get me one of those t-shirts,” GiGi went on, looking almost affronted that she didn’t have one already.

“For you, we’ll send five,” Maya tipped her head, making the old woman laugh.

As the day progressed, the exhaustion in the five members of the band who had performed those three nights at the festival would waver in and out, until they felt it just about evened out and they were able to keep on going to the end of the party. At one point, this involved Maya, Riley, Nadine, Isadora, Rosa, Kayla, and Willow all going up on the old ‘stage’ together to sing out a few songs. Without their instruments, Kayla could not participate so much as the others, but she looked to be enjoying herself just fine, signing away the lyrics to no one but herself, or so it seemed.

“Who’s that?” Lucas asked Zay a little while later, as they sat around, them and Maya and Nadine. He indicated one corner of the yard, where Kayla was sitting in the grass with a boy, the two of them caught up in conversation.

“I think he’s a friend of one of my cousins,” Zay shrugged at first before spotting one of his cousins. “Hey, Dani!” he called out, and the girl came toward them. They’d known Dani for years, mostly from these parties. If Maya recalled, she was in her last year at school by now. “Who’s that?” Zay pointed to the boy signing away with Kayla. Dani turned to look and smiled.

“That’s Will, I told you about him,” she turned back to her cousin with near accusation in her eyes for his not knowing. “He lives down the hall from me,” she explained to the others, who would have no idea who this Will person was. “I went out with his brother for a while. That didn’t last, but we became friends.”

It was hard not to look at them and know what they were saying by looking at their hands, but it would have felt too much like spying, so they made themselves look away. They had pretty much lost Kayla for the rest of the night, as she and Will kept on hanging out until he finally had to go. It wouldn’t even be until the next day that they’d get the whole rundown from Kayla, about how he was twenty-one, and studying to work in film animation, and he was deaf like her… and she had given him her number.

_“Tell me I haven’t just passed out and imagined him?”_ she begged Maya, who smiled and reached over to pinch her before Kayla bounced out of reach with a look like ‘alright, I believe you, no need to resort to that.’

Lucas and Maya spent the last of the evening sitting near the pool, with their feet in the water. Maya insisted it was the only way she’d keep awake anymore. Lucas told her they could just leave now and head back to her parents’, but she just shook her head. She wanted to stay longer, so they stayed.

“Can’t believe we’re starting school again already,” she breathed. It was still a little way away, but close enough that they were already starting to shift everything, schedules and whatnot, to be ready for when they had to include classes and studying into their days again.

“Second year,” he nodded, absently running his fingers through her shortened hair. “But it’ll be good though. New classes, and you’ve got that thing with Professor Robinson,” he reminded her, which made her smile.

“I do, yeah,” she agreed. “It’s not like I haven’t missed it, because I have,” she shook her head, tapping into that corner of her mind that still remembered how much she used to not miss school even a little bit.

“I’ve missed it, too,” he shared.

“I’m sure you have, Dockleberry,” she lifted one of her feet to make ripples in the water as he laughed. “Everything just keeps feeling like it’s moving so slow and too fast all at the same time. And after this summer, with Sam and the others here with us and… I don’t know…”

“I get it,” he promised.

“Figured you would.” It had always been something that bound them together, this strong sense of family, the one they had, the one they wished for, the one they made… It was never happening exactly the way they might have wanted it, but they moved forward as best they could with what they got, because no matter how it shaped up, no matter how it wasn’t as geographically close as they would have hoped, it was theirs and that was all that mattered.

TO BE CONTINUED


	92. Their Return to Student Life

They were just one week off from the start of classes now, but in some ways, it felt like they were already in it, like this was just a really long weekend leading up the start. Vacation hadn’t meant quite the same thing this year as it had done in past years, seeing as they were working more or less full time the whole way, except for those couple weeks where they’d been in Austin. Still, that was what they’d been in the middle of, and now their work schedules had been adjusted in consequence of their class schedules, so that this last week had them in their holding pattern of a ‘weekend.’

“Okay, so how’s this: one of us goes and stands in line, the rest of us get what we need,” Maya frowned as they walked into the bookstore, to pick up their textbooks, and found what looked to be half the student body roaming about to do the same. The lineup to check out was already snaking its way all around the store. “I mean, unless you guys _want_ to spend the rest of the day in here.”

“Normally, I’d say it was cutting, but yeah, okay,” Lucas sighed.

“I’ll do it,” Riley volunteered, holding her list out to Maya before moving to the end of the line, wherever it was… they really couldn’t say.

So, they split off, the five of them, Riley to the line, Sophie and Chiara down one way for their own books, Lucas and Maya off another way for theirs and Riley’s books. They were on a mission, and the goal was about as straightforward as it got: get everything, don’t stall.

“Five of us in the car this fall,” Maya commented as she scanned through Riley’s list. She had a fairly good idea of where everything she’d need would be, and she figured she was better off focusing on her friend’s things, first. Lucas was reading over her shoulder, too.

“Plenty of room,” he shrugged, squinting at one title before turning back to look at the shelves and pointing for them to go that way.

“Wasn’t saying it like that,” Maya assured him, grabbing the first of Riley’s books and holding it out for Lucas to hold when he offered his hands. Before long, he’d be hefting the pile of his, hers, and Riley’s books while she set one and another on top of that first find. “Chiara’s excited to start classes here, and Sophie’s excited for her, and I’m excited for them, I guess,” she smiled. “Ooh, that one,” she crouched to grab a book from a low shelf.

“I am, too,” he nodded as she plopped the new book on top of the last one with a beam of a smile. The more she’d add on there, she would look at him with a sort of ‘you alright there, Huckleberry?’ and he would shrug and resettle the stack like it was nothing.

“You or me next?” she asked when they’d gotten the last of Riley’s books.

“We can do mine while I can still point,” he balanced the stack in one arm to hand over his list.

“Sounds good,” she took the page and added it to hers and Riley’s. “Let’s go, Doc,” she led the way.

“Line doesn’t look like it’s moving that fast,” he told her, staring off to try and find where Riley stood, waiting for them. He finally spotted her, talking with the girl ahead of her. He vaguely remembered her as one of her classmates, who had been at the house for Halloween. When he turned back around, he blinked. “Maya?”

“Down here!” he heard her and finally spotted her from behind a trio of students standing at one of the shelves. She was kneeling, the better to reach at the back of the bottom shelf. “Ah-ha!” she stood back, holding up a book. He came over and offered his hand, careful not to topple his pile.

“Easy, easy,” he told her as she stood up and dusted herself off before looking at the book.

“That’s the one, yeah?” she showed him the cover. He nodded. “It’s a little banged up here,” she prodded at the top corners with a frown. “It’s the only one they have right now though, do we leave it or…”

“It’s fine,” Lucas shrugged. “It’ll end up that way sooner or later.”

“Good point,” she tipped her head and added the book to his pile with a smile. “And you know Label Queen Zvolensky will get that fixed for you,” she laughed as they moved on.

Since back in their days in high school, since she’d been part of their group, they had known Sophie to be the giddiest for new textbooks and the process of identifying them as belonging to her. Last fall, with four of them starting college all living in the same house, she looked like a kid in a candy store. She’d sat there for a good while with the four piles of books and seen to each one’s identification with evident glee. The fact that she got to do it again in winter forever earned her the title of Label Queen.

The rest of his books were all found without the need for Maya to go crawling around again, and then they went on to get her list sorted out. After taking care of other people’s lists, now it was time for her own books, and Lucas had to hold tight to the pile in his arms if he was going to keep up with her…

“Focus, focus,” he told her when he reached her again only to find her leafing through one of her books, a second one already under her arm. She looked up, blinking.

“Sorry,” she smiled sheepishly before putting the two new books on top of the stack. “You alright?” she asked.

“Hanging in there, how many more?”

“Three,” she counted off her list before moving to find the next. Lucas let out a breath, looking around to try and find Riley in the line again. Said line was moving forward, yes, though by his count even if they headed to her now, they’d still have a good twenty minutes to wait, if not more. On the other hand…

“Sophie and Chiara are with Riley now,” he reported, turning back to Maya… who had disappeared again. “Okay, now where…” he checked the floor again before finally seeing her on the other side of the row they’d been standing in. He moved to rejoin her. She’d found another of her books, and then another, adding them both to the stack, but then the last one…

“No, come on, one more…” she was muttering to herself, looking at her list, checking the shelves… “Can’t find it,” she turned back to him. Seeing him there with all the books they’d collected so far, she sighed. “I’ll ask for the last one, go to the line, I’ll meet you there,” she told him.

“No, look,” he nodded, no longer able to point. She turned around and saw what he’d seen. One of the clerks was coming along with a trolley full of new books. Maya went to him and soon had her last book in hand. She returned to him with a grin as she deposited this final one on the pile.

“Now done,” she nodded.

“Lead the way so I don’t bump into anyone?” he asked, smiling back.

“Done,” she nodded, and they made their way through to where Riley and the others were waiting in the line. “Alright, enough good guy carrying, give me mine,” she took her books from him. When they reached their roommates, Riley took her own stack from the bottom with many thanks, leaving Lucas to put his own books into one hand and shake out his arm in relief.

“Did you get everything?” Chiara asked them.

“Yeah, you?” Maya asked her and Sophie, each of them with a stack of their own.

“Missing one,” Sophie revealed. “Should be here in a couple days though, it’s fine.”

By the time they made it through the line and back out of the store, it felt like they hadn’t seen the sun or breathed fresh air in days rather than an hour. In compensation for his carrying efforts, Maya swapped seats with her boyfriend, getting at the wheel and taking them to the new stationery store. When they got there, she stayed with him in the car while Riley and Chiara followed the Label Queen in her search for supplies to accomplish her ‘great task.’

“I keep thinking the car’s just going to pull off the front wheels with the trunk full of books,” Maya joked, turning in her seat to look at Lucas.

“I think we’re fine,” he laughed. “At least they don’t bite and have to be strapped down.”

“What, no Care of Magical Creatures for you this year, Doc?”

“Third year,” he nodded confidently, now making her laugh, too.

“Right, right, I forgot,” she gestured as though to say ‘silly me.’ “Would make things interesting though.”

“I don’t know, they’re pretty interesting as they are,” he assured her.

When the girls emerged from the store and got back in the car, the size of the bag made Maya turn back with curiosity.

“We don’t have that many books, you know? Or are you just going to do everyone’s this year? You could start a business,” Maya looked to Sophie.

“There were some specials, thought of you,” Sophie explained with a mysterious shrug that served to provide exactly as much intrigue as their driver could take. “Home first,” Sophie shook her head, keeping the bag closed and out of view.

“Rude…” Maya whispered, squinting before sitting forward again and pulling away from the curb and toward home.

They arrived there to find Dylan had not only returned from walking the dogs but had also gone and done the groceries and was now being assisted by Willow and Lion in cooking up dinner. The others were surprised to find their friends there, soon learning from Dylan that they’d been waiting for him when he got back. They would drop by like this, most of their friends would, so it was no big deal, it was great in fact. But Maya got an inkling like maybe there was a reason why they’d shown up after all, when she caught Willow’s eye and her bandmate held it with a tip of the head that seemed to say, ‘we need to talk.’

“I’ll just go put these upstairs,” Maya told the others, indicating the bags of books.

“I’ll help you,” Willow came forward, turning a look to Riley, who looked briefly puzzled but then came along and offered to take a bag, too. They moved up the stairs, ending up in Riley’s room. After they shut the door, the two old friends turned to their new one, who’d set the bag she’d carried up on the bed, where she now sat, too.

“You alright?” Maya asked, concerned now.

“You guys didn’t have a fight, did you?” Riley asked, looking back to the closed door, thinking of Lion downstairs. They’d looked fine…

“No, it’s not… I just…” Willow sighed, running a hand through her hair. Her feet were jittery on the ground, nerves to the max.

“Are you quitting the band?” Maya wondered aloud.

“No, no, I… although that might…” Willow muttered to herself before getting up again. “I’m starting school soon, finally, and now I’m not even sure how it’s all going to go with all this, and I guess it’s going to affect that, too. And I haven’t even…” She stopped now, taking a breath and looking back to her confused friends. “I really need to stop rambling, I just can’t help it, I’m… we’re… Lion and I are having a baby.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	93. Their Return to Music

Already with the start of school coming for all of them, the girls of TXNY had been aiming to get some new songs down, someday before their days got so much busier that their regular practices were about as much as they could swing for the majority of the next few months, so the following day – six to go before classes started – they were set to get together and do just that. Now, they had something else to discuss on top of everything.

Maya didn’t know much more than the others as they started to gather in the basement that morning. The previous afternoon, when Willow had gotten her and Riley together and told them her news, once the surprise had worn off a bit, there hadn’t been a whole lot to be told, not yet. All they knew was what Willow knew, that she had both believed and confirmed that she was pregnant, that Lion didn’t know yet, that she was keeping the baby, and she was freaking out somewhere between a little and a lot.

That was to be expected, sure. On the one hand, Willow was twenty-two, and since she hadn’t gone to college yet, she’d been fending for herself pretty well with her jobs at the coffee shop and the catering service. But then not too long ago, she’d gone and quit both of those in favor of a new job that would pay more on its own, now that she was starting nursing school, and now… now she had to add a pregnancy, and the aftermath of said pregnancy, and this child she’d have, into the mix. And that would have been enough to throw anyone for a loop.

But how ever things turned out, she looked on the whole solid. This was news to them, but she’d been in possession of this revelation for a couple of days now, and she was determined to meet this head on, no matter the cost. The one thing that still made her nervous, and she wasn’t sure why, was having to tell Lion. Even when the two of them had been broken up, there had still been a part of her that felt tethered to him, and when he’d come back into her life, it was like after so long of being stretched and stretched apart, said tether had snapped them right back into each other’s arms and twisted them up good together, so they couldn’t be pulled apart any longer.

But what if this was the thing that loosened their bond until it wore apart? Suddenly, it wasn’t even about how she’d feel anymore, but about the child, _her_ child… She was barely aware of its existence, but she had grown rapidly attached to its well-being, in every sense of the word.

“When are you going to tell him?” Riley had asked, the day before.

“Bishop is going to be out with Leona tonight so it’ll be just the two of us back at the apartment… I’ll tell him then,” Willow had nodded.

Now, the next morning, Maya and Riley both awaited their friend’s arrival, unable to pretend like they weren’t anxious to hear what had happened, which came off just a bit weird to the others, who still had no idea. Willow hadn’t exactly sworn them to secrecy, but it was sort of an unspoken thing. So long as they didn’t know that Lion knew, it didn’t seem right to let anyone else in on the secret. The only one who had a vague inkling that something was going on was Lucas, and that was Maya’s fault, she’d admit it. When they’d gone to bed the night before, the secret had settled in her in something of a fidget, and he’d called her on it.

“Not mine to tell,” was all she’d had to tell him, and he’d given an understanding nod and let it go.

“Are you guys being weird or is it just me?” Rosa asked with a frown, as she and Kayla arrived the next morning.

“You’ve known us long enough to know we are very weird, always,” Maya told her with a chuckle, looking over to Riley. Her best friend of old had been more or less hopping since the previous afternoon, like the secret, the happy news, had been bouncing inside her the whole time, and now she didn’t dare open her mouth and speak, for fear that she’d accidentally let it out.

“True, fine, but you’re being extra weird this time, so why?”

“We’re just…” Maya looked to Riley again – no help at all, “… really happy about going back to school…” she finally said with a smile. Riley nodded.

“Why?” Rosa frowned, like this made no sense. Maya had no choice but to run with what she had.

“Hey, trust me, back in the day, I would have been shocked, too, but now here we are. Don’t worry about it, it’ll wear off as soon as we’re over our heads with work again,” she clapped the younger girl’s shoulders and moved to her guitar case, trying not to look like she was breathing a sigh of relief.

When Willow arrived to join them and complete their quintet, both Maya and Riley turned to her at once, resisting the urge to hurry up to her and ask for updates. By the looks of her, she didn’t look in any way upset, so the outlook was somewhere with the potential of good news, but they couldn’t get ahead of themselves. Before they could try and get any indication from her, whether she had actually told Lion as she’d planned to do, and whether it had gone well, they just went and started to warm up for the day’s session. They played around for a while before settling in to practice and record the new songs Isadora and Maya had worked up together.

It took until hours later, when they had finished all of this and they were listening back to what they’d done together, for any sort of news to emerge, and not all of it was Willow’s.

_“Will is coming up to Houston next weekend, we’re going to hangout,”_ Kayla revealed to the others, the smile on her face a thing of unbound beauty.

“Is this like a friends kind of hangout or is it like a date maybe?” Willow asked with a grin, seeing how the girl was just all smiles when she’d bring up the boy that she met at the Babineaux party.

_“I don’t know what it is, I’m just happy it’s anything at all.”_

“Well, whatever it is, we will need to know all the details whenever you have them,” Maya told her with a smile, reaching out to give a half hug, sitting next to her. Much as she’d been thinking this would be the perfect launching point for another bit of news, she hadn’t even looked to Willow when she’d thought it, so when the girl spoke up, she breathed out and looked up at her.

“Right, so there’s something I need to tell you guys, too,” she started, and Riley sat up at this. Willow turned to her with a small laugh, lifting up her hand as though to say ‘settle down,’ and Riley did so.

“What’s going on?” Rosa asked. The girl was smart, not much got by her, and Maya had a feeling she already knew that they hadn’t been acting weird because of school after all, that it had been about whatever Willow was about to tell them.

“I’m pregnant,” she just came right out and said it, complete with the sign for Kayla’s sake, to remove any belief she might have misread the word on her lips. There was a big smile on her face though, so there could have been little doubt. Within seconds, she was caught in the midst of a ten-armed hug. The day before, neither Maya nor Riley had given in to this particular display, like the fact that it was still a secret demanded some level of restraint. There was no more of that now.

“You knew already, didn’t you?” Rosa looked to the two of them with weak accusation, still smiling. They just shrugged innocently.

“So, Lion…” Maya turned back to Willow.

“Told him last night, as we were getting ready for bed,” she nodded. “Should have seen him… he cried,” she whispered, and the other girls laughed, heartedly so.

“All good then?”

“All good,” Willow nodded again. “Overwhelming for now, but all good. There’s still a lot to figure out, but he knows now, so there’ll be two of us to figure it out. For now, we’re just riding the wave of knowing about it.”

_“Are you telling people or just us?”_ Kayla asked.

“Isn’t it supposed to be that you don’t tell anyone until a few months or something?” Riley chimed in.

“We considered that, but then we figured, with our situation as it is, we would have been terrible liars, so it’s better off this way, with our people knowing.”

“Can you like… tell my mom?” Rosa asked, getting confused looks from her bandmates. “I just know myself, I’ll be browsing the pregnancy and baby section of the bookstore sooner or later out of curiosity, and I don’t need my mother thinking it’s for me or something.”

“Sure,” Willow laughed, reaching over to hug the girl again.

“What about school? You’re still going, yeah?” Maya asked.

“Definitely. Lion says it’s the best place for me, surrounded with nurses,” Willow told them, making them laugh. “Anyway, I’m meeting with someone out there in a couple of days so we can figure out what I have to do. And before you ask, I’m still going to be in the band with you guys, I just might have to figure some things out as we go along if we end up doing shows again.”

“No more festivals for a while,” Riley breathed, and the other girls shook their heads in agreement. It had become something of a running gag with all of them, this festival that had worn them out so much.

The rest of the day was spent with the five of them casually playing and singing whatever song they thought of, whether it was theirs or not. When the guys came and joined them, guessing from the playlist that they weren’t recording anymore, they were treated to Willow and Lion’s news as well, and there were more hugs and more congratulations shared. It was still wild to think of, that any of their group could be having a baby already, even if Willow and Lion were a couple years ahead of them. At the same time, plenty of things were moving forward, in all their lives. So, it was all really just one more good thing, for all of them. They were friends, but they were family, too, and they could already envision this little child not yet born, not even showing at all, loved by both its parents and its multitude of aunts and uncles to be. That was what they’d all created together, here in Houston, and it was something to be proud of.

Lion was invited over to join them for dinner, a second night in a row. With the news, it just couldn’t be any other way. When he showed up, they could just see it on him, the joy he felt at the prospect of being a dad. As they all gathered around the table to eat, it somehow came about in the conversation that he and Willow had no plans to get married for the time being. It wasn’t something they felt was necessary to them just because they were having a baby. They loved one another, and that was all they needed for now. Neither of them had been doing much of anything in the expected order, so who knew what was coming in the future?

TO BE CONTINUED


	94. Their Return to Family

Waking up the next morning, Lucas’ very first awareness of his being awake came, as it so often did, with his ears tuning in on the sound of Maya’s breathing, his nose locking on to the scent of her hair, his hands and his arms growing conscious of the body they were wrapped around… It used to be that she would be awake before he ever was, almost always, but as the months had gone on, the two of them in school out here in Houston, their sleeping habits had shifted, and now it was it was sort of evenly split who would be awake first or second. This morning, he was awake before her.

He was determined not to wake her, not if he could help it. Each day was bringing them closer to those long, busy times they’d had over the past year, and if they could have a bit more sleep for a few more days…

“I just realized something…”

He startled, twisting his head about until he could see her face, and there he saw that her eyes were open. When she caught him looking, she smiled before setting herself to turning in his arms until she was lying on her other side, face to face with him.

“I thought you were sleeping,” he frowned, reaching out his hand and nudging a few strands of hair out of her face with his fingers.

“I know you did, that’s what made it fun,” she laughed quietly. “Just lie here and get held all careful like, it’s amazing,” she declared with sparkling eyes.

“Why’d you blow your cover then?” he frowned, curious.

“I was falling asleep again and I didn’t want to forget,” she shrugged. “Playing sleepy’s all good and fun, but this is pretty good, too. I get to look at your face, and there’s a hundred percent more chances of getting kissed,” she explained, with all the innocence she could muster.

“That’s a good point,” he played along, bridging the very short distance between their faces with a slow, lingering kiss.

“Right?” she hummed as they finally breathed.

“So, you were saying you realized something?” he asked, and she nodded.

“I did, yes. I realized that we’ve been living out here for a little over a year now, and we never really did anything about it, when it really feels like we should.”

“Wow…” he blinked. She was right, they had totally missed that one-year mark, and it wasn’t as though it was a big deal on the whole, but then just thinking about it now, realizing they had been living off on their own like this for a whole year, it did get to feel like it would be an occasion worth commemorating, just as she said it. “I still remember all of us sleeping downstairs in our sleeping bags that first night like it was yesterday… But then I have trouble remembering what it was like _not_ waking up next to you.”

“Ha,” she chuckled. “Real miserable times, yeah?”

“Oh, it was horrible,” he smiled at her. “Who’d want to remember that?” There was more kissing after that, and the longer it went on, they could just feel themselves moving to something more, until… They’d let that Skype bell spend itself once, twice, but by the third one, they just had to stop, and sigh, and look at each other. “The twins?” he asked as she extricated herself from his hold with exaggerated reluctance and grabbed her phone from the nightstand as she sat up cross-legged next to him.

“Nope, other coast,” she told him, running a quick hand through her hair to try and make it look a bit less ‘bed-ish’ before accepting the call. A second later, there was a great chorused greeting emerging and making her smile wide. “Hey, guys!” she replied to her siblings. “Sorry for the delay, didn’t see the time,” she told them. Now Lucas remembered she’d said they had put a call ‘on the books’ for this morning.

“You were sleeping?” Eliza asked, sounding greatly surprised, which would make a whole lot of sense, Maya guessed, seeing how late into morning they were.

“I – no, no, just, uh… just home stuff,” she promised her little sister with a confident shrug, never missing a beat as she reached out her free hand to stick over Lucas’ mouth, stifling the laugh that was rumbling out of him. “You guys got some things to show me, didn’t you? Let me see,” she tipped her head to the screen, pulling the conversation away from what had or hadn’t been keeping her from picking up the call on the first try.

It worked easily enough. Little Wyatt was still too young, but his brother and sisters were all starting back at school before long, and it hadn’t taken long of Maya knowing her New York siblings to know that ‘back to school’ was big with them. Their mother had made it this way for them, since back when Sam had first started, and then Cara after him… It was all part of what had gotten them excited for school from the beginning, and that routine had finally reached Eliza the previous year as she’d started kindergarten. This year, she’d be headed into the first grade and, oh, she was giddy.

“Me first, me first!” she shouted over her siblings as they had scrambled to get hold of some things that they must have had sitting near them, already in wait of showing their big sister down in Texas.

“Go ahead,” Sam shared a grin with Cara as their little sister waited zero seconds before brandishing her brand new school bag, high for Maya to see.

“Woah!” Maya gave Eliza the appropriate level of awe. “That is a whole lot of pink, I like it! That’s the one you wanted, too.”

“There was only one left and we almost didn’t see it,” Cara added, her face suggesting they had just barely prevented a meltdown in the middle of a store. Eliza was not listening to this anyway, as she was now pulling the bag open, the better to show what was inside, presently a colorful pencil case and some folders, just to get her started.

When Eliza had sufficiently exhausted each item’s display, Cara got her turn. Lucas quietly pulled himself away undetected as this was going on, gesturing to say he’d be back before leaving the room. He returned a few minutes later, arms laden with as mobile of a breakfast as he could collect for them. He set all this up on their joined desks while Maya went on talking with her siblings.

Cara was starting fifth grade this year, and Maya knew – in confidence – how her little sister was having some issues on that front. This was the point where her brother had gone and skipped grades, back when he’d been her age. And now that she was here, at this point, and she _wasn’t_ skipping ahead like he had done, it was leaving her to feel just a bit… maybe not ‘inadequate,’ but definitely something like disappointed. She must not have been as smart as him, that was what it had to mean. It wasn’t that she wasn’t a smart kid, but next to him she was just sort of average, wasn’t she?

Maya had done all she could to make her see this wasn’t a bad thing. She had told her about what things had been like for her, back when _she’d_ been in the fifth grade, and the sixth… Of course, not long into the seventh, she had moved to Austin and that was where things had started to change for her, but it had all been under circumstances she would not wish on her little sister. The point in the end was that she had improved. She had improved far beyond anyone’s expectations, especially her own. Cara could surpass herself, too, if she just gave herself the chance.

Then there was Sam, who at twelve years old was about to jump headlong into the ninth grade and high school. If Cara felt insecure for the fact that she wasn’t jumping ahead, she should have considered what her brother was facing, as _he_ was insecure because he _was_ ahead. Sure, he had been in this predicament for a couple of years already, and he’d be going out there with a lot of kids he’d gotten to know in middle school. But it wouldn’t be just him and them, there would be a whole lot of other kids, and some of them would be much older than him, in the higher grades…

It didn’t help that his two best friends, who had been in his classes all through middle school, weren’t going to the same high school as he was, which would mean he’d be going in by himself. Funnily enough, he’d be going to the school _she_ would have gone to, if she hadn’t moved away. If she’d stayed, she might have known the staff there, might have been able to give him something to hang on to. But she hadn’t, and so she couldn’t. Everything she told him, which was supposed to sound encouraging, just sounded flat in her head, like she was telling him what she thought she should be saying but she didn’t believe her own words.

But now this morning, as she spoke to her siblings, and they showed her their new things, the answer finally leapt at her, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought about it sooner. It all went back to her old ‘what if’ scenario, except she hadn’t been casting the right person, because while she hadn’t gone to that school, she did know a couple people who had, a couple of very smart people in fact. Still listening to Sam as he spoke, Maya signalled to Lucas as she climbed out of bed, standing on the mattress before leaping off. She went to the desk, grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, and scribbled. When he saw what she’d written, he gave her thumbs up and grabbed his phone, typing away while she snuck a couple of the grapes he’d brought up.

Minutes later, just as her brother was finishing up, she was all set to put a plan in motion.

“Hey, Sam, bud, I got some people I want you to say hi to,” she told him, before pulling a new caller into the conversation. A moment later, two faces appeared side by side on the screen. “Sam, say hi to a couple former students from your new school. This is Farkle and that’s Isadora, you’ve met,” she smirked. They _did_ know each other, had organized some surprises together. They knew how Farkle had been one of her closest friends, back when she’d lived in New York, and of course Isadora was one of the founding members of TXNY along with her…

In the end, she’d be leaving the call with her brother and her friends still talking, while she turned and focused back on her boyfriend and the breakfast spread which he’d assembled and set out on their desks. By this point, they were in such a mixed up spot between breakfast and lunch that it felt more like a bit of both, which had earned the whole thing, taking place up in their room as it did, the nickname ‘bed & brunch.’ The two of them sat and ate together, even as they discussed the options for how they might celebrate their one year of independent life. It wasn’t entirely independent, sure, what with how it was split with the others living in the house, but that didn’t make it count any less, did it?

“We were already going to have something like a party, it might as well be about that, too,” Maya told him, and he nodded in agreement. “The small kind, not like Halloween, of course, although… That _is_ getting close again, isn’t it?” she grinned at him.

“We’re not there yet,” he reminded her, smiling at the frowning pout she gave him in return.

TO BE CONTINUED


	95. Their Return to Society

The following evening, four days to the start of the new semester, Lucas and Maya left the house together and drove off toward Professor Robinson’s house. It might have been all six of them, per the professor’s invitation, but Sophie and Chiara were back in Austin for an event of Mrs. Zvolensky’s, and Riley had volunteered to babysit the kids up the street, while Dylan was working.

“Oh, well, guess it’s just you and me, Friar,” Maya looked to her boyfriend with a smile as they got ready to go. He looked back at her, unable to keep from smiling back, in part for what she’d said but just as much if not more for the sight of her. The professor had called for something a bit more formal than usual this time around, and the dress Maya had put on for the night… Alright, so he wasn’t exactly picky, she looked good in anything as far as he was concerned, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t appreciate what he saw… Riley had fixed up her hair before leaving, too, and it only added to the look as a whole.

“Fine by me,” he replied as she turned to look at him with a beam of a smile. “We don’t even have to go to the professor’s, we can just go anywhere,” he shrugged.

“Lucas Friar, backing out on social engagements at the last minute? What would your mother say?” she asked, coming up to him and inspecting his suit with curious hands.

“You’re right, she’d probably disown me. Guess we should get going. She doesn’t do well with tardiness either.”

They’d been to the house enough now that the drive up felt familiar. Over the summer, they had even gone up with Maya’s siblings while they’d been staying with them. Patty was all too happy to go into ‘Nana Mode,’ as she’d told them the first time, when Maya was explaining why she couldn’t accept her invitation. Sam had liked going there for a whole other reason than his younger siblings had done, and Maya had given him the ‘tour’ much as she’d gotten it from her professor.

“Uh, Maya?” Lucas blinked as they drove up to the house.

“We got the right night, yeah?” she was seeing it, too.

There were a lot of cars around. The area in front of the house allowed for a good number of them to be parked there, and already that was full and there were more of them lining the street, which had them moving further before they could find a spot of their own. They got out now, walking toward the house, and the closer they got, they could hear music from inside, and they could see people through the windows.

“So, not just us then,” Lucas looked at her as Maya rang the bell.

“Oh, you’re not leaving my side,” she stared up at him defiantly, which only guaranteed he had a smile on his face, when the door opened, and they were greeted by Patty Robinson.

“My, my, you two make quite the picture,” she smiled at them. “You clean up very nice.”

“Thank you, uh… What are we calling you tonight?” Maya asked, eyes darting past the woman to where she could see some of the other guests milling about. She looked around, too, before turning to them again with something of an apologetic smile.

“Yes, I know this wasn’t exactly what you were expecting, but that’s what surprises are for. Also, I didn’t want you both to worry yourselves over anything, these are just some friends and colleagues, something I do every fall before the start of the new year, and I wanted you to be part of it. Come on in. And you can still call me Patty.”

Walking through the door, it really felt like a good thing that they had already been there several times already, that they were familiar with their surroundings. It took away some of the edge of being in there at the same time as all of these people.

“Do you know any of them?” Lucas whispered.

“Well…” Maya breathed, looking around. “Not counting our surprising host, I count one… two… three other professors of mine,” she indicated them with casual nods of the head. The last one had looked up at the same time and, recognizing her, he raised his hand in greeting. Well, now they had to go and talk, didn’t they?

“Which one’s that?” Lucas asked as they moved in his direction.

“Professor Ruiz,” she told him. “Good guy, quiet talker though.”

“Oh, right,” he nodded, recalling her mentioning him a few times. Now he just had to make sure he didn’t laugh, remembering her imitating him once.

“Miss Hart, hello,” the man reached out his hand, and just in those three words Lucas had to force his lips shut so tight to prevent laughing as he heard how precisely Maya had nailed that imitation. She could feel it coming from him, too, and she gave his hand a squeeze. “Uh, this is my wife, Carolina,” he indicated the woman at his side. “Miss Hart is one of my students,” he then turned to his wife, who smiled and reached out her hand.

“Maya, hello,” she introduced herself. “This is my boyfriend,” she turned to him, standing just behind her.

“Lucas Friar,” he held out his hand and shook with both Professor Ruiz and his wife.

“Patty was telling me about bringing you in to assist on her project,” Ruiz addressed his student. “A fine choice.”

“Thank you,” Maya smiled. Lucas could just sense her getting a bit flustered. She hadn’t come here tonight expecting to be interacting with more of her teachers outside of class, and the additional praise that came with it… He discreetly set his hand to the small of her back, his way of telling her he was there, to keep steady.

The next hour just ran by like it lasted all of five minutes. After speaking to Professor Ruiz and his wife for a few minutes, they moved away and were accosted just as soon by another of Maya’s four teachers here that night, a Professor Laurent, there with her wife and their two little boys. Maya had seen pictures in the woman’s office, the few times she’d been there over the past year and now, meeting them in person, she halfway felt like she knew them already. She’d pegged them for being very tightly knit, the boys good and proper, and that was just what they were. After this, they came to speak with old Professor Knight. The man was older than Patty Robinson, but he kept on ticking just as she did, although as they learned now, the coming year would be his last before he finally listened to his kids and went to get some peace and rest in the sun for a while.

They also met Professor Medeiros, who was not one of Maya’s professors yet but would be in a matter of days, as she taught one of her new classes. She was young, had only been teaching a year at their school, but before this she had been a student, of many of those same professors as Maya had, including Professor Robinson. She had followed a path not dissimilar to Maya’s, including the assisting job as she was about to start in the fall.

“This is kind of crazy, isn’t it?” Maya whispered as she and Lucas took a breather from the mingling, stopping in a corner to sit and talk just the two of them.

“Kind of amazing,” Lucas told her, smiling. Neither of them had really imagined what this tie to the professor could lead to, but here they were now, and there was someone who was essentially an example of what Maya’s life could become as she carried on the path she was on now. He knew Maya wasn’t aiming for teaching at that level, that she wanted to be there for kids like her, growing up, but still… It made her potential shine through with how vast it actually was.

“Yeah, that too…” she breathed. “Either way, I’m really glad you’re here with me right now.”

“Wouldn’t be anywhere else,” he smiled.

Before long, the many guests were led to sit around the expanded dining room table, where they would be served dinner. Just as they saw the waiters start to come in with plates and they saw the event was catered, they spotted a familiar face coming from the kitchen, hair pulled back in a short ponytail as it would be when he was working.

“What are you doing here?” Lucas turned back and whispered when Dylan came up and set a plate before him and then Maya.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he whispered back, smirking and moving along.

“He said he was working a private event tonight, I just didn’t know it was… well, this one,” Maya shrugged. They couldn’t have guessed either, seeing as they expected this to be a dinner for three, not twenty-some.

“You’re going to go at him for not giving us the heads up, aren’t you?”

“You know me so well,” she turned to smile at him, the mischief plain in her eyes.

Each course retrieved and brought in saw Dylan’s return, like he’d ensured with the others that he would be the one to serve the pair of them.

“Catch you at home,” he told them after he’d brought their dessert.

They sat between Professors Laurent and Medeiros, which had them sharing most of the conversation with them throughout the meal. They were asked mostly about their backgrounds, where they’d grown up, what they’d done before and where they saw themselves going. Lucas told them how he’d grown up in Austin, how he had played basketball in middle and high school, and now was studying to be a veterinarian. He didn’t mention the whole suspension/grade repeat part. It wasn’t necessary, and it was in the past. Maya told them about being from New York, until seven years before, when she’d moved to Austin with her mother. She told them how she’d met him, first day of school, and about her own time on the basketball team.

“I saw you perform at the park over the summer,” Professor Medeiros sat up, when the subject of the band inevitably came up. “I had no idea that was you,” the way she smiled as she said it, clearly, she must have enjoyed herself and enjoyed the music. Maya felt those nerves again; Lucas quietly steadied her again.

As the evening started to draw to a close, the guests started to depart. Lucas and Maya found themselves as some of the last remaining. Maya wanted the chance to thank Professor Robinson for including her that night, but every time they went to find her, she was seeing one person or another out the door, so it ended up being that they were the last ones there.

“Did you kids have a good night?” Patty finally came to them with her bright smile.

“Yes, I… I can’t even find the words,” Maya admitted, all smiles, too.

“Sometimes the words fail, but there are other ways, as you know,” the woman told her, and Maya agreed with a nod.

“Thank you for inviting us,” Lucas told her as they moved toward the door.

“And thank you for coming,” Patty replied. “I’ll see you in class,” she gave Maya’s shoulder a squeeze.

“Can’t wait,” Maya breathed. She was sort of glad for the short walk to the car now, giving her time to enjoy the night air, settling back into reality after what felt like a night in a whole other world. She really couldn’t wait. Old teachers, new teachers, the project… she was so ready she could barely stand to wait those last few days out.

TO BE CONTINUED


	96. Their Return to Bonds

Three days out from the start of classes now, and much as they would have liked to make that drive down to Austin for another visit to their families before everything ramped up again for real, they were stuck having to put it off. Maybe it was better off that way. The previous fall, they’d all been out here, settling in, and it had been some time before they’d gone back to see their families, and it had felt like the thing to do, to allow themselves to settle into this new life of theirs.

Now, they _were_ settled in. A whole year, completely behind them now, so this wasn’t the same as before, but they still needed to focus themselves, like racers at the start line, getting into position.

Lucas was working from opening to closing today, which was fine, really. As busy as it would get, it was a good kind of busy. Back in Austin, when he’d been working at the museum, it was mostly like working off a checklist. Greet the group, lead them in, say your bit, answer questions, and sooner or later he’d be saying goodbye to one group and starting all over again. The height of excitement was a kid wandering off or someone being rude, but for all that he had loved it. The bookstore was different, especially when they’d hit busier times, but the rhythm was familiar to him and it was good.

“Uh, Lucas?” Rosa appeared at the counter, where he was looking something up for a customer on the phone. He looked up to her, receiver perched between ear and shoulder. “Incoming,” she tipped her head toward the door.

“What do you…” he turned to look, and he just barely saved the receiver from hitting the ground out of surprise when he spotted his mother, father, and grandfather standing just inside the front door. He turned back to Rosa, indicating the phone.

“I got them, finish your call,” she held up her hands, understanding, before dashing off toward the incoming Friars.

After he was through with the client on the line, he moved back around the counter and to where Rosa was presently showing his family some books from a display that she’d just finished putting together that morning. When he approached, his mother moved up to hug him but then stopped, giving him a smile which he guessed to indicate that she had decided it wouldn’t have been appropriate for her to do anything of the sort while he was ‘on the clock.’

“What are you guys doing here?” he couldn’t help but ask, looking from one to the next.

“Happy to see you, too,” his father tipped his head.

“Sorry, I just mean…”

“Relax,” his mother laughed, tapping his shoulder. “We all just wanted to surprise you kids, and clearly we succeeded.” Something in the way she’d said this told him she didn’t just mean that the three of them had wanted to surprise him and Maya.

Just as Lucas was in for a full day at the bookstore, Maya was set to be at the restaurant all day, too. Even before they were set to open, she was due to assist Chef Isabel and the others with inventory, and to familiarize herself with the new menu that was to hit the dining room in days to come. Those of them who’d been there long enough had told her it was one of their favorite days, because they basically got paid to eat stuff. When all this was over and the restaurant opened, it was back to normal, whether or not they could say that there was such a thing as normal for them, when they never knew what kind of clients they’d get at their tables.

She was just clearing one of hers, gathering everything with the ease of practice, when she looked up and saw the hostess, Kasie, walking away from where she’d just guided a group to one of her tables. They were just on the other side of the big fish tank, but even through the decorations and the distortion of water she could recognize her mother and father, just as well as she could spot her little sisters and the back of the seat likely to host her baby brother.

“Uh, okay…” she breathed to herself, quickly gathering up everything and dashing to the kitchen, careful not to drop anything and get a repeat of the whole hand situation. It was hardly noticeable, but the cut _had_ left the slightest of scars in her palm, which had brought up a lot of questions when her mother had spotted it over the summer, especially seeing as she’d never told them about what had happened. It was no big deal to her, but apparently it was one to them.

“Yaya!” Nellie bolted from her seat and into her arms when she saw her coming toward their table. Maya scooped her up on reflex, hugging her good and tight. Just because she was caught off guard did not mean she’d be any less happy to see her. Never to be left out when there were hugs to be gotten, Gracie came from her own chair and locked her arms around her sister’s legs.

“Hi!” she looked up, and Maya reached out one hand to brush at the girl’s chocolate-colored hair.

“Hello,” she laughed before looking to her parents and their big grins. “You know that’s not fair, right?” she squinted her eyes at them.

“Yeah, we’re really terrible,” Shawn joked, turning to his wife. “Right?”

“The worst,” Katy sighed dramatically. MJ, in his seat, batted his little chubby baby arm at them. “Thanks, Monkey, you get it,” Katy took his hand, kissed his fingers. Maya just went on shaking her head at them. Even as she did this though, she noticed something about the table. In the surprise of finding them there, it had not connected, but she remembered the reservation… and the table was not complete. They were missing five.

“Waiting on some people?” she asked her parents, nodding to the empty chairs. Her father looked to his watch.

“Might be a few more minutes. Can we see some menus?” Oh, he was enjoying this.

“Alright, you two, back to your seats, go on,” she set Nellie back on her feet and she and Gracie went back to where they’d been sitting. Kasie had brought them crayons and papers, which they now busied themselves with using, to create some masterpieces. “You guys want to draw while you wait, too?” she turned a smirk to her mother and father.

It was seven minutes before she learned who the missing parties from her parents’ table were, and one of them was giving her eyes that said, ‘I would have warned you if you had your phone on you.’

“Hey…” she approached the four Friars, greeting Melinda, and Tom, and Pappy Joe, before turning to Lucas with inquisitive eyes. The question here was ‘aren’t you supposed to be at work right now?’

“I’ve been, uh… I guess the word here would be ‘sprung?’” he shrugged. “Just dinner and then I have to go back.”

“Figured you guys wouldn’t be able to drop by for a while so we did it for you,” Pappy Joe explained as he moved to take his seat, landing himself at Gracie’s side. The three-year-old loved the old man like he was her very own grandpa and no one else’s.

“Oh, well that explains that,” Maya mumbled to herself, realizing the final empty seat was meant for her. “I’ll be right back,” she told the others before moving toward the kitchen. “Uh, Chef?” she called to Isabel, who waved her forward. “Got a situation.”

“Everything alright?” the chef asked, without missing a beat with the order she was preparing.

“Yeah, no, it’s not like that. Just my family’s here. They’re at table nine… with my boyfriend… and his family… and I think they expect me to join them, but I mean…”

“I know,” Isabel shrugged, finally passing a look to her with a smile. “Your mother called the reservation in the other day, worked it all out. Leona and Mila have your section for the next hour, go.” Maya blinked, more confused now than she’d been before, if that was possible.

“O-okay… thanks.” Walking back out of the kitchen and through the dining room, she could see her fellow waitresses were already doing as the chef had said. Maya sort of wished she wasn’t going to be sitting to dinner with her family while dressed for work, which made her stick out like she was dressed in neon colors. Lucas quickly dealt with that though, passing his jacket over her shoulders even as she took her seat between him and her father.

It took a while for either Maya or Lucas to convince themselves that this was just exactly what their parents had said, just a dinner together before they both started school again. All this secrecy and these surprises, it just felt like the preamble to something else, an announcement, a revelation, something… But it wasn’t that. All they had come here for was to see them, to be with them before they went back to school.

After they’d finished eating, after Maya’s hour was over and she had to get back to work, they all went away, though not before Chef Isabel came from the kitchen to meet them all, to see the twins and baby MJ. Lucas went back to the bookstore, and the rest of them started back for Austin. Maya and Lucas did not get the chance to really talk about the surprise visit until he came and picked her up to drive her home after she was done at the restaurant.

“You know, I never really thought about it like that, but it must be so weird for them right now,” Lucas told her as they drove on.

“What do you mean?” Maya asked as she pulled her hair from the short ponytail she’d had it in all day and ran her hand through it.

“My parents, yours, the rest of us, too… All these years, all of us starting school every year, and now we’re out here and going through it all on our own and they’re back in Austin and they’re not a part of it anymore.” She considered this for a moment.

“Oh…” she frowned to herself. He kind of had a point. Here they’d been, trying to find whatever hidden motive there might have been for their visit, and there it was, sort of.

“I remember my first day of school, the first one. My mother took so many pictures,” he shook his head, the memory at once cringe-inducing and one that made him smile.

“My mother took me in on my first day, and when she was going to leave, I just stared at her like ‘what do you mean you’re leaving me here?’” He chuckled. “By the way, don’t think you’re getting away that easy, seven years and this is the first I hear of ‘Lukey’s First School Day’ being something I could have seen? That’s just not right,” she shook her head at him.

“What’s that one going to cost me?” he asked, turning to look at her as they pulled to a red light.

“Not going to tell you, no, no. That would spoil the surprise,” she looked back with a cool grin.

TO BE CONTINUED


	97. Their Return to Life

They were two days out from classes now. One sleep and then another and they’d be off for their third semester, their second year. The next day, they all agreed, wouldn’t be good for much more than doing whatever suited them best, but today, tonight… They’d been meaning to have their moment, to note the passing of their first year in Houston, and in time this turned into a joint celebration of the end of one year and the beginning of another. The price of admission, for residents and friends of the house alike, was a contribution. Some brought food, others supplied drinks, and from there it expanded to stranger and more comical contributions the further they went down the line. Dylan hooked them up with a disco ball, Lion brought a projector…

“We can all lie down on the ground, watch movies on the ceiling.”

Maya’s own contribution came hand in hand with Bishop’s, who had provided them with a variety of hats and props. She would take portraits.

“This is going to be the weirdest party…” Lucas predicted even before it started.

“I know, right?” Maya replied with a grin, leaving him with the singular wish to embrace her, which he did.

In no time, their guests started to add up. It was a case of ‘the usual suspects,’ beyond the six of them roommates. Franny and Kayla, Rosa, Willow and Lion, Leona and Bishop, Ellie, Leo from Sophie’s classes, Teddy from the community center…

“What’s so funny?” Maya asked when she saw Chiara say something to Sophie with a grin, making her girlfriend start to laugh. The Italian girl turned to her.

“Your friends have such similar names,” she reported. “Leona… Lion… Leo…” she indicated each one where they stood. Maya blinked. How had none of them ever caught on? Surely, someone would have made a joke about it by now if they had… “And, _and_ … Soon there may be a Willow and a Will,” she indicated Kayla. This was also true, the way her bandmate was so clearly taken with the boy she’d met at the Babineaux party.

“See, this is why nicknames are good,” Maya shook her head to herself.

The night was on as soon as they started to arrive, and it was really ‘whatever you feel like’ as they came along. Some went right for the food, others went to the basket out in the yard, others cranked up the music and got to dancing…

“How are you feeling?” Lucas asked Willow, when he headed into the kitchen for a slice off the pizza Rosa had brought in and found Maya’s bandmate already digging in. They both stood leaning against the counter now, slices in hand. It didn’t matter that she’d only been in their lives for a year, she was one of them and she was the first of all of them, with Lion, to head into parenthood. He knew he wasn’t the only one who was still getting used to the idea, but then no one would need to get used to this more than Willow and Lion themselves.

“It’s only been a few days since we found out, I mean…” Willow shrugged. “I’m either hungry all the time – which isn’t new – or I’m not hungry at all because… because,” she frowned, which he took to mean ‘you don’t want to know.’

“Right,” he nodded.

“Lion’s a bit all over the place though, he wants to be _ready_ , you know?” she went on with a smirk.

“That bad?” Lucas asked, smiling.

“Saw him browsing for cribs last night.”

In the yard, Maya, Franny and Kayla were trying to show Rosa how shoot the ball and actually send it through the hoop. So far, she looked more likely to send their ball disappearing into the next yard… or the one after that.

“Girl, you’ve got a lot of energy, just… just tone it down a bit, yeah?” Franny pressed her hands into the younger girl’s shoulders, smiling. “Focus. Hoop, there,” she pointed to it.

“My gym teacher’s pretty much given up on me at this point,” Rosa shrugged. “We’ve both accepted it by now, it’s not going to happen.”

_“She’s kidding, right?”_ Kayla asked Maya.

“Not on my watch,” she went to stand in front of her bandmate. “You’re not going to be a superstar player, fine, but I know you can make that shot. I believe it, I _feel_ it. Come on, we shorties gotta stick together, yeah? That means no lies. You can do it, today, tomorrow, three months from now…” Rosa stood there, quietly looking back at her like she was trying not to give in.

“Sixteen years, seven months, twenty-two days, four hours, seventeen minutes and two seconds?” she slowly let the smile gain hold of her features. Maya matched it, putting the ball back in her hands.

“At the very latest,” she agreed. “But way before that.” Rosa still looked unsure. “Make that shot, and I’ll owe you a song,” Maya held her gaze.

“You’re going to sing for me?” Rosa asked, not catching on.

“No, I mean I’ll write you a song, and you’re going to sing it.” Now she was blinking, speechless.

“Wh… what?” she asked, barely audible. “For real?”

“People need to hear you,” Maya nodded, smiling, mouthing ‘shorties’ with a tip of the head. Over time, it had been easy to see how much Rosa had sort of been coasting by, settled with her place in the background, like she couldn’t see she belonged in the light. But they were her friends, all of them, her family. And they would help her get where she belonged if she was ready to try… to give it a shot.

By the time the girls went back into the house, it hadn’t happened, not yet, but it was clear Rosa was taking up that challenge with a fire she was working to kindle.

And in the meantime, the living room had turned into a dancefloor, and they were being called to it.

“Hey,” Lucas smiled, holding his hand out to clasp Maya’s, drawing her closer as she started to move to the music with him.

“I’m kind of digging this thing,” she turned her eyes up to the disco ball, hanging overhead and spinning around. “It’s like it’s trying to hypnotize me and I’m kind of okay with it.”

“You are getting sleepy,” he intoned, and she laughed, playing along and ‘dropping’ into his arms for a beat before getting back into the dance.

From here, the party went on its way, a night for all of them to just carry on together, roommates and friends alike, being silly together, being at peace together, being alive together. The portraits Maya would take of them all that night would stand as memories of this moment in time. New friends, old friends. Love just blooming, love rooted deep, and love still waiting for the chance to shine in the sun. A new year, with new projects, new possibilities. A girl yet finding her voice and another about to bring life into the world. One year in Houston…

“I mean, I’ll just stay right here, it’s fine,” Maya breathed, lying on the ground and staring up to the ceiling as credits rolled. Lion’s projector had been a great close to the night, all of them spread out around the room, staring up, watching the movie of choice. Some had been quick to drift off to sleep, most of the others got lost in the images projected over them like it was some virtual reality, but then how could they not?

“Tipsy?” Lucas asked her, lying with her.

“No… no… I think… Pretty sure I’m full on drunk right now… Never been drunk before, but I think that’s it…” She giggled, turning her head to look at him. “Are you?” she whispered.

“Think so,” he whispered back. She reached out her hand, crookedly trying to reach his cheek and give it a tap. He met her halfway, grabbing her hand, and she smiled.

A bunch of them had gone on home, driven by Willow and Teddy, the others were either up in their own beds or sleeping on the couch, but the two of them were just there, on the ground, staring up at the disco ball, no longer spinning.

“I really like it here…” she told him.

“The ground?” he asked, looking back at her. She laughed.

“No… well, yes… I mean the house… this house, _our_ house…”

“Oh, yeah… Me, too,” he replied. They weren’t moving and still he felt like they were swaying, and he was kind of okay with it.

“When we left New York, my mom and me…” she started again, staring at their hands, “I was so scared. We left our home, and what if we didn’t have that anymore? Then, we got to Austin and… we made a home, me… and her… and then Shawn… and the twins… and MJ…” she punctuated each addition by swinging their hands one side and then the other. “Then we grada… we grad… We finished high school…” He nodded, eyes loose. “And we _all_ left our homes, and we came here, all by ourselves… But we made a home, together… this home,” she gestured around to indicate the house with his hand and hers together. “We made it work. It really… really works…”

She was looking at him, and regardless of their drunken brains, he could still see where her thoughts were at. Tonight had been about celebrating their first year out here, and they’d done that, but after all that joy… and a few drinks… it all resolved itself into that old state of mind, the one she’d felt all those years ago leaving New York, and last year leaving Austin, about another departure that was likely to happen, even if it was still three years away.

It was one thing to keep on rebuilding every time, and to do so successfully. Every place she’d been made to leave behind had held a part of her, and those parts were still with her, the strings that bound them still tugging away. Knowing she’d have to do it again…

“It does,” he agreed, unsure what else to say at first. “It’s my favorite…” he heard himself say, then just as quick, in some drunken panic. “Don’t tell my mom, okay?” There was a beat of silence, and then she giggled again, which made _him_ laugh. When they grew silent again, there were a few beats before he spoke again. “Next one is going to be ours, Maya…” She looked at him. “Ours,” he repeated, squeezing her hand.

“Yeah,” she smiled as he kissed her fingers. “Ours…” she said it, too.

“That’s going to be my new favorite, and I’m going to make sure it’s yours, too. I promise.”

“You’re not going to remember any of this in the morning, you know?” she whispered, though she was smiling so bright.

“I don’t have to remember, I already knew. I’ve known for a long time. It’s all I ever want.” She couldn’t say for sure if she was getting dizzy or just misty eyed for his words. She scooted herself closer to him, and he wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head. Her brain might have been spinning, but this, right here, this was helping to steady her again. “I love you so much…” he mumbled, feeling sleep gaining on him.

“So much… love you, too… every day and the one after that…” she drifted away, too, holding on to him.

They would awaken the next morning, upstairs in their bed again, neither of them entirely sure of when or of how they’d ended up there, when the last thing they remembered was the floor. The end of the night had become something of a blur, getting blurrier by the minute. The one thing they remembered for sure was that it had been a great time.

TO BE CONTINUED


	98. Their Return to Peace

The confusion that followed their waking in their own bed, when they distinctly did not remember lying down in it, was not nearly as inclined to hold their attention as was the fact that with their first experience of drunkenness came the discovery of what it felt like to be hungover... They would have bypassed that new feeling if they could have helped it. As a way of starting their last free day before the start of classes, it wasn't ideal.

Maya woke up first, and the headache was something fierce. At once, she turned herself around in Lucas' arms and nestled herself tight against him, never having to stop and think to know that, awake or asleep, his arms would respond and tighten around her, too, which they did. That didn't solve her problem entirely... or all that much, truth be told, but it did something, and that was good enough for now.

Little by little, the memories of the night before started to trickle back into her mind, and as the timeline filled itself in more and more, she was left to finally realize they were up in their bed and not on the floor of the living room. They were lying on top of the still made bed, still wearing their clothes from the evening before.

"Okay..." she mumbled to herself, wincing for the pain that shot through her head at the sound she was sure hadn't been meant to sound so loud... She settled her head back down against Lucas' shoulder, just as he opened his eyes.

The presence of Maya in his arms when he woke up in the morning was so familiar now, it was like a constant that brought him peacefully into wakefulness. This morning, she was there, as she was most every morning, and that was a good thing, because otherwise he was sure he would have been much too confused. There was this sort of blank space in his head right now, and he couldn't explain it. But there was her head on his shoulder, her body pressed to his side, her arm around him and his arms around her, so at least there was that... He could work with that...

He couldn't say so much about the pounding headache, the drone of a body ache... and the unpleasant aftertaste in his mouth he didn't need explained to him. They'd been downstairs, last he recalled, but he could just almost see them, stumbling up the stairs, Maya boosting him along as best she could, all the way to the bathroom, and after that, in here... Right then and there, he seemed to make a pact with himself. He had no interest in going through all that again.

"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly, when he saw her eyes were open, staring into nothing. She turned them up to look at him now, and oh, she looked like she was pretty much in the same place he was.

"Oh, you know, top of the world, that's me," she groaned, and despite himself he had to laugh at that, which soon proved to be a mistake, as it made his head feel like a stampede had just gone trampling over him. Still, his default as ever was to be more concerned for her than for himself, and he ran a gentle hand up and down her back. "That... Definitely keep doing that," she hummed, and so he did.

"How are you really feeling?" he repeated himself, and now she sighed.

"Like my head is going to explode?" she estimated. He bowed his own head now, the better to press a light kiss over hers. "Better," she declared. "Just a little, but I'll take it. Do you remember coming up here?"

"Yes and no," he replied, telling her of what he had vaguely put together.

"Kind of sounds like something I can almost remember," she declared, frowning to herself before willing herself to turn enough to be able to get a look at his face, to feel at his forehead, and press her hand to his cheek. "You okay?" she smiled weakly.

"I'll live," he promised, the sight of her a sure way to remind him of smiles. "Good thing we had this party last night and not tonight, right?"

"No kidding," she laughed, bowing her head to his chest with a frown. "Ow..."

“Let’s just stay right here for a while, okay?” he told her, closing his eyes, trying to cling to nothing more than her presence, ignoring everything else.

“It’s either that or finding out if the world is really spinning or if it’s just me, so yeah… right here sounds great,” she declared, closing her eyes, too, and concentrating on the sound of his heartbeat against her ear. “Right here…” she mumbled, as sleep slowly but surely gained on her again, even as it did the same for him.

When they woke again, they couldn’t say for sure how much time had gone by, seeing as neither of them had managed to look at a clock the last time they’d been awake. He was the first one to open his eyes this time around, and this he did only as he noticed a familiar weight, a movement. They hadn’t shut the door when they’d stumbled in here, whenever that was, so it was really only a matter of time before the dogs found their way in here and came in search of their people, wondering what was taking them so long to come and say hello.

His head definitely felt a lot better than it had done before, though he couldn’t say whether he was still groggy or if the headache was still going at him. Maya was sound asleep, and he very much wanted to keep it that way, to give her a chance to rest as much as possible, which was not likely to happen if Trix – who had climbed on to the mattress – went and woke her up.

“Shh…” he hushed quietly, keeping one arm around his sleeping girlfriend while he reached out the other and got hold of the dog, who greeted him with many kisses. “Hi, okay, yes, I’m happy to see you, too,” he whispered. Looking over the edge of the bed, he could see Lou sitting there attentively, staring up at him. There was only so much he could do. He reached out his hand to the smaller dog, scratching at her head. That seemed to satisfy them both, as Trix soon hopped back to the ground and led Lou back out of the room.

Looking at the clock, Lucas saw it was after two in the afternoon already and, with a sigh, he looked back to his girlfriend. They needed to get up, needed to do a couple things before the next day, when they’d be starting classes again… Tomorrow, already…

“Maya?” he started quietly, tapping his fingers at her shoulder. She reacted only so far as to mutter some unintelligible complaint. “Yeah, I know the feeling,” he sighed.

Very carefully, he managed to roll her on to her side of the bed, where she settled even as she looked like something was missing all of a sudden. Grabbing a few things, he left the room and shut the door to keep her at peace before moving to head down the stairs and into the basement to jump in the shower. He briefly stopped and took a look inside the upstairs bathroom. It looked normal, so at the very least, whatever had happened up here, they hadn’t made a mess, so that was something.

The shower was good, excellent, really. Stepping out again, once he’d brushed his teeth and everything, he felt like he’d been brought back to life. He was also starving. Making his way back up the stairs, he found Sophie and Chiara in the kitchen, apparently intent on seeing to feed them all. No one had made it downstairs except for them so far, and they figured sooner or later they’d have to be willed out of their rooms. The easiest way to accomplish this would be with food, clearly.

Back on the second floor, Lucas quickly checked in with the others. The door to both Dylan and Riley’s rooms were open, and he could just hear both of their voices, coming from Riley’s room. For a moment, he had a shaky sort of thought, like what if… Neither of them had been of those who’d abstained, and maybe… No, they wouldn’t have, would they?

Sneaking a look as discreetly as he could, he could see Riley sitting up on her bed, Dylan on the ground and looking back at her. The snippet of conversation he caught told him enough to put his concerns at ease. Dylan _had_ spent the night in her room, yes… on the ground, next to an empty bucket, ready to jump into action if Riley was suddenly taken with a need to expel anything. She was thanking him for being there. He was assuring her it was no problem at all.

“Hey, guys,” he finally announced himself – after having stepped back and walked forward as though just arriving – and they turned to look at him. “Food, downstairs,” he told them, and that was all they needed to hear. Lucas went back to his and Maya’s room and peered inside. “Afternoon,” he told her, finding she was awake and standing at the mirror hanging inside the closet door, wrapped in a towel and running a brush through her hair, which was wet. “When did you…” he blinked.

“Right after you,” she shrugged. “Dire needs.” To find themselves both showered and dressed in fresh clothing was making them feel like they’d just shed an old, worn down skin, and had emerged at last, healed and renewed.

“Want to help me get those portraits developed?” she asked him. “I figure I won’t get the chance to do it for a while after today.”

“Nothing would please me more than to spend this last day, just us in a dark room,” he declared, making her laugh. “But food first, yeah?”

“We’re like five minutes away from me looking at you and seeing your head turn into a waffle, so yes, food first.”

As it so happened, there _were_ waffles waiting for them when they made their way down to the kitchen and joined their roommates. It was inevitable that the subject that carried the conversation was the party of the previous night and the aftermath of this morning. By the time Maya and Lucas made their way down into the basement and got the dark room set up, it felt like this day of theirs was starting and ending at the same time.

He liked helping her. He’d done it before, so he knew what he had to do, the steps that would take the portraits of the previous night and turn them into images they could put on display. He would follow her lead, and they’d fall into the rhythm, leaving them to talk as they went.

She told him about two of the results of the previous night that did not actually involve them ending up a pounding headache, or nausea, or the loss of a massive chunk of the day to sleep. For one, she had offered herself to chronicle the growth of Willow and her child to be. They were already plotting to take a photo every month. And then there was the song, Rosa’s song.

She had written a number of songs since that very first one of hers. Several of them now existed, they were out there, people listened to them, knew them, loved them, and that idea on its own was just wild. There were plenty of others which had never seen the light of day, lacking in inspiration to be completed or just not feeling right anymore. When the inspiration was there though, when the feeling was in her, so strong she could just hear it scratching at her brain… she wasn’t going to be at ease until she eased it out from thoughts on to paper.

Rosa’s song had been clawing at her since she’d woken up the second time today and hopped in the shower.

“Here,” he took out his phone, started the camera, and set it between them on the table. She looked up at him, shaking her head as though to ask what he wanted her to do. “Get it out,” he shrugged. “The song.” She still stared at him, and he stopped the recording. “I mean, work it out. It’s just you and me here, peace and quiet… and I always love to hear you,” he told her, earning a smile. “Now I get to… be part of the creative process…” She snorted. “What, I do,” he insisted.

“Alright then,” she breathed, turning back to the table. “Turn it back on.”

They got back into the rhythm of things, and for what turned into three, near on four hours, they brought those portraits to life, even as Rosa’s song started to take shape, echoing around them. Looking at her as she worked, it was like her hands were doing one thing while her mind was somewhere else, pulling together words to a melody only she could hear. He wanted to be ‘part of the creative process,’ and now he was really happy that he was there.

They ate a quick dinner, just the two of them, and by the time that was over, they were already aiming to turn in before long, the better to get started early the next morning. When they were all done, they settled into their bed, with his phone, her notebook, and earbuds. They listened to the recording together, as she scribbled down the words. Sometimes he would turn a smile to her, a happy sort of look that simply said, ‘I like this part a lot.’ She would repay this with a chuckle and lean over for a quick kiss. Eventually she was half sure he was only giving her the look anymore so that she’d kiss him again… That was fine by her.

“Can’t wait for Rosa to hear it,” she smiled to herself when she was done. Looking to her side, Lucas was already half asleep, head to her shoulder.

“I’m kind of partial to your version,” he mumbled.

“I’m sure you are,” she kissed his forehead now before setting aside everything, notebook, pen, phone, and earbuds, and lying down properly, turned toward him. She kissed him again, and again, and he kissed her back, until he was good and asleep. She followed him soon enough, anxious for the morning to come and for the start of this new semester.

TO BE CONTINUED


	99. Their Days of the Past

For how much they had all counted down the days to the start of their new school year, it felt like the first week passed them by in the blink of an eye. Now all of a sudden it was Saturday morning, and while both of them would be headed off to work later on in the day, they decided to have themselves an impromptu morning date by driving to the Nook for breakfast.

“I’m feeling pancakes today,” she hummed, staring at her menu with great intent.

“Just today?” he couldn’t help but tease. A lot of the time, she would sit there, and he would look at her, scanning the pages like she was aiming to pick something she hadn’t tried before, even though, easily half the time, she would end up back in the land of pancakes. She looked up at him now, one eyebrow hitching up like she was well aware of what he was getting at, and he was in very real danger of getting kicked under the table.

“Yes,” she told him, her voice steering clear of showing any of this, settling around a smile. “What about you?”

“French toast, I think.” She cleared her throat, sitting back in her chair.

“Really,” she replied, and he nodded.

“You’re going to do the ‘but I thought you didn’t like French toast’ thing, aren’t you?” he asked. “Even though it’s been like… two years since you convinced me to give them another shot, and I have… many times since that day.” She grinned.

“It was a really good day though,” she used as her excuse, and on that he had to agree. That had been the day he’d flown off to find her, to tell her what he’d learned about the night of the accident, the day the ban had been brought down… That all seemed like so long ago now, but at the same time so recent, too.

“So, pancakes, French toast… side order of potatoes and bacon?” he counted off. “Fruit?” he added after a beat, like he was remembering maybe they should get something a bit healthier in the mix.

“It’s a date, we do what we want,” she tipped her chin up with a grin, and he smiled.

“Milkshakes then?” he suggested, and her eyes went bright. “Milkshakes,” he nodded.

As they waited for their food to arrive, they got caught up for a few minutes just sitting quietly… enjoying one another’s presence… She’d try to be discreet, feeling the call to dance about in her chair with the music they had playing through the restaurant, but at the same time she’d try and get him to join in. Lucas wasn’t exactly shy, but she’d have him beat on boldness any day, and this one right here got him tripping a part of himself apparently not so at ease. That was alright though. He got to sit there and watch her go, and that was alright by him.

“You’re in a good mood,” he finally stated, after the arrival of their milkshakes had caused her to stop her shimmying all at once, pulling on an innocent smile for the waitress, as though she hadn’t seen her put on this ‘show’ a few times already.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she shrugged after taking a sip from her straw.

“Is it because you’re here with me?” he grinned, and she laughed.

“That, but it’s also because… I had a great week, and I know you did, too, yeah?”

“I did,” he confirmed.

“So, I’m in a good mood, I am in a _great,_ fantastic mood. I know what it’s like to be in a bad mood, I know what it’s like pretending to be in a good mood even when you’re not. A good mood, a real one… It’s one thing to be in it, but that’s not enough. I’m going to live this feeling for all it’s worth,” she declared. “You with me?”

“When am I not?” he asked, offering his hand. She took it happily.

It really had been a great week. It reminded him of going into school the first year when it had been all of them, none of them new, to the city, to the school… They were all starting on the same step, no one ahead or behind, and it felt good. That was kind of what it felt like, going back to school this week. One year ago, they had been in such a place of newness. They had just moved to Houston not too long before, and they were starting college, cast off in any number of directions as they all started studying in whatever field they had chosen.

Everything was so different this time around, _everyone_ … Their steps were no longer tentative, the places and the people were familiar to them now.

“How are we going to be living this good mood of yours?” Lucas asked, as their plates and the side orders were all placed between them. “Remembering that we’re both working today,” he added.

“Please, that’s hours away,” she waved this off.

“Three hours,” he amended.

“Plenty,” she waved this off, too, following the motion through into picking up a couple of the potatoes with her fork. “Although we _will_ have to play this one carefully,” she nodded before bringing the bite to her mouth. _These potatoes right here, they’re definitely ‘living the good mood,’_ she thought to herself. The scent of those slices was like a hundred good memories piled together. There was no feeling bad when you had those potatoes in front of you…

They set themselves to their breakfast, tossing ideas back and forth about what they could be doing to benefit from this good mood as much as possible. The possibilities got weirder and funnier the longer they went, until they really couldn’t say how they were ever going to make a choice.

“Think you’ll be able to hold on to it until after your shift today?” he asked her as they left the Nook. At this, she turned toward him with an amused look on her face, and he had to chuckle, realizing what his question might have sounded like. “Okay, that’s not what I mean,” he followed up, and she made a face somewhere between amusement and disappointment. “Well, not just that,” he adjusted his statement.

“Can I be in a good mood all day?” she answered his question with one of her own, directed to herself. “I mean, it’s not impossible. It _will_ depend on whoever I get at my tables today, but with the right motivation, it can be like a shield. Then, everything, the rude people, it’ll just… roll off,” she mimed. “And then, yes, I will be bubbling over with goodness until it’s you and me together again,” she vowed, swaying upward on her toes to set a kiss to his lips.

“Good, then no pressure for what time we have left this morning, we can pick this up tonight,” he told her, smiling.

“I like the sound of that. Sure, it’s making me want to call in sick and bridge the gap between now and then, but I’ll be good, I promise.”

The one downside to being back in school of course was that it diminished their ability to spend time together. Sure, they’d had some of that over the summer, too, with their working more hours than they did while school was on, but even then, they’d had more time than they did now. For all that, it really got to feel like they’d get a new bounce in their steps when they’d reunite at the end of the day or somewhere in the middle of it. That would level off in time, but for now it was all good.

They brought ‘part one’ of the good mood show to an end with his dropping her off back at the house. Maya needed to change, and though she insisted that she could just catch a bus home, to let him go on his way to the bookstore where his day would start much sooner than hers, he insisted right back and drove her home. She would make her own way to the restaurant, and that was all the compromise she’d get out of him.

“Pick you up tonight for part two,” he told her before heading out, and she nodded with a smile that said, ‘I’m already plotting.’

Maya picked out her clothes for the day. It was really kind of silly how long it could take her to make up her mind. Her options consisted of not quite a handful of white tops and black skirts or pants, and the same pair of shoes she wore to work, every time. Now at least she managed to save some time as far as styling her hair went. Shorter days, she’d braid the sides and pin them back. Full days, she’d pull everything together for that stub of a ponytail she had left since parting with the long hair.

Today should have been a ponytail day but, in the spirit of good mood day, she’d just done her side braids. Right now, they said ‘I don’t care how long I’m going to be in there, running left and right, carrying all those plates, I have my Huckleberry shield.’

Bounding down the steps when she was ready, she found Sophie was ready and waiting to drive her to work, so they got in the car and headed off.

As they went, the wind through the open windows carrying the familiar air of the rising fall, the good mood resolved itself in memories, memories of the past week, as much those days they’d spent being back in class as the few which had preceded, like the party with their friends and the hungover day that followed it. Maybe it wasn’t just that she was in a good mood now. Really, she’d been that way from day one, and each day had gone and added on to it, and now that the whirlwind of that first week had come to a halt, she was finally feeling it all, and it felt great.

There was plenty yet for her to look forward to, like finally getting to unveil Rosa’s song to its intended singer. She’d decided they’d be better off waiting a couple of weeks, until things had settled in a bit, before letting Rosa and the others hear it. It wasn’t like she’d told her to expect it so soon, she’d just been fortunate enough to have it all come together as fast as it did. If her young bandmate only knew how giddy she was to have her finally hear it… She wasn’t even nervous about whether or not she’d like it. She could feel it deep in her heart, this was the song…

There was plenty for her to look forward to, but the thing she found herself thinking about even more right now was what had come before, from the morning of their return to class. She wasn’t alone in that either. Down at the bookstore, as his day there started and he fell into the usual rhythm, he started thinking about the last week, much as she did.

They were a long way away from all those days, year after year, where he came to pick her up, on foot or with his old car, and they went and picked up Riley and went and sat outside school, in the middle school steps or their bench outside the high school. They hadn’t forgotten those either. In fact, Lucas had woken up that first day to Maya telling him how she’d been dreaming of those old days back in Austin.

TO BE CONTINUED


	100. Their Days of the Start

_The first day_

_Lucas_

Even before he opened his eyes, he knew their early turn in on the previous night had done exactly what he’d expected it to do. The sun wasn’t even out yet, though the colors of the sky he could just see outside the window told him that it wouldn’t be long away still. That was plenty for him. He would have time to head into this day without being overly rushed, and that was all he could ask for, especially when he would start the day with her.

“Have you been awake long?” he asked, fixing into a yawn and a breath before looking back to her, her whole posture leaning against him suggesting that she’d been waiting for him to wake up already.

“Not _so_ long,” she shrugged, even as she pulled herself up like someone who could finally do what they’d been waiting to do. He smirked, reaching out to touch her face, tracing his thumb back and forth along her smiling cheek. “I had a really good dream,” she reported.

“Did you?” he asked. “What was it about? Was I in it?”

“Of course,” she squinted at him.

“Just checking,” he nodded. “Go on.”

“I dreamt we were in Austin,” she told him. “It was morning, just like now, first day of school…”

“Just like now,” he chimed in, and got himself another squint. “Right, you’re telling it, sorry.”

“First day of school,” she started again, “And you came to pick me up, like you used to do, and we walked to school… Must have mixed up a few things, because you came and got me and we walked, just the two of us, and we ended up on the steps.” Even with his eyes open, he could see that whole path in his head, so familiar to him after countless mornings… “Then again, we were the same age we are now, and it was a dream, so we can do what we want.”

“We can,” he agreed with a nod.

“It made me wish…” she started, sighing, setting her head back down on his shoulder, “Sometimes I really wish we could have known each other before. I wish we could have grown up together, even before middle school.” He understood that wish, he _knew_ that wish.

“You’re forgetting that before that year I would have been one grade ahead of you,” he pointed out.

“Wouldn’t matter,” she insisted, and he smiled. No, it probably wouldn’t. All that would matter would be that he knew her, that she was in his life, and then the rest… “We could have gotten into so much trouble together…” she hummed, making him laugh.

By the time everyone was up, and ready, and fed, the sun had made its rise in full, and the day was officially started. Their schedules were all their own, and some of them didn’t have classes for a couple of hours still, but they drove in together either way. When they reached the lot, Riley went off one way, Sophie and Chiara left together, so to situate the new student among them, leaving the two of them in the front seats to watch them go like parents seeing how their kids had grown. Last year, it had been a whole other game…

“Right, I’ll see you tonight?” Lucas turned to Maya, who was making slow work of picking up her things. Their classes were stacked in such a way that they didn’t really have any moment where they could get together, and then as soon as she was done with her last class she’d be on her way in to the restaurant, so the next time he’d see her would be when he picked her up at the end of her shift… unless their professors didn’t keep them the whole period, which was entirely possible at this point, but that wasn’t a guarantee.

“Is that even a question?” she laughed.

They left the car behind, walking together as far as they could before their destinations forced them to go separate ways. He pulled her in for a kiss, and the way she seemed to cling to it was enough to tell him she wasn’t eager to see the moment end any more than he was. But it had to end, so it did, and they went off to their classes.

He didn’t have professors the way Maya did, didn’t have any Patty Robinson types, the kind that motivated him in a way all their own, but with the start of his second year he might get somewhere close. He’d been hearing from others in his program, those ahead of him, about someone he should be getting as he moved forward, and his schedule for the semester had come together with the man as the first one he’d meet on this day.

He didn’t know what to expect of this Professor Hank Hillard, whether he’d be young or old, quiet or loud… The last thing he expected was to find a guy somewhere about his father’s age who, within all of ten seconds, gave Lucas the eerily accurate impression that he was staring at a younger version of his grandfather. It wasn’t even just that he looked like the Pappy Joe he’d seen in old photos – which he did, really, a lot – but something in the way he carried himself, and the way he spoke… It was his grandfather, thirty-odd years ago.

“What’s up?” Bishop whispered, seeing the look on his face, brows locked in a furrow.

“Nothing…” he said, as class was about to start and he couldn’t jump into the subject now. Still, it held his attention so much that he only had a vague notion of that first class with the guy. He kept hoping this hadn’t been too noticeable to anyone beyond Bishop, especially to the professor himself, but then as they were dismissed, the man caught his eye and signalled for him to stay back. Well, so much for that…

“Mr. Friar,” the professor stepped toward him, and it really did not help him to see someone else than his grandfather in him.

“I’m sorry, I was listening, it’s just…” He couldn’t tell him the real reason, could he? He’d sound like a weirdo…

The professor stared at him for a moment… and then he laughed. It was weird enough that he was laughing, but then even _that_ sounded so like Pappy Joe, so it only unsettled him all over again, and he couldn’t have known what to say if he tried. All he could manage was…

“Sir?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I… Why don’t we start over? I’m going to guess you’ve been thinking I remind you of someone, don’t I?” the professor asked him, the smile on his face already doing the telling for him. Lucas nodded. “Would it help if I told you my mama’s name was Charlotte?”

Lucas opened his mouth to reply, to express his ongoing confusion, but then maybe for the fact that he had been thinking so much of his grandfather, the name found its place in his head, shaking loose some memories, tales he’d mostly heard from his father. His grandfather himself had only rarely brought up his baby sister in conversation, but from his father he knew that his father and his aunt had had a falling out, years before Lucas had been born, so he’d never actually met her. He didn’t know what had caused the rift, only that it had existed, and persisted.

But then here was this man, standing before him and looking so like his grandfather, and that would make sense, wouldn’t it? If he was really Charlotte Friar’s son, then that would make him a nephew to Pappy Joe, a cousin to his father, and to him… his professor.

“Oh…” his words continued to fail him, surprise in his eyes.

“I wasn’t sure you were who I thought you were, but then I walked in here and there you were, looking just like Tommy did when we were growing up.” He wasn’t talking to his professor anymore, in that moment, and he relaxed just a bit, feeling something like pride that he should remind someone of his father. “You know, we tried to keep in touch, even after all that mess, but then I left the state and we lost touch,” he explained.

“I… I could give you his number,” Lucas finally said.

It took some effort to put the encounter aside and carry on with the rest of his day, even as so much of him felt the need to call home, talk to his father, his grandfather, call Zay in Boston, and Farkle in New York… He wanted to find Maya, tell her all about it… But they had a day to get through, and so for the time being he could only relay the story to Bishop, who received the news that their new professor was his father’s cousin as something like an odd wonder.

The rest of the day did feel a lot more like a return to what he’d known. The professors were familiar to him already, as were many of the students. He and Bishop made friends with a girl called Gwen, who they had seen going around the previous year without ever really getting to talk. They were not kept for full periods, though all around they were let go close enough to the intended end time that it didn’t exactly make a difference.

When he got out of his last class of the day, he had half a mind to go and have dinner at the restaurant, so he could see Maya and he could tell her about Professor Hillard, though he ended up going back home. As much as their connection, still unknown at the time, had kept a lot of his attention, what he _had_ caught of the class itself told him that his grandfather’s doppelganger was a great teacher, and he could learn a lot from him.

He didn’t tell the others when he saw them. It felt to him like he should wait, so he could tell Maya before the rest of the household. While he kept vague in talking to them, he did eventually talk with someone, when he got a call from home. Seeing the number, he froze for a moment, unsure whether it would be his father or his grandfather on the line. It was dawning on him now that his grandfather might have a completely different reaction to this revelation than his father would.

“I got a very interesting phone call earlier,” his father’s voice greeted him, and he let out a breath.

“Is it okay that I told him to call you?”

“Are you kidding?” his father laughed. “By the time we hung up, it turned out we’d been going on and on, talking about the old days, for almost three hours!” Lucas let out another breath.

“What about Pappy Joe, does he know?” he had to ask. The pause that followed told him enough to guess his father was hesitating.

“I haven’t told him yet. Honestly, it’s not that he’ll take it badly. He always cared for Hank, he was his godfather, and after Aunt Charlotte died, I think he did want to reach out, only he didn’t know how. You know how he can get sometimes.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lucas nodded to himself.

“I’ll get around to talking to him, just leave it to me, alright? I won’t make you hold on to it too long.”

He spent the rest of the evening thinking about what might be going on back at the house in Austin, and he wished he was there. At the same time, he was eager for the night to be over, so he could go and get Maya, so he could tell her everything.

TO BE CONTINUED


	101. Their Days of the Return

_The first day_

_Maya_

Though she woke up feeling rested and at peace, the first thing she found herself thinking as she woke was that she kind of wished she were still asleep. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be awake, didn’t want to face this day, no, far from that. But the more awake she’d get, the more her dream would fade away, as it was already doing it now, the more her eyes adjusted to the light of the world… what little of it there was.

The sun was not out yet. Lucas still slept at her side. The house was completely quiet, the way it would be, this early in the morning. She always liked this time of day, so special as it was, but on those days where she only really wished that she could share some thought or another with someone else – usually the boy, breathing evenly as he slept, while holding on to his little spoon of a girlfriend – the quiet would get to feel like the world was mocking her, forcing her into patience.

As she lay there, waiting for him to wake, her whole posture sort of absently shifted, until she must have really looked like she was waiting on him, when he finally did wake. As she watched him slowly pull himself fully from sleep to wakefulness, she would think about him and her. She would think about this feeling she had sometimes, like everything was so perfect between them by now, and she would try so hard not to act afraid, as though surely it could not stay this way forever… And she would find her worries had about as much grasp on her as the dream now floating away like so much dust.

“Have you been awake long?” he asked now, and the way his body would seize when he yawned – as he did now – made her chuckle internally.

“Not _so_ long,” she shrugged, though she pulled herself closer to him, face to face and smiling. Her eagerness to share must have been right there on her face, as he reached out and held it, sending her heart in somersaults. “I had a really good dream,” she reported. He already looked genuinely interested, and she was glad for his being exactly the person she’d needed him to be in that moment.

“Did you?” he asked. “What was it about? Was I in it?”

“Of course,” she squinted at him. He did love to tease her like that, didn’t he? He was lucky she found it cute.

“Just checking,” he nodded. “Go on.”

“I dreamt we were in Austin,” she told him. “It was morning, just like now, first day of school…”

“Just like now,” he chimed in, and got himself another squint. “Right, you’re telling it, sorry.”

“First day of school,” she started again, “And you came to pick me up, like you used to do, and we walked to school… Must have mixed up a few things, because you came and got me and we walked, just the two of us, and we ended up on the steps.” It had all felt so real, and truth be told, it was not the first time she’d dreamed of those days. “Then again, we were the same age we are now, and it was a dream, so we can do what we want.” She’d had similar dreams, many times, in the weeks following their move to Houston, in anticipation for the start of college, and then even as it had started. All it had taken for her to move on in her dreaming had been for her to finally settle into this new era in her life and find it held as much worth for memories as the old times. That she had the dream again was not so unexpected, and really it felt like something else now, something great.

“We can,” he agreed with a nod.

“It made me wish…” she started, sighing, setting her head back down on his shoulder, “Sometimes I really wish we could have known each other before. I wish we could have grown up together, even before middle school.” That wish had been with her, oh… almost as long as she’d lived in Texas. When those new friends of hers had shown their colors, becoming some of the most important and beloved around her… it settled in her something like envy, for the extra time they might have had. Back then, she’d felt that wish with some pinch of guilt, like it meant she regretted her days in New York, which was absolutely not the case, not back then, no… Back then she ached for New York still, so much she’d tried to run back there…

“You’re forgetting that before that year I would have been one grade ahead of you,” he pointed out.

“Wouldn’t matter,” she insisted, and he smiled. It really didn’t. When she imagined them, younger and still friends, those thoughts were very clear… and sort of amusing… “We could have gotten into so much trouble together…” she hummed, making him laugh.

When they finally got out of bed, they fell into the old, familiar rhythm, getting ready to drive off to school, all of them together. Little by little their group dwindled away, first as they left Dylan behind at the house, and then at school when Riley, and Sophie and Chiara, all went on their way, leaving just the two of them there in the car.

“Right, I’ll see you tonight?” Lucas turned to her as she was gathering her things. At his statement, she looked at him with an amused look.

“Is that even a question?” she laughed.

After they left the car, they walked together until their ‘crossroads,’ and then they kissed, possibly in a much more dramatic spirit than required, as they were parting ways for a few hours, not years. They walked off in opposite directions, and slowly her mind drifted from him, and the run up to this day, to now, as she had essentially crossed that start line. She was here… it had started.

She may have clued in Franny and Kayla that she would come at them now, in true back to school fashion, as though she hadn’t seen them all summer, when she had seen them just two days prior. And when they all finally found one another, neither of her friends disappointed. They ran toward her, as she ran toward them, and they collided in a six-arm hug and laughter.

“I was afraid I made you all up when I woke up yesterday,” Franny told her as they all pulled away. At this, Kayla made a face like ‘oh, I know, right?’ before launching into the tale of their own recovery from the party. The deaf girl herself hadn’t left them more than ‘cheerful’ as far as intake, while Franny had been living her best silly life, singing out of tune and, according to Kayla, inserting some less than appropriate signs into the lyrics as she waved her arms about. “I have my moments,” Franny defended herself coyly, making her friends laugh.

She loved being back, and now she found she also loved that she started this year with her friends already being her friends. She had known them for that whole year now, and they were as dear to her as any friend should hope to be.

The start of class saw her reunited with many others she’d gotten to know over the past year, her classmates sharing this story and that from their summer as they waited for one class and another to start. The day started to roll on, as the first day of a semester would do. It was wild to think it was her third one of those already. But here she was, feeling something taking shape… Not so much like a completed thing, not yet, but definitely a good sort of framework, for the one she could be, by the time someone handed her a diploma. That notion was more cherished to her than even she knew to explain.

She started her first day with a face that might have been unfamiliar to her, if not for her having been at Patty Robinson’s start of term party. She didn’t go out of her way to point this out, though when Professor Medeiros walked in, they did share a look and a tip of the head to one another. For that evening, not so long ago, she had gotten to call this woman Ruby.

She’d tried not to build an expectation for the class, though she’d been led to believe she would really enjoy it. And not long into the period, she found herself enthralled, listening as the young professor spoke. She really had a way of it, and Maya kind of admired that. Back at the party, she’d been left to think about how the two of them were kind of similar to one another, how this woman represented in some way the person _she_ could become, and now sitting in her class she found herself thinking it again.

To some degree, it sort of scared her, looking at her, thinking she might ever be able to hold a class’ attention the way she did, the way Professor Robinson did, but she wasn’t surprised that she felt that way. She would have been more concerned if she felt wholly self-assured, like she could become her, no sweat. No… there would be plenty of sweat, plenty of work… And she wouldn’t become like her. She needed to be herself, still, just… herself as a teacher.

“That’s the one you saw at Robinson’s house, yeah?” Franny asked, when they all left the class. Maya nodded.

_“She’s younger than I expected,”_ Kayla declared, to which Franny added agreement. Maya smiled.

When she had told them about the party, how she and Lucas had ended up out there not knowing what they were walking into, her friends had laughed, good-heartedly so. At no time since she had started interacting with the professor outside of class had they acted like she was getting some preferential treatment or another, and for that she was sort of thankful.

Her day wound its way down, one class and another, and by the time she made it to the restaurant for her evening shift, she was still in such a good place. She couldn’t wait for Lucas to come and get her. Sometimes, the good feelings were not nearly as good when she didn’t have someone to share them with.

When she saw his car sitting outside the restaurant as she walked out, she could see his face, and something told her he’d been waiting just as long if not longer, so she decided to let him go first. What he unveiled to her now was most definitely worth setting her own tales aside.

“He’s your… your cousin? Or… is that the once-removed thing, I never remember how that works…” she frowned to herself.

“I don’t really know either,” he admitted. “But he’s my dad’s cousin, yeah.”

“Wow…” was all she could say at first. The whole tale felt so epic and she hadn’t even been the one to live it. “Tell me you snuck a picture or something.” She had to see this man.

“I didn’t,” he chuckled, like he’d expected this, which no doubt explained… “But I did find one on the internet,” he held out his phone to her and she snatched it eagerly. She _had_ seen pictures of young Pappy Joe before. She’d seen pictures, made comments as to his rugged good looks enough to make the man puff his chest with pride, and make his grandson look awkward, even as he could barely hold his laughter in. So now, as she saw the picture of this Professor Hillard, the effect was achieved as hoped.

“Okay, that is freaky,” she breathed, looking at the guy who looked like he’d just walked straight from those decades-old photos.

“Right?” Lucas nodded, like he’d just been waiting for her to feel as he’d felt. She looked back at him, grinning from ear to ear with a telling expression, one that said ‘I’m about to tease you big time.’

“Can I keep it?” she asked innocently, and he held out his hand for his phone. “So touchy,” she sighed, melting into squeals and laughter as he pulled her into a kiss.

TO BE CONTINUED


	102. Their Days of Friendship

There was something to be said for the second day of class. It was the sort of thing where, although some things were still new, like the classes, the fact remained that, as a whole, the semester was now officially moving forward, the wheels were turning, and they were rolling over the peak, gaining traction. This was especially true because, as semesters went, the analogy felt a lot like that, too. All this time, they’d waited for that first day, and now here they were, already on the second one…

He woke up that morning to an e-mail from his father. The words themselves didn’t say a whole lot, but the photos attached to the message… His father must have scanned them, pulled from wherever he’d kept them all these years, because Lucas had definitely never seen them before. Maybe, because of the distance between those two sides of the family, they’d decided it would be better that way, but now, the more he saw… he felt almost cheated, like he’d been missing out all this time.

It reminded him of the project they’d done, some years back. They’d drawn their family trees. And sure, his had counted many people, and he counted himself lucky for it, but… now he kept thinking about the branch that had ended with his aunt Charlotte. There was nothing of a husband, or children… Did Professor Hillard have siblings… did he have kids? They were his family, too, and he never knew they existed.

His father had sent three photos, though the message said he had more, and he’d be glad to send them to him if he wanted to look at them. The first showed two boys, teenagers. He knew his father right away… Lucas sort of forgot how much _he_ looked like his father, the way Hank Hillard looked like Pappy Joe. His young father sat on top of a wooden fence post, with a boy he knew for his new professor at once, too, sitting on the next post, the pair of them looking like they’d been caught unawares by the one who’d held the camera. They were just sort of looking around, like they were tired and they were resting. Somehow, he could sense the bond between those boys, just from that image.

The second one had taken him a bit longer to sort through. There were a whole bunch of kids in this one, all dressed up and standing in front of a Christmas tree. The first one he’d found, as ever, was his father, who looked no more than nine or ten here. From there, he was able to spot out the three girls who were his aunts, his father’s cousins. Once he’d done that, he looked to the others and he knew these were possibly the Hillard children, Charlotte’s children. There was Hank, and what could be his brother and sister. And the family tree expanded again…

The last photo showed Thomas Friar and Hank Hillard again, each surrounded by their parents, and wearing caps and gowns that suggested this would be their high school graduation. So, they had gone to school together, too? There was so much he wanted to know, and now the pictures had filled his head with questions. Most of all, he wondered about this rift between his grandfather and his sister, that had lasted so long, never mended. Charlotte was dead now, had been for a few years. How did his grandfather feel, about never having gotten the chance to fix it?

Maya saw the pictures, too, same time as he did, just woken up and sitting in their bed. She didn’t say a word, just looped her arms around his and held on to him, and he was thankful as ever for her presence. Later, when he got to school and found Bishop, he found himself sharing all these things he’d learned, showing his friend the e-mail that his father had sent him. He told him about everything he’d been feeling since the previous day, all he’d learned and all he wished he knew. And he shared his dilemma, wondering if he’d be able to sit in Hank’s class now that he wasn’t just Professor Hillard but also his long unknown… first cousin, once removed, according to the internet. Maya had called him his grand-cousin, and now he couldn’t chase the word. Bishop considered this for a while before finally coming up with some answer.

“Your problem right now is he’s a stranger to you, and your head’s full of questions. So, all you have to do is change all of that. Ask the questions, get to know him. Then, it won’t be so weird anymore.”

Lucas guessed he was right, but it didn’t exactly solve anything. What was he supposed to do, just show up in his office during office hours? That wasn’t what those were for, and sure, it was the start of the semester so it wasn’t as though students would be needing him a lot already, but…

He decided to take a chance. Going off the conversation they’d had the day before, brief as it had been, he felt there was a strong chance his father’s cousin would be receptive to his inquiries. He fished out the sheet they’d been given the day before, which held his contact information, and he sent out an e-mail, with a simple request. He wanted to meet, to talk some more, as soon as he was available… if that was alright with him.

Coming out of his first class of the day, he had a response waiting for him, asking when he’d be having lunch today. He replied, and just like that he had a lunch appointment with his ‘grand-cousin.’

They met up at the diner nearby, and it didn’t take long for Lucas to establish for himself how little there was of a difference, between Hank the man and Hank the professor. Who he was in class was exactly who he was in life, and Lucas sort of liked that about him.

“My dad called you,” he started, as they sat in a booth, facing one another.

“He did,” Hank nodded, sounding very happy about that. “I tell you, it felt like we’d just talked yesterday, and not… oh… probably nineteen years ago. Tell you what though, last time we spoke, all he could talk about what his boy, his son,” the man smiled that Friar smile, and Lucas could only reciprocate. He pulled out his phone then, showing him the photos that he’d been sent. When he saw them, Hank laughed. “You really do look so much like him,” he shook his head, like the memories were crowding his head. “Look at us… I mean, we looked good,” he turned the phone back around, which made him laugh, too.

“You went to school together?” he asked.

“He was almost a year older than me, but because of when in the year we were born, we ended up in the same grades, same classes, from kindergarten all through to the end, until college. When we were growing up, for a while, he had no siblings, and I only had a sister, and we looked enough alike, we’d tell people we were fraternal twins. Pretty sure you could ask anyone in our graduating class, they probably still believe it. We told them our parents were divorced, so that’s why we didn’t have the same last name anymore.” He was so amused by this, and Lucas was faced once again with this image that was so much like Pappy Joe…

“Were you and my grandfather close, before… well…”

“Before he and Mama split off?” Hank finished for him, and Lucas gave a small nod. The man let out a breath. “For as long as I can remember, I idolized the man. He was more a father to me than my own, and that was before he bailed out on my mother and my sister and I.” Lucas looked back to the pictures, the one of graduation, the families… “Mama’s second husband, who got me a brother of my own. He was alright, don’t get me wrong, but before he ever came around, all that time, there was Uncle Joe, and if he felt like a dad to me before, he really bridged the gap in those years after mine split. But then him and my mother, that mess…” He shook his head, and whether or not he’d ever tell him what had caused it, Lucas didn’t look for it to happen today.

“So, you two just stopped seeing each other? Just like that?”

“I enjoyed no part of it, but the fact remained that I had to make a choice. And for all I owed the man… I had to stand by my mother. I hoped it wouldn’t last, that it would get better. But you know how stubborn your grandfather can get? Well, my mother was the same way.” Lucas winced, and Hank nodded. “Exactly. Then, the years started to go by, and they kept on going by, and now here we are.”

“What about when she died though?” he couldn’t help but ask. “That was five years ago, I remember when my dad heard about it, but… we weren’t at the funeral, I…”

“Don’t worry about it, there was no service, nothing like that. It was what she wanted. No fuss, no tears, just take her ashes somewhere, take a moment… then move on.” He paused, and Lucas could see the memories in his eyes. It hadn’t been so simple as that, but they’d done their best to respect her wishes as close as they could manage. “I think maybe if we’d had more time to prepare ourselves for it, she might have reached out to her brother, tried to fix things before it was too late. But we never got that.”

“I know,” Lucas nodded slowly. Charlotte Friar had taken a bad fall, and even as they’d rushed her to a hospital, and tended to her, she had never regained consciousness before slipping away. “I’m sorry,” he said, felt he needed to, and Hank thanked him with a bow of the head. “Did my father tell you about Pappy Joe moving in with us, his accident?”

“He did,” Hank breathed out, like the new knowledge already pained him so.

“I think he’d really want to see you now,” Lucas told him.

“I would like that, too,” his professor replied, holding his gaze. “It’s been much too long.”

“Do you have kids?” Lucas asked now, and the sadness turned to joy on the man’s face, as he nodded and pulled out his phone, bringing up a picture for him to see. They were stood near a stable, Hank holding the reins of the horse where a teenage boy sat, looking so like his younger self. In front of the horse stood a woman with three girls and another boy. “Okay, so you have kids,” Lucas blinked, and the man chuckled. He started pointing them out, first the woman and then the children, youngest to eldest.

“That’s my wife, Tanya, and there’s Maggie, and Henry, and Evelyn, and Sarah… and Joseph,” he finished with the boy on the horse, his smile telling of pride as much as the legacy he’d placed in his firstborn, naming him after the man he’d cast as his truest father figure, despite all the years they’d spent not speaking to one another.

“Do you think… Could you send me this picture?” he asked, looking back up to his grand-cousin/professor. With a smile and little more needed, Hank attached the image in a reply to the e-mail Lucas had sent him earlier.

“I’d like to have those myself, if you wouldn’t mind,” he nodded to Lucas’ phone, indicating the images his father had sent him.

“Sure, I…” He paused for a second, thinking about what he’d said before, about Lucas’ father and him when they were growing up, how they were like brothers. “When we’re not in class, I… Is it alright if I call you Uncle?” Hank Hillard looked at him with that Friar smile.

“Nothing would make me happier.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	103. Their Days of Partnership

Day three in their new semester had existed in Maya’s heart and mind like a bubble of bright energy, something she’d been looking forward to as much as she’d looked forward to the classes themselves. When Professor Robinson had recruited her to assist in her project, they’d been left to figure out a schedule, which came down to two afternoons a week in office, along with what follow-up work might have been required along the way. It had made putting her class schedule together a bit more difficult than before, but it had worked out in the end.

“I feel like I’m supposed to dress more… professional?” she frowned as she stood before the open closet doors. She’d already put her hair, which had gained a good inch since the summer’s cut, into a neat, low ponytail. Lucas had been staring at her like he wanted to say something but didn’t dare. She blamed it on her having been distracted by her clothing situation that it took her as long as it did to realize what it meant. “Too much?” she asked. He still looked hesitant.

“I love you… Lose the pony,” he finally sighed. She frowned, but then she pulled her hair free, running a hand through it. “And… relax,” he moved up to stand across from her, joining his hands to the effort of resetting her hair. Her face scrunched into a smile; she liked when he did that, too. “You’ve got this whole… casual stylish thing going,” he told her, as he found the words. “You don’t need to change a single thing, okay? Besides, you’ve got classes this morning.”

After laughing to herself for a while, imagining what she’d look like sitting in class with her severe ponytail and some kind of pantsuit, she pulled through and got dressed. When they reached the school lot and they watched the girls in the backseat march off on their own, Maya turned to her boyfriend/driver to tell him she’d see him that night. And, because this was Lucas ‘Huckleberry’ Friar she was dealing with, he wished her a good day by reaching into the glove compartment and pulling out a paper bag, which he handed her.

“Didn’t wrap it, but…”

“What is it?” she asked, grinning curiously as she pulled the bag open. For a moment, she guessed it might be another sketchbook, by the shape of it, but instead it was notebook, lined, and a really nice one.

“I know this job with the professor means a lot to you, so I thought it called for something special to go with it.” She let out a breath, smiling back at him.

“You’re really too much sometimes, you know that?”

“I know, it’s really a problem, I should do something about it,” he joked, and she shook her head. “No? You don’t want me to? Alright, then I won’t,” he agreed.

She spent the majority of that morning’s classes looking to the paper bag sticking out of her school bag on the floor, or absently reaching for it… If it was possible for her to be even more anxious for her first session with Professor Robinson, she’d just gotten there.

She used to be so good at hiding when she was scared. Somehow, she’d lost some of that edge over the years. Maybe that was a good thing, healthier… Right about now, she wished she could be the way she was in the past, as she stood outside the professor’s office door, gripping the strap of her bag like it was her one lifeline.

“Just pull it together, Hart,” she muttered to herself, taking a deep breath before reaching her hand out to knock. Her fist had been near to connecting with the surface when a voice startled her into stopping and turning around.

“There you are,” Patty Robinson’s cheerful voice greeted her, approaching from down the hall.

“I’m not late, am I?” Maya had to ask, summoning all she could in order to sound normal.

“No, you are right on time. Have you eaten yet?” the professor asked, and her composure faltered. _Damn it…_ In all her trepidation to get to this moment, she had just walked here from her last class. She’d forgotten to get lunch. When the woman took a step toward her, Maya thought for a second she was about to be revealed for a bad choice. “Am I frightening you, Maya?”

“No? I… No,” she shook her head, blinking. “I haven’t had my lunch yet,” she added after a beat.

“Good, I’ll call and have something sent to the office,” the professor patted her shoulder before moving to the office door and unlocking it, opening it and standing aside for her student to enter.

As they waited for the food to be delivered, Maya was told to set her things down at the small desk in the corner of the room. When she realized that it belonged to her, that it was to be her space, that she _had_ space, it felt like her brain had been rattled for the surprise it gave her. When this was followed up with the reception of a key to the office, she wondered how she managed not to pass out, or make a fool of herself in any way, even as she could feel her heart going as though she’d been running at breakneck speed.

“I should put it on…” she reached into her pocket and pulled out her keychain. It presently held keys to the house in Houston and the one back in Austin, the restaurant, the Friars’ and the Matthews’ also in Austin. And there was an old disused key, to the apartment where she’d lived with her mother, back in New York, which she’d never returned. “Some of my friends make fun of me for how I always have my keys on me and not in my bag,” she told Patty. “I just never lost the habit, after we moved to Texas. I never wanted to end up… stuck…” she shrugged.

“I understand,” Patty told her, her smile warm and grandmotherly. The new key clinked against its neighbor when it completed its journey through the ring’s loops. She held up the bundle with a smile before sticking it back in her pocket.

Their meal was not long to arrive, and soon professor and student were sitting across from one another and talking as they ate. Not wanting this to turn right into discussion of the professor’s work, which she was there to assist on, Maya found herself sharing some of the discoveries Lucas had made this week. She didn’t go into the details of the Friar family and the rift between Pappy Joe and his sister, but more so on the fact that one of his new teachers was also his father’s cousin.

“I can’t say I’ve ever met Professor Hillard, but it’s possible I may have met… You wouldn’t happen to know, is he married?” Maya confirmed that yes, he was, to a woman named Tanya. At that, Patty Robinson `smiled, tapping her desk with a nod. “She saved my Claudius’ life, a wonderful doctor, truly.” If not for the time she’d spent at the woman’s house over the last few months, Maya would not have known who she was speaking of. Claudius was her bird, a great big squawking thing, very gentle.

“Oh, so she’s a vet then,” she smiled. She liked the idea of the two of them, the Hillards, one treating animals, the other helping people to learn how to do the same. Maybe she and Lucas could look into taking Trix and Lou to see her.

“It’s a wonder we never realized her husband and I worked at the same school.”

“Lately it seems like the world really is so small,” Maya smiled at her, her eyes moving to a picture on the office wall, where a ginger Patty Robinson stood by George Feeny.

“You can say that again,” the woman nodded.

“I mean, I know it’s really… well, huge…” Maya shrugged, and the professor laughed. “But then, last summer, when we were travelling through Europe… There were people who knew us, knew our band, in every city we went to…” she shook her head, thinking to herself. It still felt impossible, but it was very true, which made it feel even bigger.

“Now, that…” Patty sat forward in her chair, pointing at her with a knowing look, “That’s not the world getting smaller, it’s _your_ world… growing, expanding, and that is amazing, but hardly surprising.” The confidence in those words could have rattled Maya so hard if she hadn’t been seated already… “You’ve always looked to me like someone who could grasp the whole world in her hands… if she only ever got the chance. Now, what that means, big or small, that all depends on you, and what you want to do. All I know is I’m happy to be a part of that journey.”

It took her a few seconds to realize she’d just been sitting there, container in one hand, fork in the other, looking back to her professor, listening as she spoke of her future in this way. She blinked, took a breath. It wasn’t like she hadn’t known just how much faith this woman had in her, she’d seen it, she’d heard it, but it felt now like she hadn’t known it nearly as much as she might have. It might have been that it would have terrified her, buried her under expectations and pressure, but it all felt sort of counterbalanced by the words and their meaning, until she wasn’t afraid anymore, just… proud… or humbled… thriving, definitely thriving, and ready to keep on working to prove her right.

She ended up telling her professor about the sort of brain melt she’d had that morning, figuring out how to look when she showed up here. She told her about how she’d done up her hair, and how it had been bad enough that Lucas had needed to soften the blow before telling her just how bad it was.

“Good guy, that one,” Patty told her with a barely contained laugh.

“You have no idea,” Maya hummed to herself before telling her about the present she’d received that morning. There was so much more she could have told her about, too, seven years’ worth of stories, but it felt like the kind of thing she’d rather hold on to.

Right now, she thought about how different things could have been if she hadn’t chosen Houston, back when her options had all been laid out before her. There would have been no new TXNY, no Willow, Rosa, Kayla, Franny, Leona, Bishop, none of them… She would never have met Professor Robinson, Lucas would never have met his ‘Uncle’ Hank… All of that, all of it so integral to their lives now, it had all balanced on a single choice. If she’d chosen to go elsewhere, he would have followed her, and that would have been that… Maybe they would still have been very happy, how could they not, if they were together? Even so…

“Still in there?” She blinked, returning from her train of thoughts with a nod and an apologetic look. After a moment, she explained about the many ‘what ifs’ that had sprouted in her mind. “Oh, that’s a one-way ticket to constant doubt. I tell you, they can stay with you for a very long time, so you’d best try and put them all aside.”

“What’s your… Telltale What If?” Maya inquired, which made the professor chuckle before sitting back in her seat, considering the question.

“Oh, the most painful kind… The one that got away…” she intoned, and Maya had a sympathetic smile. “It just never felt like the right time to confess how I felt… It all turned out alright in the end, sure. I met the one who _would_ become my husband, and we were happy, we had our family. I wouldn’t change a moment of it. But sometimes I wonder… I wonder what would have happened if I’d said something.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	104. Their Days of the Six

The end of their first week came on its fourth day, as they’d started on a Tuesday, and that morning, as they drove to school, it was with the whole of their household in Lucas’ car. Dylan was coming with them, the better to leave with the car once they arrived. He was due in Austin to surprise his mother for her birthday, and Sophie’s car was in the shop, so Lucas had offered his own. Dylan assured him that he would be back by the evening.

“Hey, no, hang on,” Maya reached out to Dylan as he was about to climb from the back seat into the front. “None of us has class for, what, almost an hour?” she looked to the others, who all confirmed this with a nod. “Come and sit with us for a while, it’ll be like old times.”

They didn’t have steps like in middle school, or a bench like in high school, but they had their corner of the café, which had taken them all much too long to discover was on campus all this time. They piled in, the six roommates together, before Sophie got up to go and put in their order. They’d developed a routine of rotating who would treat for the lot, and today was her turn. It might have felt like they wouldn’t want to bring Dylan into this, much as they were happy to get to show him what they did here. What if it made him feel bad? It was easy to assume he wouldn’t be bothered, because he usually wasn’t, but what if he was?

“Is it always busy like this?” he asked, looking around with curiosity.

“Pretty much,” Riley nodded. “Makes it hard to get our spot sometimes, but we usually manage.”

“Do you think they could be looking to hire anyone?” Dylan turned back to look at her.

“Don’t you already have two jobs?” Chiara asked.

“Yeah, well, I might have to quit the catering service soon. They want to give me more hours at the community center, and I need something with more regular hours than I get with the catering,” he replied.

“Like a promotion?” Riley sat up with a smile, and he smiled back at her.

“Kinda,” he nodded.

“That’s great!” she threw an arm around his shoulders with a grin, and both Maya and Lucas did their best not to chuckle at how he looked so instantly a shade or two redder in the face. “You should ask Mae, over there,” Riley pointed the woman out. “She’s nice, she knows us.”

“Now?” Dylan turned to see where she was pointing before looking back to her.

“Yes, right now, come on,” she grabbed his hand and pulled him to follow. Chiara had to be quick and get up from where she sat in the curved booth, or else she might have ended up trampled by the eager pair.

“They are… sweet?” she looked back to Maya and Lucas, like she was attempting to find the right word to describe Riley and Dylan as a pair. They could only nod without saying words, for fear they might betray the secrets they held. Already, Chiara seemed to be looking at those two where they now stood, talking with Mae, like she suspected some deeper connection.

“Hey, so how are you doing?” Maya asked, the better to pull her attention somewhere else.

“I’m good,” Chiara smiled. “Why?”

“Well, it’s just… I know how it was for me after my mom and I moved to Texas, having to leave everyone I knew, and the city where I’d grown up. And even when we all came to Houston, we’re only a couple hours away from home, and you crossed an ocean…” She was asking in part so to keep their new roommate from connecting the dots, but really, she’d been wanting to check in with her on this subject for a while. She hadn’t brought it up at first, since it was all still pretty fresh, and there just hadn’t been a right moment. But now here they were.

“Oh…” Chiara understood now and she sat up, thinking. “When I decided to come here, it was not the first time I had thought to go and live somewhere else than Italy, but it was never anything except an idea, a… fancy. Deep down, I could not see myself leaving my family. They have always been good to me, always loved me for who I was… I could not be without them. But then Sophie happened…” she smiled, that always telling smile that existed in all of them, a manifestation of having their heart belonging to another. “She was all the reason I needed. I miss my family, miss my old home, but before I came here, I missed being near _her_ more than all of that…” She paused. “It sounds wrong to say, but it’s true.”

“It is,” Lucas smiled, turning to look at Maya, thinking of those times when they had been forced apart, how that had felt… It was an ache like no other.

“Can I get a hand?” Sophie’s voice made them all look up. She was returning now with two bags and two trays, perilously balanced in her arms. Chiara hopped to her feet at once, relieving her girlfriend of the load. “Thanks,” Sophie smiled at her, kissing her for her troubles. “What are _they_ up to?” she asked them, indicating Riley and Dylan while they went about dividing the various cups and baked treats to their intended recipients’ places around the table.

They explained about Dylan’s need for a new second job, and soon the four of them in the booth were watching the conversation happening near the counter, like some theater where they could only watch and not listen. Mae would talk, Dylan would go to reply, Riley would speak, pause, smile, and then Dylan would reply… The cycle repeated and repeated, and for how long it had been going on, they had to think it was a good sign. Either that or they were just talking now, not about the possibility of Dylan’s getting hired on at the café. Mae was known to be on the chatty side.

“Alright, they need to get back here, their stuff’s going to be cold,” Maya grumbled.

“And you want to know what they’re saying,” Lucas chimed in, and she stared at him like he’d just overstepped his boyfriend mindreading abilities.

“No one likes cold coffee,” she shook her head at him.

“ _You_ do,” he pointed out, smirking.

“Iced,” she specified. “It’s not the same.”

“They’re coming back,” Sophie reported now, and they turned to look, while she and Chiara stood, letting the returnees slide into the booth.

“Well?” Maya asked them.

“Better tell her quick,” Lucas advised, getting himself a mild reprimand of an arm tap in return.

“Oh, I gave her my info, she said she’d get back to me in a week or something. Then we got to talking about basketball. Her kids play down at the community center, I knew I’d seen her before,” Dylan revealed with a smile.

“It should help, right?” Riley was all driven encouragement. “I hope you get it. I really do. We miss you during the day, you know?”

Maya very nearly choked on her tea right then, recovering unseen thanks to the other girls and Lucas chiming in their agreement on the statement. It had been so discreet, the kind of thing she could securely chalk up to her years at her best friend’s side. The rest of them, they would have missed it, clearly, they had. Alright, so only Lucas could have been primed to catch it besides her, but there was no mistaking it. Riley had just tipped her hand, whether she intended to or not, whether she _knew_ it or not. She had feelings for him… more-than-friends feelings… She liked Dylan, as he liked her, and the two of them had no idea. But _she_ knew it now. She knew it with not a single drop of doubt.

She managed to get her thoughts back on track without any of the others really catching on, and she was glad. Already she was having to decide whether or not to tell Lucas about this realization. Sure, he was about the only person she _could_ tell right now, but that wasn’t what this was about. She’d found out about Dylan’s side of it all on her own and, if she hadn’t, Lucas would never have actually told her, which was fair. By that same logic, unless _he_ saw what she saw, heard what she heard, then… maybe she wasn’t supposed to say anything.

All she did have working for her was this tiniest of truths, and it only went so far. She couldn’t tell yet whether Riley even realized it or if it was still subconscious. Maya didn’t want to risk the whole thing coming out wrong if she intervened. Besides, if Riley _did_ know, then she would have come to her, sooner or later, right? So, she couldn’t talk to Riley, and she shouldn’t talk to Lucas. That left her exactly where she was now, with information to keep to herself.

“I should get going,” Dylan spoke after a while. “I need to get there before lunch,” he told them as he moved to rise. Once again, Sophie and Chiara got up to let him pass. “You still need me to stop by your folks’, yeah?” he looked to Maya, and she nodded. They had a few things for her, which they would have given her at their next visit, but seeing as Dylan was swinging by Austin…

“If you have time, really, don’t go out of your way,” she insisted.

“No problem,” he promised with a smile, and she let out a breath. She would be so happy when this was all out in the open. It had to happen, sooner or later, even if the two parties involved both had a tendency of being just a bit blind to things right there in front of them. She had no intention of intervening, no, but maybe she could make a deal with herself. She’d give them until the day they… well, Riley… graduated. That was three years away, or near enough. If neither of them made a move by then… she would say something. That was fair, right?

“Hey?” Lucas waved his hand in her line of sight and she looked up to him.

“Yeah?” she asked, blinking, looking around. Dylan was gone, and so were the other girls. “Oh…”

“Can I walk you to class?” Lucas asked, holding his hand out to her. She smiled, taking it. They started to walk, leaving the café and making for her first class of the day. “Tomorrow morning, can I take you out?” he asked now, and she hummed.

“Breakfast?” she guessed. “The Nook?”

“Unless you have anything else in mind?”

“If you can go to the Nook, why would you go anywhere else?” she looked at him like he’d said something scandalous. “Well, Ma Maggie’s, but the commute is kind of intense,” she smiled. “The answer, by the way, is yes… you can take me out to breakfast.”

Neither of them could believe they’d already had a week back at school. Alright, sure, they still had today to get through, but Fridays had this way of feeling halfway accomplished before they even started. In a few hours, the weekend would be upon them. They were both working that evening, but then that was part of the reason why Lucas had decided to set the next morning’s date in motion. Now they’d have something to look forward to throughout their classes and their time at the restaurant and the bookstore.

TO BE CONTINUED


	105. Their Days of Release

As promised, he was outside the restaurant when she stepped out at the end of her Saturday shift. Much as her ‘Huckleberry shield’ had carried her through most of the day intact, sooner or later the hours would start to weigh on her, making her feet ache, her wrists as well, the one on her once broken arm in particular. And if she was so unfortunate as to have had to deal with a particularly bothersome table, then she couldn’t outrun the feeling of frustration it helped to settle in her mind.

But then to walk out again when the day was done, first finding the cool air to soothe her, and then to spot him standing there on the curb, leaning against the side of his car… It made a lot of that accumulated discomfort feel much less problematic than it had up until just a few seconds earlier.

“Hey…” she smiled, moving toward him until he could close his arms around her waist, while she closed her own around his neck, kissing him softly, once, twice, three times… “Better,” she declared, and he grinned. “So, good mood train, part two?” she asked, and he nodded. “Even better.”

“One thing though, and if you can’t go, I can reschedule,” he told her, keeping her close.

“Can’t go where?” she asked.

“Professor Hi… Uncle Hank,” he corrected himself, chuckling a bit.

He still wasn’t used to it. The man had only been his teacher for about an hour before he’d found out they were actually related, and still his reflex was to address him as his manners would entail. She’d call him on it, but then she guessed she would be a bit thrown, too, if she found out about a blood relative who she’d never known about… Alright, not just guessed, in her case, but that was different. Sam was just a kid when they met, still was, and not in a position of authority.

“I got an e-mail from him while I was at the store this afternoon, he wanted to know if I was available to come by his house and meet everyone, if I was ready… I ended up telling him I was at work, and he called in, so we talked it out. He suggested tomorrow morning, seeing as I’m working again in the afternoon, and well he knows about you, too, so he said I should bring you, if you were up to it.”

If she _had_ been busy, she would have cleared her schedule at once. She could tell, just looking at him, that he was looking forward to meeting the rest of the Hillards, but that he was also a bit nervous at the thought of walking in there on his own. So, really, there was no question. She was going with him. Her face must have said as much, because after a beat he just smiled and kissed her again. _Thank you._

“Right, I’m making one call, and then we’re back on track for tonight. Let’s go.”

They got in the car and, as he drove them on toward home, she put in a call to Ellie Beale from the bakery. Maya explained the situation and what she needed, asking if Sophie’s co-worker and friend would be able to help her out. The girl’s sweet drawl quickly assured her that it would be no problem at all and she’d have her order ready in time to be picked up before they headed to Lucas’ Uncle’s home.

“I think my mother’s rubbing off on you,” Lucas told her after she hung up. She turned a look toward him and he almost cringed before she started to laugh.

“I sort of know what you mean,” she agreed semi-reluctantly.

They put aside all thoughts of the next morning for the remainder of their evening, though they did have to remember not to let that evening draw on so far that they’d miss their mark with the Hillard breakfast. That left them a few hours though, and they used those hours in the best ways they knew how, when the goal was to live out a good mood the best they could. They claimed the couch and put on a movie and a couple random tv episodes they knew as tried and true for cheering up. The logic went that, if they were already cheered up, then it would be even better.

“You know you were mouthing the words the entire time?” Lucas pointed out when the last one ended. Maya looked up to him, innocently asking if that was true with her eyes. “I could feel your face moving in time with all the dialogue,” he went on, prodding the point where her face had been resting against his chest. “How many times did you see this one?”

“When I was little, I had… well, my father had the DVDs. After he left, they disappeared one day, so I guess my mother must have gotten rid of them. Except there was one of the discs still in the player, and I found it… I took it out of there, and I kept it. I didn’t know what had really happened back then, I… it was like a piece of him that was still mine. I watched that one disc a lot when I’d be home by myself. All four episodes, again and again. Even after everything got… put into perspective… I couldn’t change the way I felt about those episodes, or the fact that I knew them by heart.”

They were silent for a few seconds. After all this time, he was still getting glimpses into parts of her New York years he hadn’t been aware of before. And she could still find herself remembering those moments clearer than she might have been expected to remember them.

“Did I just bring the good mood train crashing?” she looked up at him with apologies in her eyes.

“No,” he promised her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Never.”

Their good day moved back upstairs for its last leg, and in time they were asleep, with the morning’s outing to look forward to.

They were out of the house and on their way to the bakery early the next morning, getting there just as Maya had told Ellie they would be. She had the box ready for them to pick up, refusing to take the money they owed her and insisting it was on her.

Following the streets as they were directed, heading into a neighborhood they weren’t familiar with, they finally came to a stop in front of a house that wasn’t unlike Tom and Melinda Friar’s house back in Austin. The one thing they could point to, as the first big difference that they spotted, was the row of bicycles they could see past the open garage door, some smaller and some average sized. It created this image in their heads of family bike rides, and it managed to tell them a lot about who the Hillards were as a unit.

“Think they’ll be happy to meet us?” Lucas asked as they walked toward the front door. She knew he was nervous, and while a part of her felt like teasing him as she usually did would have been a good idea, showing him that this was no big deal, she decided to go for the kind of reassuring that happened in words.

“They’re going to love you,” she told him. “You’ve got that whole Huckleberry charm working for you, and the collective approval of mine and the others’ brothers and sisters, and loads of summer campers, and all the kids who show up to Coleman’s kid lit events,” she counted off. “ _And_ you’ve got a box of treats to back you up, which has never steered us wrong.”

“And I’ve got you,” he nodded, looking confident again.

“You do,” she smiled.

“Think any of them will know TXNY?” he wondered.

“I mean, I’ve been humble about it all the way, but by now I think the world’s telling me to expect it more than not,” she told him, letting out a breath and turning a smile to him.

Lucas rang the bell, and a few seconds later they were greeted by the woman he knew to be Dr. Tanya Hillard, his uncle’s wife.

“Good morning, I’m…” Lucas went to introduce himself, only to find himself pulled into a hug by the woman. He turned a look to Maya from over her shoulder, and Maya just looked back at him, biting back a laugh.

“Oh, of course, I know who you are, Hank’s been talking about you all week, so I just had to see for myself… You look so much like Tom,” she pulled back to look at him, still holding on to his shoulders. Her voice was soft and a bit high, and they could just hear how she’d talk with the animals she treated at her clinic.

“You met my father?” Lucas couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh, many years ago, of course. It was the summer I met Hank, the three of us and your mother… Those were some of the best weeks of my life up to then, and from there, well, here we are.” She had been so focused on Lucas, looking at him like some walking flashback of her husband’s cousin all those years ago, but finally she turned and saw Maya standing there and she blinked, shaking her head to herself before smiling. “I’m sorry, where are my manners? You must be Maya.”

“That’s me,” she smiled. “I brought you these, I hope you like them, they’re fresh from this morning,” she held out the box to their hostess. The woman took the box with a gasp and looked at her now like she might have said ‘now you’re talking my language.’ Instead, she hugged Maya much as she’d done with Lucas before finally leading them inside.

The impression they got before long was that the family was very much laidback as a whole, though they also had something of a system going amongst themselves, as might be needed when there were seven of them in the same house. They didn’t see them right away, but they could also guess, between Professor and Doctor Hillard, that there had to be some pets rounding out the lineup.

Tanya Hillard called up the stairs to alert whoever was still up there that their guests had arrived. In the kitchen, they came across the first of the kids. Lucas had shown the picture to Maya, and so they could both identify the younger boy, Henry, who they’d learn had recently turned six, along with the oldest of the three girls, Sarah, who was twelve. They were setting the table together, Sarah putting the plates at each mat, while her little brother tailed her and set down one bundle of utensils next to each plate, lining them up properly, like he’d learned to do it.

When they looked up and saw the pair who were to sit in the eighth and ninth settings around their table, the variation in their reactions answered a few of Lucas and Maya’s curiosities from outside. The boy locked on to Lucas, looking up at him with something like wonder as he smiled, while the girl barely saw her new cousin at first, instead gasping when she spotted the blond next to him. Maya knew Lucas had noticed this, too, and she knew he had to be laughing on the inside.

“Evie!” the girl shouted, sprinting out of sight and nearly colliding with the eldest Hillard child even as he walked in with the youngest of them balanced on his back with her little arms around his neck, turning her into a human cape.

“What’s gotten into her?” the boy asked his mother, paying no mind to how his littlest sister would kick her feet where they dangled, letting them assume he was used to it. The girl, Maggie, was all of four years old, and Joseph Hillard, at fifteen, had honed his skills as a big brother to little sisters for the five years before he’d been granted a brother. When he turned and saw the two strangers standing there, he briefly looked to Maya, his face showing that he had gotten his answer as far as what had ‘gotten into’ Sarah. But then he looked to Lucas, and he must have seen the family resemblance in him enough to understand who he was. “Oh, hey,” he smiled, pausing to pull little Maggie from his back and set her on her feet, letting her go to join Henry with his task. “I’m Joseph,” he held out his hand, standing tall.

“Lucas,” he introduced himself, smiling back as he shook his cousin’s hand. “This is my girlfriend, Maya,” he turned to present her, and the two of them shook hands.

“Yeah, I know who you are,” Joseph nodded, tipping his head to indicate upstairs, or at least indicating his sisters. “Nice to meet you, both of you,” he looked back to Lucas. They could tell he had been hearing about his own unknown branch of the family tree this week. He had been looking forward to this moment, too.

Sarah returned with the last missing Hillard child, the middle one, Evelyn, who was just a year younger than her big sister at eleven years old. The small age difference between the two of them had given them what was easily the tightest bond between any of the siblings, and as they approached with a sort of nervous air to them, Maya and Lucas knew they must have shared a love for a certain band. They would barely speak throughout breakfast, though they would whisper to one another, sneaking looks to the singer in their midst, as though she couldn’t see them and wasn’t playing along.

The meal started soon after Hank Hillard finally appeared, apologizing for the delay and explaining that he’d needed to reply to an e-mail from a colleague. When he found his nephew and his girlfriend standing in the kitchen with the children all about them, he came forward and shook Lucas’ hand before being introduced to Maya.

“I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere,” he frowned like he was trying to remember. Maya wasn’t sure how to respond, but she turned a discreet gaze to Sarah and Evie, and their father looked to them for a second before turning back to her with new understanding about him.

For as little as the two girls spoke throughout the meal, the rest of the table was alive with conversation. Lucas soon forgot that he had ever been nervous. It had taken no time for them all to feel as though they had always known each other, and by the time they left, with plans for them all to do this again another time, possibly with the Friars out of Austin joining them, it really looked as though the good mood train had kept on chugging all the way into Sunday, with no sign of running out of steam.

TO BE CONTINUED


	106. Her Melody in the Works

By the time October came around, they had moved well into their new semester and all the changes it had brought into their lives. For one thing, they came to spend even more time hanging out at the café than they’d done in the past, as Dylan was hired on, not two weeks after inquiring after the possibility of finding a position there. From there, he’d been able to quit his job with the catering service and accept the new responsibilities down at the community center.

Lucas was getting further familiarized with the Hillards, all the while finding his uncle to be very solid as a teacher. Outside of class, Lucas was spending more time with Hank and Tanya and the kids, whenever they’d get the chance. He would go his uncle’s house, alone or with Maya, or they would have the Hillards come over to their house. And since they now knew about Lucas’ job at Coleman’s, they started dropping in there, too.

The most memorable of these get-togethers happened on the day when they hosted the Hillards of Houston and the Friars of Austin for the first time in much too many years, if not for the first time ever where the children both big and small were concerned. Lucas had been so nervous, wanting the whole thing to go perfectly, but he had a girlfriend and four roommates there who ensured that he got his wish. It wasn’t just that Tom Friar and Hank Hillard and their wives were about to be reunited. Pappy Joe was coming, too… and he had no idea what he was walking into. His son had decided that the best course of action would be to surprise him.

“What if it doesn’t work out?” Lucas would tell Maya. “He’ll just think we ambushed him, and then he won’t want to talk to us either.”

“I don’t know, it might work. Your dad has to know him better than any of us, right?”

“Yeah… yeah…” he’d reply, the first ‘yeah’ sounding like a reply, the second like a thought spoken out loud.

The Hillards arrived first. When the Friars came along, Tom and Melinda in front, Lucas’ parents both needed to just kind of… swallow back their immediate reactions at what they found there, their long parted friends, all those children… They had to hold it in, and wait, until the third of them saw them, saw… and recognized.

It had been impossible to know exactly how he would react, and for all of two seconds he looked like he was about to ask who their guests were, but then two things, two of them, made him come to a stop. He saw Hank, the man Lucas had pegged as his grandfather’s doppelganger the moment he’d met him, and he saw Joseph, who looked so much like Hank when he’d been a teenager… and suddenly he understood, recognized Hank, and his wife, and then those kids, all of them, there was no need to wonder who they belonged to.

Lucas could only recall one other time he’d seen his grandfather cry. That was at his grandmother’s funeral, years ago. But when he was brought to stand before his nephew, his sister’s boy, it was like all those years of regrets masked as anger came to be flushed from his system with tears of joy. He moved forward and Hank met him halfway, and they hugged. The rest of the night, as the cousins finally had their proper reunion, as the children were introduced, as the family ate together and talked… It was like Christmas came a few months early.

Where Lucas had his expanded family situation going, Maya had her job with Professor Robinson to captivate her. As little as she’d known what to expect once she actually got started, on the whole it didn’t deviate too far from what she might do for class work. She did research for the first couple of weeks, and her little desk in the professor’s office slowly but surely started to feel like it belonged to her. It was her space to work on what the professor asked her to do, but in time she would just sit there and do her own class assigned work, her reading and studying… It was quiet, private, and Patty didn’t mind, encouraged it even. She had her own key, so she might as well use it.

After the research, she attended a few lectures, visited museums, talked with some people, always taking as detailed of notes as she could, the better to return to the professor with all the information and the quotes she needed. Maya really liked those sessions when they’d sit together and go over her notes. Those conversations tended to go on and on, the two of them losing track of time for getting caught up in whatever they were going on about in the moment. Once or twice, they’d been forced to cut short as Maya needed to head into the restaurant for an evening shift.

Between work, and school, and visits to and from family, Maya was pleased that she and the other girls were able to continue as they’d been doing, with at least two band practices throughout each week that went by. They’d done one show and a couple of appearances in that time, which was all as thrilling as it ever was, though it also made Maya wonder when the right time would be for her to unveil Rosa’s song.

Their young bandmate had not pushed in any way to find out whether or not she’d finished it yet, or even started it. In all likelihood she both understood and respected that Maya would be very busy at the moment. But she hadn’t forgotten about the promise she’d been made either. And Rosa had met her end of the bargain, too. She’d never be some great basketball star, but she had finally started hitting her mark when she tossed the ball, and the pride would be all over her face.

And now, here they were, in early October, and one day Maya got a call. There was a spot open, at a club where they’d performed a handful of times by now, and with all five girls’ schedules at her disposal, Maya was able to confirm and book the night’s performance. After she hung up, she went and found Lucas, who was reviewing for a test, up in their room. She closed the door before moving to sit on the edge of his desk. Getting the message, he sat back in his chair and looked up at her.

“Just booked the band for a show next Friday,” she told him.

“That’s great,” he smiled, his eyes moving to his computer for a moment before looking back to her. “I’m supposed to be working, but I’ll see if I can find a way to be there.”

“I’ll understand if you can’t, but I’m kind of hoping you’ll be able to swing it.” He stared at her for a moment, and he nodded, understanding.

“Rosa’s song?” he asked. She smiled. It had a title, an actual title, but to them it had somehow only ever been thought of and referred to as Rosa’s song. “Are you going to tell her you’ve been sitting on it for all these weeks?”

“Uh…” she opened her mouth to reply but just as quickly shut it again, breathing, as she considered this. “I mean… it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just like… You know how back in high school Dylan would show up to school with a bunch of comics he just got over the weekend. He’d hand them to one of us and instruct us not to give them back to him until the end of the week because he hadn’t done some reading that he was supposed to do for class, and if the comics were anywhere that he could pick them up, he’d never get a page of his assigned reading done?”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, I get it,” he assured her, laughing at the memory she’d brought back to him. How many times had they seen Dylan look at whoever had custody of his comics at the time, resisting the urge to ask for them back? Now, today, the new song stood for those comics. If they’d let the others hear it back when they were all getting back into school mode…

“Anyway, we should have time to get it down in time for Friday, yeah?” she asked him, sounding both hopeful and uncertain. “One week, one song…”

“You’re going to need a couple more practices than usual,” he guessed, and she nodded to herself, pulling out her phone and sending a message in the group chat reserved for the five of them in the band. She asked the others if they were free for a practice that evening. It took all of ten minutes before she got her four yeses, in which time she’d paced the length of their room twice, before Lucas reminded her that he was studying.

“Right, sorry,” she stopped at once, resolving her impatience by lying down on the bed and staring at the ceiling until her phone would ding. “Okay… practice tonight, I’ll show them the song then,” she sat up upon receiving the last confirmation. “Maybe I should let Rosa hear it first, without the others.” He turned to her to reply, but already she had reached her own answer. “But it’s for all of us, too. So maybe we should all listen to it together, as a band. Yeah… Less pressure that way.”

“Hey, did you know she goes to Joseph’s school?” Lucas told her then, maybe for deciding he might as well commit to the conversation, as he’d already stopped looking at his notes, but more than likely just wanting to pull her back from whatever giddy anxiety was working her up at the moment. Whatever it was, it got her attention.

“I… no, I didn’t. They’re not in the same year, are they?” she asked. Rosa was seventeen now, Joseph was still fifteen…

“No, but he was telling me how when you all revealed your new members and people at school found out, he looked you guys up. He’s the one who ended up introducing Sarah and Evie to TXNY.” He paused, and when she looked back to him, she could see there was more to the story. She cleared her throat, and he looked at her, met her gaze. “Well, he never actually spoke to her at school, but you know he’s been to the store a few times now. He’s been asking if maybe I could help him get a job there in the summer.” She kept on looking at him, waiting for whatever he was clearly holding back, but then she figured it out on her own. She blinked.

“Oh…” She bowed her head a moment before turning to him again. So, Joseph was developing a crush on their Rosa. That would have been sweet, easy fodder for giggles and curious witnessing on their part, except for what they knew of Rosa’s position on love and relationships. Who knew, maybe it was a matter of needing to meet the right person, but it really didn’t feel that way. It was only an assumption at this point, and not one they knew how to ask about, but they believed it just as likely that it would continue to be the case. They cared about Rosa, didn’t want her to get hurt… but the same was true of Joseph Hillard.

“One thing at a time,” Lucas declared, and Maya nodded, agreeing. For now, tonight, she had a song to share with her friends and bandmates, and the five of them had a performance to prepare for.

TO BE CONTINUED


	107. Her Melody in the Song

Riley might have been the first of the others to end up in the basement with Maya that day, if she hadn’t been out at the library with some classmates to work on a project. So, instead, the first to come along was Willow. The last few weeks had been overwhelming with changes for her, between her start in nursing school and her impending motherhood. As she’d expected, the second of those changes had been leading the charge in all of that, though all in all her symptoms had not been so hard to deal with as she could have expected.

“Hey, so why the practice tonight?” she asked with a smile as she was invited in.

“You’ll see,” Maya told her. Surprises did so much better with a bit of mystery.

“Right…” Willow looked at her with suspicious eyes, though these just as immediately turned wide with giddiness. “Oh, check this out,” she took a step back, turned sideways, and tugged her shirt up, just enough to show her stomach. “Lion says he doesn’t see it, but I think he just doesn’t know if he’s supposed to say anything. I know it’s not a lot, but you see it, right?” she eagerly asked. Willow had always been so thin, not unhealthily so but still enough that the slightest change would be noticeable, especially put in evidence as it was now. There was absolutely something different here, something working to resolve itself into a roundness in the weeks to come.

“Woah…” Maya grinned, nodding to confirm that she did see something.

“Our next picture is actually going to show a change,” Willow let her shirt fall back into place, with a happiness about her that seemed to flood over into her bandmate and friend.

When Kayla showed up a few minutes later, she was treated to the same peek at Willow’s ‘new curve,’ and though she reacted with expected levels of curiosity and smiles, Maya had a feeling she was mostly doing it to humor Willow and she, like Lion, didn’t see any significant change just yet. They debated as much, the two of them, when Willow went up to the bathroom. Maya had to cut this short when she heard their friend returning, and she turned to spy a small smile on Kayla’s face.

_“What?”_ she signed, smiling back.

_“You’re getting really good at that,”_ Kayla replied, nodding to her hands.

_“I have a great teacher,”_ Maya shrugged, making her friend laugh.

Riley came next, finding the others in the kitchen, working at getting dinner ready for the five of them. Sophie and Chiara were out on a date, and Dylan had dragged Lucas away from his studies to take a breather with some pizza, leaving the house all to the band. She had that look about her like she had herself a serious case of study brain, like she just might start to expel smoke from her ears.

“Hey,” Maya went to her with a sympathetic laugh, cupping her old friend’s face in her hands. “Long day, Honey?”

“Are you real?” Riley asked in an exaggeratedly fragile voice, reaching out her hand to touch her friend’s face, too.

“We are making food,” Maya reported with a nod.

“Food…” Riley breathed.

“And then we’re going to play some music.”

“Music…” Riley went on in the same tone.

“Still with us?” Maya tried very hard not to laugh. Riley gave a sort of a whimpered reply. “Willow, do the thing,” she turned to the girl, who did as told, showing her debatable curve.

“Oh wow…” Riley smiled at once. Maya turned to Kayla with a raised eyebrow. Kayla shook her head and turned back to her veggies.

By the time Rosa arrived, dinner was nearly ready. She was flushed and out of breath like she’d been running, apologized for being late. She took a spill on her bike, coming home from school, so by the time she’d carried it all the way back and tended to the scrapes along her left arm and leg, all she wanted was to finally get there already.

“You should have called, we would have come for you,” Maya went up to her, gingerly hugging her before asking how bad of scrapes she had gotten. Rosa took off her jacket, displaying a pair of bandages, one covering her elbow, the other stuck lengthwise and covering a good four inches.

“I’m not taking off my pants, but just imagine, all of this,” she outlined a patch that ran from her hip, down almost to her knee. The others cringed and winced in a chorus.

“I’ll get you a cushion for your chair,” Riley dashed off at once. Maya watched her go, feeling bad. Maybe none of this would have happened if Rosa hadn’t been hurrying to join them at her request. The reason would make up for it though, wouldn’t it? A bit?

Dinner was served, the conversation bouncing from Rosa’s bike crash, to Willow’s curve, and Riley’s project, and Kayla’s latest date with Will…

“So, what about you?” Willow turned to Maya, and she found herself with four pairs of eyes on her all of a sudden. “Why the practice out of the blue?”

“Why else?” Maya smiled at them, and now the attention turned on her shifted from curiosity to surprise and giddiness, followed by questions about this new gig they now had lined up. Maya loved the way they would all get, when they knew they had a performance coming up. It was like they were already feeling what it would be like, to be back on the stage, days ahead of it.

It was wild to think they’d been a band, the five of them, for going on a year now. They had gone from not quite knowing how to play together, needing to find their sound together, to today, their TXNY feeling familiar, comfortable, but never worn in or worn out. And now tonight it felt like they were about to start a new page together, and the rest of them had no idea.

“Are you going to be okay to stand up there and play?” Riley asked, indicating Rosa’s arm and leg.

“It’s one week away, I’ll be okay,” Rosa shrugged.

When they were done eating and cleaning up, they made their way into the basement. They never started up right away. They would sit, or play at random with one of their instruments, pulling together whatever little tune might have been scratching at the back of their mind. Then, after a while, it would be like they knew. Now’s the time, everyone step up, let’s go.

Maya held on to her secret for a little while longer. She waited through their usual warm up, watching her friends get into that practice headspace. Some practices were a bit less successful, depending on how they were all doing on any given day. On days like today, they were untouchable. They were looking forward to this performance, working out what songs they’d do, in what order… They tried to shift it around, not to fall into some routine that would make everything feel like a chore, keep it all fresh.

This was the moment. She had to tell them what she had for them, for Rosa. It would be like putting a puzzle together and swapping in a new piece when they were done. It wouldn’t fit. They had to plan their set, and they had to plan it around Rosa’s song.

“It’s not working,” she said, cutting into the talk. The others looked to her. They’d been bent over the yellow pages of the pad they always used to plan their sets, already several titles fit into the list. “Can I see that?” she pointed to the pad. Kayla handed it and the marker over to her. “Great, okay,” she nodded, and then she pulled the first sheet off, crumpled it up and tossed it over her bandmates’ heads. It landed with a light tap inside the trashcan. _Swish…_

“What are you doing?” Riley asked. Maya held up one finger, while she bent over the pad and wrote out a few words near the bottom of the new top page.

“There,” she leaned forward and set the pad and pen back on the ground, in the space at the heart of their circle. Riley, Willow, Kayla, and Rosa all scooted in to see what she’d written.

“That’s… I don’t know that one,” Willow frowned, clueless. Maya didn’t say a word, didn’t need to. Two seconds later, Rosa’s eyes went wide, and she looked like she’d lost track of how important it might have been for her to breathe. Maya looked at her and mimed ‘breathe,’ which Rosa finally did.

_“Are you okay? You didn’t hit your head when you fell, did you?”_ Kayla asked her.

“N-no, I’m fine, I… I-I…” Rosa looked at her before turning back to Maya. Sure, she hadn’t prodded, hadn’t asked if she was still working on it, but she had to be wondering about it. Had she gotten to the point where she thought Maya wasn’t actually going to do it?

“Hey, you held up your end of the bargain, I’m holding up mine,” Maya shrugged with a smile.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Willow asked. She had no idea, and if the others had known, the drunken haze of the party, the night when the deal had been made, had carried it all away.

“Well, I wrote a new song,” Maya told her. “I promised Rosa I would write one for her to have lead vocals on if she succeeded making a shot at the basket. She did, so… here we are.” The others now looked to Rosa, who still looked stunned speechless, and they smiled, thinking of how good it would be for her to go and stand up there. The only one who looked like she still needed a bit more convincing was Rosa. It was one thing to be told she’d get a song written for her to sing, it was another to realize she was now expected to take the spotlight, to stand right in front of all of them and sing.

“You want… you want us to do it next week?” she finally asked, sounding like her throat had gone dry. Maya only nodded. “I-I don’t know, I think… I think it might too… too early, I don’t even know the words or anything…”

“You learned three whole songs in a single day once, remember?” Riley patted her shoulder, and the way Rosa turned to her made Riley pull her hand back slowly.

“Rosa,” Maya got the girl’s attention back. “You’ve got this. But… if you don’t think you can be ready in time, we can wait until our next show… whenever that ends up being…” It was all up to her, it was. But then she knew Rosa enough by now to recognize what she was about. She could be nudged, just a bit, and she would see it, and from that, well… maybe she’d reconsider her options.

“Can you play it for us?” Riley asked Maya, smiling like she was trying to be excited for Rosa, but mostly she was excited at the prospect of a new song in general.

“Sure, yeah, I mean…” Maya stood, moving toward her guitar. “If it’s alright…” she turned back to where Rosa sat, tipped on to her right side, keeping off her bruised side. That deer in the headlights look of hers would never dare show itself out in the open, where she’d manage to keep control. But here, among friends, her hesitation was out in the open for all to see. “Rosa?”

“Yes… yes… Please?”

“Come here,” Maya went to her, holding out her hand to help her up. “Get your bass, follow my lead, just this once… After that, it’s all yours.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	108. Her Melody in the Air

So much had changed from the days when they had been getting their first original songs, thanks to Isadora. Back then, Maya was just so amazed at the girl’s ability to put something like that together, at the age they were at the time, and it had never occurred to her that she might have it in herself, too. Eventually, she _had_ started to contribute, writing lyrics while Isadora would compose the music to go along with her words. And then, Maya had taken that next step. The first song she had created, lyrics and music both, had made her feel the same way she’d felt when she’d stepped back and seen just how much her drawing abilities had expanded. Since then, the output of new TXNY songs came down somewhere about fifty-fifty in Smackle and Hart compositions. Riley had jokingly nicknamed them Smart Records.

It just felt so natural to her now. The notes would come to life in her head, same as the words had done, same as images had done, and just as with those the goal became the same. She had to get them out, pull them from the realm of her mind into the real world, where she could see them with her eyes, hear them with her ears. When she’d get to that point, oh… it was its own kind of feeling.

The feeling she’d felt as she’d pulled Rosa’s song from her head, it was one of those rare ones, the kind where the idea was propelled with so much strength that it would not be denied. It would be pulled from her whether she was ready or not and it would not let her be until it got to exist. She’d had weeks to contemplate this, and she had come to the conclusion that she found it easier to… to conjure up an idea like this… because she was doing it for Rosa. It was strange. She would have been certain that the reverse would make more sense, that she’d find it easier to write to her own voice, but no… It was easier when it wasn’t for her but for her friend.

Still, for all that, she could still feel a twinge of nervousness in her heart as she and Rosa came together, instruments at the ready. She really wanted her to love it. It had nothing to do with her own feelings either, it was just… She wanted this song to sail its way into Rosa’s heart and mind and let her feel like this had been done for her, a mark of friendship, of care, of this sort of… musical sisterhood they had built together, the five of them, and Nadine and Isadora…

“You okay?” Maya asked Rosa, watching her as she tried to compensate for her injuries while she held her instrument.

“Yeah,” Rosa nodded, letting out a breath, playing out those same little notes she always played in warmups. Maya smiled at that. Those same notes had been at the heart of her inspiration, the seed of Rosa’s song. She couldn’t hear those without thinking of her, and she’d gone from there.

“Good, now keep doing that,” she pointed to the bass before joining in with her guitar. They’d build on it in time, once they added the other instruments, the voices backing them… Maya would be one of those, once Rosa took control of her song’s leading vocals.

As much as it was for all of them, or it would be, when she sang it for someone other than Lucas for the first time, she did her best to just pretend like they weren’t there. Riley, Kayla, Willow, she didn’t see them anymore. It was just her and Rosa, and as they played in harmony she started to sing.

Even when it had just been their instruments, letting the other girl take in the melody, letting her familiarize herself with it, Maya could tell Rosa had entered this headspace where her hands were doing what they were supposed to do because her mind was locked in, but at the same time she was just caught up in something like a trance. Then, when the words came, their gazes were just fixed to one another. There was no telling what was going through the girl’s head.

She kept on playing along, and the further on they went it seemed like she was getting a better feel for the song, taking some detours… She was very tentatively starting to put her own touch into it, and Maya smiled when she heard it. For someone who had complained that she would never have time to learn the new song in the span of a week just minutes ago, she picked up on the words quick enough that she started to sing along here and there after a while. From there, the next move was easy, as Maya stopped playing but kept singing, long enough to reach for a folded piece of paper in her back pocket.

She unfolded it, held it before Rosa, and then the lyrics were sung out in full by the voice they had been made for. Maya couldn’t keep from smiling, or crying either, apparently, as she felt her eyes start to sting. All these weeks, she’d felt it with so much assurance, that for how good it sounded to her when she sang it, it had always been meant for Rosa and, when _she_ sang it, that was the perfect fit. If she had forgotten that the other three girls were even there, by now she wasn’t sure Rosa even remembered there was anyone else in the room.

Then, it was over, and the spell didn’t so much break as it faded away. Rosa blinked, and she looked back up from the page to the one holding it. She looked just a bit breathless and dazed. Maya was kind of speechless, too. She wanted to ask her what she’d thought, even though on the whole it was kind of right there on her face, but she couldn’t come up with the words. She just stared back at Rosa, waiting… waiting…

“I…” Rosa finally started, before stopping again, looking down like she was remembering her bass, and she set it down carefully before turning back to Maya and moving to embrace her. She just had time to get her guitar out of the way before returning the gesture, the paper crinkling in her hand. Rosa let out a small sound then, and Maya remembered the fall, the cuts and bruises, and she pulled back.

“Sorry, sorry…” she apologized at once, but Rosa just shook her head and pulled her close again.

“I can take it,” she promised, and Maya could hear it in her voice. She was getting those happy tears, too. “I know you said you’d do it, but I didn’t think you’d go that hard at it,” she laughed. Maya laughed, too, more so as she spotted Riley popping up behind Rosa, very discreetly taking the page from her hand and scampering off to go and look at it with Kayla and Willow. “Is it biased if I say it’s my favorite one right now?”

“Maybe. Doesn’t matter,” Maya assured her. “You really like it?” she asked, giving voice, if for an instant, to her nerves, like they needed to hear it spoken.

“I love it… I – whatever comes after like and love – it,” Rosa told her, then after a beat, “We’ve been hugging a long time, haven’t we?”

“Kayla says yes,” Willow reported, and they stepped apart before turning to their bandmates. “So, that was kind of intense,” Willow smirked.

“Was it?” Maya shrugged innocently. Willow held her thumb and index a breath apart. _Little bit_. “Good kind of intense?”

_“What little of it I got, I was getting all emotional,”_ Kayla reported, smiling.

“I can’t wait until it’s all of us together playing,” Riley added, looking like she was itching to get started.

“We close with that on Friday, we have to,” Willow nodded confidently. At this, Maya turned back to Rosa. It was her call. The girl looked back at her, then to the rest of them, and she was all alight with giddiness, a rare enough sight already.

“Let’s get started,” she declared, and everyone moved to their instruments. Willow inspected her options to figure out which one she’d use in this one. When Rosa moved to go into her usual spot, Maya swept in at once.

“Nope, not there,” she reminded her, moving her to where _she_ usually stood. In practices she’d stand facing the others but she’d still be ‘in front.’ Today, at least as far as this song, it was Rosa’s turn. Maybe, from now on, she’d have to find other instances where they could switch places. This one had a headliner in her soul, whether she saw it yet or not. Maya may have been put at the forefront by circumstance, but she wasn’t so attached to the position that she’d keep her bandmates from stepping up when they could.

They spent most of the evening’s unplanned practice polishing Rosa’s song, taking it from a sketch in Maya’s hand to a full color work in the band’s collective hold, which was what the night had really been intended to achieve. They would have the rest of the week to run through everything else.

The night ended with a run back upstairs for ice cream, the cool down of choice after practice was done, and a second run at the yellow pad and their set list, now anchored by Rosa’s song there at the end. They worked their way back from there until they had locked in what else they would do. As they’d done each time before, they all signed at the bottom. Maya had a whole stack of these now, in a box upstairs, going back all the way to when the names at the bottom were hers and Riley’s and Nadine’s and Isadora’s. Every new page meant one more show they’d done, and to see how that pile had grown… It was amazing.

Willow left in time, taking Kayla along to drive her home. She offered to take Rosa, too, wanting to spare her even that short walk when she was recovering from that fall.

“I’ll be fine,” Rosa promised her, “Really. I don’t even feel it right now.” She prodded her hip to prove her point, though by the way she gasped this ended up being a bad move after all. “Not unless I do that,” she amended her previous statement. So, Willow and Kayla headed off and, while Riley ran upstairs to go and call up Nadine and Isadora to let them hear the new song, Maya offered to walk with Rosa over to her house. “You’re not just doing that to make sure I’m okay, right?”

“No,” Maya assured her with a chuckle. “Right now, a bit of air sounds good though.”

“Alright, good enough,” Rosa agreed, and they left together, on their way to the Coleman/Del Vecchio house. “Will you help me pick out what to wear on Friday?”

“Sure,” Maya smiled.

“It’s just that if I’m going to be standing up there, I don’t want to be thinking if I picked the right thing, you know? I’m already going to be running a race in my ribcage,” she tapped her hand over her heart with a sigh.

“You’re going to look like exactly who you are,” Maya vowed to her. “That’s all you ever need to be. That’s who they come to see.”

“They don’t come for me,” Rosa shrugged. Maya looked to her.

“What? Yes, they do.” She didn’t reply, only shrugged again. “You want to start another wager?” Maya challenged, raising her chin. “Because we will, and I’ll prove it to you again.”

“Prove what?” Rosa turned, hesitant.

“You’re a lot more awesome than you think you are, Rosa Del Vecchio.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	109. Her Melody in the World

By now, it might have been that hearing one of their songs on the radio wouldn’t take them by surprise the way it had done in the beginning, not anymore. None of them could even say how many times it had happened, whether they were aware of it or not. Whenever any one of them would catch it happening, it would still feel the way it had always done. It would be some great unexpected shock, like an electric shock to the system with only the surprise and none of the pain.

That very morning, as they were driving over to school, it happened. They were waiting for a red light to turn green again, lost in a couple of conversations, when Lucas heard those first familiar notes and he whistled, getting his passengers’ attention. The others went silent at once, though this didn’t last very long once they realized why Lucas had called to them. It was enough of a distraction that they forgot for a few beats when the light did turn, and they were beckoned to advance again by the honks of cars behind them.

It had put them all in a good mood as they reached school for their latest day of classes. They stopped in at the café, where Dylan was already behind the counter, and they told him about the song on the radio. Even without having been there in the car with them at the time, he was thrilled, as they’d expected he would be.

“Want me to come pick you up from the store when you’re done?” Maya asked Lucas with a grin when they were about to part ways until that night. “I get to be the one leaning on the car waiting for you,” she went on, putting on her best ‘patiently waiting and looking cool doing it’ face.

“Can we go get ice cream?” he played along, smiling.

“Uh, when have you known me to say no to that?” she fixed him with a look, and he shook his head. “Exactly. So,” she tapped one of his shoulders and then the other, “I’ll head out there when practice is over.” It was to be the first of two they’d have before Friday’s show.

“Sounds good.”

After grabbing a couple of coffees for Franny and Kayla, who’d be in her first class, Maya said goodbye to Dylan, too, and started on her way to meet her friends outside their classroom. Every time she would be alone with Dylan now, she couldn’t help thinking about him and Riley, about what she knew of his feelings for Riley, and Riley’s feelings for _him_ … at least what she had perceived and believed fully to be Riley’s feelings for him. She’d never brought it up with her, or with anyone, and as much as she knew why it had to be that way, she still felt like… something needed to be done, something _could_ be done, to give them that tiny nudge they both needed.

“Maya?” a girl’s voice called out, and she blinked, pulled out of her thoughts enough to turn in search of the one who’d spoken. She saw who it was when she spotted the girl, smiling and holding her hand up in greeting from further back down the hall, before moving in her direction.

“Hey, Lily,” Maya smiled to her classmate. It was hard not to smile to her. More than once she had found herself thinking of Lily as ‘the girl Dylan.’ Her whole temperament was just a lot like his, though with an added sort of… natural touch about her, like she might have had flowers woven in her magenta hair and it would have made complete sense. “Sorry, I was thinking about… stuff…” she frowned to herself, thinking of how she’d almost gone and said what she’d been thinking about, or who at least. Her gesture had her nearly dropping one of the cups before she steadied herself. “Woah…” she laughed.

“Oh, it’s alright,” Lily promised, smiling. “Want me to carry one of those?” she pointed to the cups. She was another of their international transplants, like Bishop, like Chiara. In Lily’s case, the place she had called home was Australia, although she had not come on her own like the other two. When she’d chosen her school, her family had come, too. In time, they had learned that this unit consisted of her father and her younger brother. Her mother had passed away when Lily was ten and her brother two.

“Sure, thanks,” she passed her one of the cups, and they kept on walking to the class they were both set to attend. “How are you?”

“Can’t complain,” Lily shrugged. “Have to stop by the library on my break and pick up a few things… Medeiros’ paper.”

“Yeah, I should do that, too,” Maya nodded to herself. “Mind if I tag along?”

“No, please,” the girl’s smile grew for a moment. When it retreated and her mind seemed to pull back along with it, like she was thinking about something, Maya got a feeling like there was another motive to Lily’s presence at her side.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Now it was her turn to blink and come back to attention.

“Yes, I… Well, I wanted to ask you something,” Lily revealed with a hesitant smile.

“Go for it,” Maya told her, and it took a few seconds before her classmate took a breath and launched into what she’d wanted to say.

“Right, well, when we moved here last year, I made friends with some girls I met at the bookstore. They heard me talking with my dad, heard the accent, and they came right over. Turned out they’d come from Australia, too, different city, but even then, being out here it felt like we might as well have been neighbors, and it started from there. The three of us, we’re all studying different subjects, but we have home, and we have… music.”

“You have a band, too,” Maya beamed, understanding.

“None of us plays any instruments, so maybe we’re more of a group?” Lily wondered aloud, though she did nod. “It’s early days for us, we just get together at my house, sing songs we like… We’ve done a few of yours,” she added as an aside, which made Maya happier than she might have thought it would. “We want to try and take a step forward, not to be just singing covers, and I thought maybe… I know that you’ve written many for your band. I was wondering if maybe you would consider writing some for us as well.”

Maya was glad she wasn’t holding all the cups anymore. She had a feeling that the surprise of Lily’s request would have made her spill one or more of them this time. She must have looked like a gaping fish for how she’d been knocked speechless.

“You want… me… to… Really?” she finally said, which made her feel like she couldn’t understand anyone wanting words out of her.

“We would pay you, of course,” Lily nodded. “I know you have to be very busy, same as the rest of us, but even then… It would mean so much to Cat and Vic and I, but if you can’t…”

“Uh…” Maya spoke slowly, indicating that they should start walking again. They still had a class to get to, and two coffees to deliver while they were still hot. “Do you… Can I think about it, talk with the others? We have a show on Friday, everything’s kind of hectic right now,” she explained.

“Right,” Lily smiled, “I know about that, we’re all going. And, please, take your time. The fact that you’re considering it at all is…” She shook her head, at a loss for words, same as Maya had been not long before, but the look on her face said enough. The two of them were classmates, yes, and they often talked when they saw each other, but that had mostly been the extent of their relationship, so she must have thought that her request was possibly overstepping on her part.

“Do you guys have a name yet?” Maya asked her as they walked.

“We’ve been trying to come up with one,” Lily laughed lightly at the memory. “It’s not going so well,” she admitted. “It’s been nothing but Australian puns so far.”

“We called ourselves TXNY because some of us were in Texas and the other in New York,” Maya pointed out with a shrug. “We had trouble finding that one though. When you find the right one, you’ll know. Have you ever recorded yourselves? Videos? Anything?”

“Not really. Should we?”

“Well, it would help me… if I did say yes… I need to know your voices, what kind of sound you’re going for, you know?”

“I do,” Lily nodded. Maya took a moment, considering her next move. She didn’t want to make any commitments, but if she did end up doing this, she’d need something from them.

“Right, so… You and the others, you should figure out something like… five or so songs that are as close to what you all are as a group. Sing them, film yourselves, then send that to me…” She was sort of relieved to see that Lily understood this was all conditional, even if they were taking steps. It was easy to get carried away in making plans here and now, but if Maya had learned one thing from essentially being the band’s de facto manager in Houston, it was to consider more than the immediate before making decisions that could affect their future.

When they reached the classroom, Maya and Lily found Franny and Kayla already waiting. The coffees were delivered, received with many thanks, and soon they were all taking their seats, setting up for the start of the day’s lecture.

Maya afforded herself those precious few minutes to consider Lily’s request in earnest. She knew it would stay on her mind whether she wanted it to or not, so she might as well give it some breathing space while she could.

All this time, as she and Isadora had been producing songs for TXNY, it had just been that. It had never occurred to either of them that there would be people out there who heard what they had done and would entrust them with creating something for them, too. Suddenly, they wouldn’t just be writing songs for themselves, they’d have… a client. New voices, singing her words, Isadora’s words, if she did some songs for them, too… If she was honest with herself, with no attention to the things she and the others would need to consider before they ever said yes or no, Maya wanted to say yes. She wanted to shout, YES, and see Lily get excited and then get excited with her, too. She was so… touched, that she would ask, so honored.

Once her class started, she had to push all those thoughts and those feelings back into her mind, needed to focus on what her teacher was telling them. She would have to wait until… maybe tonight, at practice with the girls, if they had the time. Maybe she should wait until after Friday’s show though, the better not to distract them. Already they were set to introduce Rosa as another lead vocalist, and it was going to demand a lot of their attention.

Isadora… She really needed to talk to her about this. She was going to call her that night. Once she had decided that much, it felt like she’d be able to concentrate better already. Lily’s request could wait until she spoke to the other half of ‘Smart Records.’

TO BE CONTINUED


	110. Her Melody in the Chance

Maya arrived to an empty house that afternoon, as she’d expected that she would. Willow was still in class, as was Rosa, and Kayla needed to make a stop off to get changed, while Riley had decided it would be a grand idea for them all to have snacks, and where better to get them than at the café, where Dylan would be? Sophie and Chiara were at the library, so that only left Trix and Lou as her welcoming committee.

“Afternoon, ladies,” she crouched to greet them, even as they were hopping and barking.

She didn’t want this to feel like she was sneaking around on the rest of the band, but then she did want to talk to Isadora before the others, so… that was kind of what this was, wasn’t it? Sneaking around… for a good cause.

Hurrying up to hers and Lucas’ room, she shut the door, leaving the dogs on the other side, much to their disappointment. She pulled her laptop from her bag, opened it and got on to Skype.

“Please be there, please be there…” she mumbled. When she saw the little icon next to Isadora’s name showed her as available, she smiled and wrote, asking if they could talk. A few seconds later, the call came through, and she accepted it, finding herself face to face with Isadora Smackle, so many miles away. When the other girl saw that it was just her alone, she looked at once curious.

“How are you, Maya?” she asked, casually, although it really just sounded like Isadora was asking what was wrong.

“Good, great,” Maya nodded, sitting at her desk now, turning the computer until it was where it needed to be. “I was just hoping to run something by you.”

“If you need legal advice, you know I’m still in…” Isadora declared at once, and Maya frowned.

“What? No, I don’t… Well, actually, maybe…” she realized after a beat, before shaking her head and getting back on track. “So, there’s this girl in my program. Her name’s Lily, and she has a band, too, a group.”

She went on to relay the morning’s conversation, right down to the request Lily had made, for her to write songs for the Australian trio’s new group.

“And you need…?” Isadora asked.

“First things first, I need to decide whether or not I should say yes,” Maya replied. Looking at her friend and old bandmate sitting there, considering this, Maya could really see the budding lawyer in her. She’d always been the best of them for arguments, so was it any wonder?

“Get them to sign a document that says you’re the one who wrote the songs, for them, and how much they paid you, and you sign it, too,” Isadora finally declared, with a sharp nod to punctuate.

“Wait, wait, hold on, I haven’t even said if I was going to do it or not, I…”

“I can’t decide that for you, Maya. If you do decide to do it though, it’s like I said. I can work something up for them, too, if needed.”

That was as far as they were going to get, the two of them, but then she guessed Isadora was right. As far as she was concerned, she was the only one who could decide if she would do it. Isadora was more than fine by it, and she could look in on Nadine about it, but she had a feeling she knew what _she_ would say, too. So, that just left running it by the four who completed the current and active lineup of TXNY.

Kayla soon arrived, looking much refreshed and clear-headed now that she wasn’t walking around, trying to cover up a major sauce stain from lunch on her shirt. Rosa came next, looking already much less achy than she’d done right after her fall from her bike. Riley followed, already eating her way through one of the treats in the box she had obtained back at the café.

“Don’t let Sophie see that, she’ll get you for stepping out on the bakery,” Rosa told her with a teasing grin, until she was offered a pastry. “Thanks, Miss,” she strolled off.

Once Willow arrived, looking just a bit exhausted from class but still very much set for the day’s practice, the five of them went down to the basement, where they sat around for a while, as was the custom. Looking around at all of them, Maya found herself once again debating whether or not to tell them about Lily’s group now. Maybe she _should_ wait until Friday’s show was done. They all had so much to think about…

“I think I really have the new song down now,” Rosa announced with a proud little face.

“No surprise there,” Willow smiled back at her, sitting lounged out on the couch with her pastry. The others always insisted for her to have it now, and when _she_ insisted that she didn’t need special treatment, they would reply with the insistence that she should take it while she got it.

_“What did you and Lily talk about this morning?”_ Kayla asked Maya now, and she blinked. When Kayla tipped her head, Maya knew that was as good as her saying ‘I’m very good at reading people’s faces.’ And now, as the others were paying attention to her, too, she knew that simply brushing it off would not cut it. She had to go ahead and tell them, for better or for worse.

“I was going to wait until after Friday’s show before bringing it up with you guys, to see what you thought, but I guess we’re doing this now,” Maya sat up, setting her remaining half a pastry aside and wiping the flakes and sugar from her fingertips. “So, Lily came up to me this morning on the way to class. She told me about her friends, how they were from Australia, too, and she told me how the three of them get together to sing. They’re hoping to take their group to the next level and Lily asked if I might write songs for them, like I do for TXNY.”

There were a few seconds of silence, where the others just stared back at her, mirroring much of the stunned expression she must have had back when Lily had asked it all that morning. Then, there was a burst of voices and signs, as they broke out of that surprise and responded.

“Maya, that’s amazing!” was Riley’s grinning reply. “Other people singing your songs!”

_“I think they were here with her last Halloween, those twins dressed like the girls from the Shining,”_ Kayla commented as she recalled.

“You’re hesitating, aren’t you?” Willow guessed, looking at her. “What’s holding you back?”

“It can’t sound just like the ones you do for us, right? Can you do that?” Rosa pondered.

“Woah, alright, hey, time out,” Maya motioned, and silence returned. “Thank you,” she breathed. It was a wonder she’d managed to get everything they’d said, but then it seemed like the kind of reply she had expected from each of them, so everything was right on track, wasn’t it? “Look, as far as I’m concerned, I…” she sighed. “I still haven’t decided. I can’t decide yet, but either way I wanted to run it by all of you, to know where we all stand.”

She could hear Isadora’s voice in the back of her mind, telling her it was up to her to decide, but at the same time she felt like she needed to know that the others would be on board, too. If they didn’t want her to do it…

“You want to know if we’re okay with it?” Willow asked, and Maya nodded. “I think you should,” she put in her vote, “If you want to do it.”

“Me, too,” Riley was quick to confirm what Maya already knew.

_“Why not?”_ Kayla added with a nod.

“I can help, if you need someone to bounce ideas off of,” Rosa shrugged with a smile, and that was that, as far as the rest of them were concerned. Practice went on from there, and as much as she’d been concerned over telling them, the whole thing really had gone over as smooth as anyone could hope.

Even for all that, by the time she took off for the bookstore, to go and pick up Lucas, she still couldn’t say that she’d decided. She didn’t know what it was that held her back when everyone was being so enthusiastic and willing, telling her to do it, but that was where she stood.

“What happened to the cool/detached face from this morning?” Lucas asked, pulling her attention back to find him there, standing across from her.

“Hey,” she smiled when he leaned in to kiss her. When he went to pull back, she snatched up the front of his shirt, keeping him where he stood, that she might kiss him again. “I just wanted that double dose,” she declared with an innocent shrug, which made him laugh and offer up a third just like that.

“Something on your mind?” he guessed.

“Sort of,” she breathed as they moved to get in the car. Right now, the promise of ice cream, which they’d also made that morning, felt a lot more like a solution to her cluttered mind than a sweet half-date sort of thing. By the time they were sitting back in the car with their cups, she was telling him about Lily, her group, and the request for songs. The fact that he held back on commenting showed just how well he knew her by now. He knew there was more to it. “Everyone’s telling me I should do it, and… well, half of me really wants to do it, too, but then there’s the other half who just won’t go in on it yet, and I don’t know why.”

“It’s a big commitment,” he stated, and she nodded.

“It is,” she wholly agreed.

“And they’re expecting something from you…”

“Yeah,” she went on nodding. Was this what it was? Was she just… afraid of letting them down? It was one thing when the songs were for her, for her band. She was being asked to define someone else’s sound and… what if she got it wrong? What if she tanked them before they ever got a chance to sail on?

“They’re sending you a video or something, right?”

“Yeah, so I can hear them.”

“So, hear them,” he told her. “I know how you get, when something inspires you. It’s not always as intense as it was with Rosa’s song…” She chuckled. “But it gets in you, and when it does… you create something wonderful.” Now she couldn’t help but smile. “Just wait until you hear them, and then… then you decide,” he shrugged.

“I can do that,” she agreed. “Yeah… I’ll do that.”

“Now, eat your ice cream before it melts,” he nodded to her cup.

“I will do that first,” she grinned, getting back to her ice cream, which suddenly tasted a whole lot better. She hadn’t made her decision, not yet, but she had a plan, and that was good enough for now. She could sit here, with her boyfriend, and they could talk about their day, and the question of Lily’s songs could be put back on the shelf in her mind, until it was time to take it back down again.

“How did practice go tonight?” he asked, once they were back on the road, headed home.

“Pretty good,” she reported. “Rosa’s song is fitting right in. I can’t wait until you hear what it’s turning into.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	111. Her Melody in Courage

They had their second practice in-week, which came off as something like dress rehearsal, like they were putting on the entire show for the much smaller crowd of whoever of their friends and roommates would show up and sit in the basement with them. This time around, they played to Lucas, Dylan, Sophie, Chiara, Franny, and Will. Before they could ‘step on stage,’ they needed to get themselves stage ready. Clothes, hair, makeup, all of it… That was Rosa’s request. They didn’t usually go to those lengths, but she was nervous, they could tell, and maybe this would help her get her head in the right space, so they ran with it.

The bandmates had all developed something of a personal stage style by now, Maya and Riley especially, as they’d been part of TXNY from the start. Maya, for her part, had a small section of her closet reserved specifically for the clothes she’d wear for performances. She liked to keep them separate from her everyday clothes, to know that when she put any of those on it meant she was about to make something happen.

“Here, how about this?” Maya asked Rosa.

She’d told her young bandmate to try and get to the house as soon as possible – without any other incidents – so they could find something that would make her feel just braver enough that going up on that stage, standing up in the spotlight, would stop twisting her stomach in knots. When Maya arrived back at the house, Rosa was sitting on the front step, tossing a ball which sent both Trix and Lou scampering to retrieve it. Whether or not she’d skipped out on her last class of the day in order to be here so early, Rosa didn’t say and Maya didn’t ask.

“I don’t really do dresses…” Rosa admitted hesitantly, which made Maya smirk.

“I’ve never seen you in one, so I guessed as much, but… are you so against them that you won’t at least try one on?” she asked. “If you are, I will just put it away and we will never speak of it again.” Rosa looked to the dress which, by their similar heights, would land just above her knees. It wouldn’t be so form-fitting, though it would definitely be a departure from Rosa’s usual style.

“I, uh… I-I can try it on… while it’s just us,” she finally agreed, though she still looked like she was likely to flush up at any second.

“Are you sure?” Maya had to ask. Rosa only held out her hand, so Maya handed her the dress on its hanger, and Rosa marched off toward the bathroom. While she got changed, Maya continued her perusal of the TXNY section of her closet, looking for alternatives in case the dress didn’t work out. She found a shirt and some pants which would actually go with Rosa’s old jacket. That could be the thing to help her out, couldn’t it?

“What do you think?”

She was so caught up in her browsing that she turned her head in reflex at the sound of the small voice, which led to her genuinely doing a double take as she looked back once more and saw Rosa standing there, just inside the door. She’d undone her ponytail, possibly just before walking into the room, judging from how her hair still twisted where it had been bound, and she was flexing her toes inside her socks with clear unease, which made Maya uncertain as to how she was meant to respond.

One look at the girl was enough to see that she was not feeling it, but at the same time she would have been lying if she said it didn’t look great on her. All she could think about for some reason were the Garcia twins, how they were identical physically but could never be mistaken for one another. Putting on that dress, she’d become her own non-identical identical twin.

“I think…” Maya started, taking a step toward her. “What do _you_ think?” she asked. Rosa looked down at herself, tugged at the skirt.

“You can see all my… bandages,” she frowned, holding up her arm, pointing to her leg, like she hadn’t been about to say something else which would have been just as true. “It’s a nice dress, I… I remember you were wearing it in a video I saw once… I like the pattern…” Okay, this was too painful, they needed to change things up.

“Dresses weren’t my thing for a long while either, but I came around to them. Maybe you will, too, someday, maybe you won’t. But it’s not happening now, so… option number two?” Maya indicated the shirt and pants. To see the immediate shift in her bandmate when she saw them, she had her answer. She took them back into the bathroom for her second change. Maya had a good feeling that this would be the one, so she went to pick out something for herself, making quick work of trading out ‘Everyday Maya’ for ‘Showtime Maya’ before Rosa returned, carrying the dress back on its hanger.

“Hey, we match,” she commented, and the smile on her face filled Maya with something like pride. There she was, there was their Rosa.

“We do, don’t we?” Maya gave her a turn, smiling back. “You are going to rock that stage, Shorty.”

“You, too, Shorty,” Rosa tipped her head, and they laughed.

“Come here,” Maya pulled her desk chair to the middle of the room. She had done her hair and makeup for all previous performances, so she knew what she felt comfortable with or not. Completing her look around the clothes she’d borrowed was easy. After hair and makeup, and her shoes, and a few accessories courtesy of Maya, all she needed was… “Here, slip this back on,” she went to her bed, where Rosa had left her jacket. “Chills. _Chills_ ,” Maya intoned dramatically, smiling with pride as she watched her friend go and stand in front of the mirror. There was no need to ask what she thought. It was all in the way she stood and looked at herself. She was happy, standing up straight.

“This was my dad’s jacket,” she revealed, turning back to her.

“Yeah, I had a feeling,” Maya nodded.

As the rest of the girls and their audience started to arrive, it was a toss-up as far as trying to figure out who was most excited. Everyone complimented Maya and Rosa on their looks for the show, and Rosa was riding what felt like a wave of readiness they had never seen from her before. Whether or not this would survive intact all the way through the following day, and the show up to the point where she’d move from her usual spot and to the microphone in the front… Well, they would see in time.

Riley, Willow, and Kayla all got changed almost as soon as they came around, even though they wouldn’t get along to their run through until after dinner. Without having to say it, none of them was about to sit there and not step up to what Maya and Rosa already had going.

When they finally did head into the basement, it didn’t matter that the audience was only six people piled on and around the couch, TXNY was stepping in like they were facing hundreds of people. The music kicked up after their ‘presenter,’ Franny, gave a hollering introduction. Their small audience had enough enthusiasm in its six voices that Maya felt that old familiar feeling in her heart, the thrill, the adrenaline… In times like these, she was just happy that they’d all fought so hard to keep TXNY alive.

Finally, the moment came for Maya to step back and Rosa to step forward, and when Maya called her up, to the cheers of their small audience, she turned to her bandmate. She could see the tiniest flicker in her eyes, like she was remembering that the next time they did this she would be facing a full audience. But then Maya held her gaze and she gave a ghost tug at the hem of a jacket she wasn’t wearing, nodding to Rosa, and Rosa nodded back before stepping forward.

She could not have asked for a better test audience. Tomorrow night, there would be many more of them but these six and many other friends of the band would be there, front and center, and they would be just as much of an anchor as they were here, now, as Rosa started to sing the new song for them, accompanied by her bandmates. None of them had actually heard the new song except for Lucas, and even he had never heard the version of it that wasn’t just Maya on her own.

Maya had felt strongly about this one, already when it was an idea clawing at her thoughts, begging for release. She knew deep down that this one would be one of their strongest pieces, and her friends’ reactions only deepened that belief. Whatever happened next, tomorrow and in days and years to come, she knew… Tomorrow night, the world would come to recognize the voice of Rosa Del Vecchio from Houston, Texas.

“I can’t go to school tomorrow,” Rosa shook her head as she and Maya strolled on back to her house when the night was done. Maya just smiled quietly and watched her, looking like she was buzzing with energy. She knew that feeling so well. “I mean, I can’t, I won’t remember a single thing, I’m just so excited for tomorrow night!”

“Somehow, I think you’ll pull through,” Maya smirked. “You already skipped class today, I’m not having your mother thinking I’m turning you into some delinquent.” Rosa opened her mouth to complain, paused, then sighed.

“Fine,” she grumbled.

Maya turned about and started walking back toward home after leaving Rosa at her door. Truth be told, she was having the same kind of instinct right about now. She was so anxious for the next night’s show that she didn’t have much confidence toward her getting much of any sleep that night, and then once it was tomorrow morning… No, she could do this. She _had_ done this, plenty of times now. It was rough, but she had made it through before, and she would again, and so would Rosa.

“Between you and me, I can’t help but love your version,” Lucas told her when she walked into their room and found him at his desk with one of his textbooks. She smiled, moving to hug him from behind. He reached up his hand and found hers, giving it a squeeze.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” she promised. “In return, I need your help.”

“Name it,” he nodded at once.

“Just make sure I get through classes tomorrow?” He laughed. “Is that funny to you, Friar?”

“I’m in trouble, aren’t I?” he looked back at her and she squinted. “I’ve got you,” he vowed, and she kissed him. “Anything else?” She shrugged quietly. “Right… Sleep?” he guessed, and she sighed. “I can read this out loud for you, it should do the trick,” he pointed to his textbook.

“That bad?” she asked, trying to cheer him up by pressing small kisses at his temple.

“Not bad, just… wordy…”

“Words, in a textbook, what will they think of next?” she whispered, her kisses keen on migrating down until they found his throat.

“Not sure that’s going to make either of us sleepy,” he breathed, doing nothing to interrupt her.

“Maybe not…” she conceded, carrying on. “But if you intend to bore me to sleep… I’m going to need a compromise.” He didn’t say a word, waited, then…

“I can work with that.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	112. Her Melody in Pride

Coming home after a performance always felt a little… odd. Her energy would be all over the place, exhausted but also through the roof, and for how much it would have made sense for her to go to bed. She knew all too well that attempting to go to bed right now would get her little more than fidgety tossing and turning for the next several hours. She preferred to spare herself that, and Lucas, too.

Luckily for her – and him – she had something to turn her mind to, whether or not it would be wise to tackle it at this hour.

When she woke up that morning, bright and early, she was in a good mood, great mood, and how could she not? The night before, with Rosa, with the band… with Lucas… it had all been everything she could want, and tonight they had a show to do. She would have worried if she _wasn’t_ having a ‘I’m so happy right now, I’m going to go and make waffles’ kind of morning.

“Waffle day…” Riley had hummed when she came into the kitchen, first to rise after her, which was hardly a surprise. That girl would totally float down here, carried on the scent of sweet waffle goodness.

“Show day,” Maya pointed out.

“Waffles…” Riley maintained, and Maya laughed. In times like these, she would still be amazed at the thought that she was living with her best friend of old. It had been over a year, sure, but she still felt it, this… elation, thinking back to those two little girls they had once been. Riley Matthews had once felt like the entirety of her world, and as much as that had changed, expanded… they were here, the two of them, living together, and they were about to have waffles.

The scent worked its magic through the whole house in no time, until the kitchen was full of the six humans and two dogs who called this place home. One by one they were served, as the waffles came forth from where they had been pressed into crispy, fluffy, delicious existence.

After they’d eaten, everyone was off to get ready for school or work. On top of getting dressed and making sure she had everything in her bag, Maya also had to make sure she had everything she’d need – for herself or any of the others – ready in another bag, which would remain here until that afternoon. She could have packed it all up then, but it felt better to do it now, so that when they returned from school it would all be set and her giddy mind wouldn’t forget anything. Also, if she _had_ forgotten anything, she had all day to remember it.

The day was about what she’d expected it to be. She might not have been nearly as lost and distracted as she expected to be, but she was definitely not catching everything and she knew there was nothing she could do about it. The best she could hope for was to get what she could and see that some friend or another would have gotten what she hadn’t and would be kind enough to pass it on.

She could imagine what Rosa was going through right then. There had been a couple of texts back and forth already. Maya didn’t want it to look like she was confirming whether or not the girl had actually gone to class, but well… She was fortunate at the very least that Rosa had guessed she would be wondering about it. Her first text came with an attached photo showing Rosa standing next to her open locker as though to say ‘see, here I am.’ After that, they shared in their mutual ‘agony,’ as they waited for the hours to go by. On that, they were most certainly not alone, going from the messages they got from the other three. The one that resonated the most in the end came from Kayla.

_“I never want to feel any other way on a day like this.”_

And that was the truth, for all of them. For all the impatience they got to feel, waiting the day out, it would be worse if they didn’t look forward to the show so much, right?

When at last her last class ended, Maya was gone so fast, one could miss her if they blinked. The temptation was to just go and take a bus, to go home now instead of waiting on the others, but that wouldn’t really have changed all that much, so she went to the café, as she’d said she would, to wait on her roommates. She’d been in class with Kayla, but _she_ needed to get to her dorm room and get her things, so she would meet them at the venue along with Franny and Will. It was the same with Willow, who would meet them there with Lion, and also with Rosa. Even though she lived so much closer to the six than Willow’s place, they’d already have a full car, and this way they wouldn’t have to split.

“Give me something to do,” Maya commanded Dylan when she arrived. He looked at her, looked around the counter.

“There’s not really that much I…”

“Dylan,” she insisted. After a beat, he reached into the display, pulled out a muffin, set it on a plate, and slid it over to her. She looked at the muffin, then at him, and she smiled. “I like the way you think.”

She finished that muffin in the car. Somehow, the others all showed up within the next couple of minutes, coming from class or the library or wherever they needed to be, and so they left, the five of them and Dylan, too. He’d actually arranged to finish early that day, and he was already off the clock when Maya had come along.

Back at the house, everything was a hectic mess. It was still early, but with everything that needed to happen before the show ever started, they had no time to waste. Everyone got changed, cleaned up, and then everything they needed to load into the car, everything that wasn’t already at the venue or on its way by means of a borrowed van driven by Bishop, was put into the car’s trunk, and then they were on their way.

As slow as the hours had felt all day long, it felt like the blink of an eye before they were sitting backstage, just the five of them from the band, knowing that they would be going up on stage very soon, as people were coming in, filling up the room, and waiting for them to start their show.

“If you feel like anything’s off, you give us a signal or something, okay?” Riley asked Willow.

“I’ll be fine, but yes, I get you,” Willow told her, smiling.

_“Are you ready?”_ Kayla asked Rosa. She sat perched on the armrest of the couch in the small room, giving the distinct impression of playing squirrel, though Maya wasn’t about to go and tell her that.

_“Once the show begins, I think I’ll be okay,”_ Rosa signed back.

Most times, Maya couldn’t help but entertain her curiosity, so she would text Lucas, ask him to be her eyes and ears out there, to let her know how things were looking in the audience. Of course, the times she didn’t reach out to him were because he’d beat her to the punch and told her about it before she got to ask. This time around, she’d been about to write him, but he still got to be the one to write to her first. When she pulled out her phone, there was a notification of an e-mail from Lily Weaver. The subject line claimed that _‘This is who we are.’_

_We were going to wait to send this in the morning, but we’re at your show right now, it hasn’t started, and Cat and Vic and I decided we needed to do this now before we lost our nerve. We tried to narrow it down to five or six songs but it ended up being eleven. We hope that’s alright. Thank you again for whatever you do, even if it’s only to listen._

And there was the link attached, a video… She couldn’t watch it now, she knew. Not only was she minutes away from going on stage, but she was sure she couldn’t hear a thing with the noise back here. While she was reading the message, Lucas wrote to her, telling her that the place was packed and that they were all out there, waiting. Maya had half a mind to write and ask him to try and locate a trio of girls. Spotting Lily and her magenta hair should have been easy enough, right?

But then they were told it was time to go, so the phone was put away and her attention went back to her bandmates. The five of them looked to one another. They closed in together, a sort of show circle they would do, without really saying anything. This time around, they all seemed to look to Rosa, passing on what courage they could. She received it with smiles.

It was as she’d said, really. Once they got started, none of them felt the same way. It helped that they had an audience there to feed that feeling they were cultivating. Suddenly they weren’t Maya, Riley, Kayla, Willow, and Rosa anymore. They were TXNY. This was the easy part.

She didn’t know what possessed her to do it, even if it all turned out alright, but she deviated from the plan just a bit by taking up her microphone with her and moving back at one point, looking to Rosa and signalling her forward, so that they sang together. Rosa didn’t even flinch, just went right along with it, and it was amazing, and the audience loved it. Maya wanted to show her young friend that everything was going just fine, and the smile she got back proved that Rosa saw it, too.

Finally, the moment came, the one they’d been aiming for all this week. When the second to last song came to an end, Maya stood at the front, and she addressed the audience.

“We have something new for you guys tonight!” she told them, and she laughed, startled at the roar of appreciation. “A brand-new song, and I want you all to show some love for this girl right here,” she pointed back. “Give it up for Rosa!”

They were right there with her, and as they moved to switch positions on the stage, Maya held up her hand. Rosa grasped that hand for a beat as they smiled to one another, and she came to stand at the microphone. Maya thought back to what she’d told her, before they went on. _Go up there, no hesitation. Show them who you are._ And when the music kicked up, that was just what Rosa did. And the audience was right there with her.

It would be a night none of them forgot, especially Rosa, she was sure of it. When they finally left the venue, she was so emotional, not just happy crying but happy bawling. Willow promised she’d get her home safe, once all the hugs and giddy talking came to a close.

After all that, was it any wonder Maya couldn’t sleep?

She knew what she wanted to do, even though it was so late… She couldn’t wait, the curiosity was too strong. She grabbed her laptop and her headphones and she went downstairs. She sat on the couch, then changed her mind and pulled herself to sit on the ground, setting the laptop on the coffee table. She pulled up the e-mail from Lily, got the video set up… It might have been late, she might have been spaced out exhausted, but her feeling was that, the way she was feeling now might have been the best moment for this. Her mind was wide open, couldn’t be shut, which was sort of the reason why she was still up in the first place. If there was inspiration to be had…

Pulling the headphones over her ears, she took a breath before hitting play. There were the three girls now. Lily was sitting in the middle, the twins on either side of her. Now that she saw them again, Maya did remember them from the Halloween party. She couldn’t say which was which until they introduced themselves. Cat and Vic – Catriona and Victoria King, according to the e-mail – were not like the Garcia twins, or even the Hunter twins… There were a lot of twins in her life, she was thinking.

These two, she was certain, would be much harder to tell apart if they were dressed exactly alike. Which wasn’t to say that they didn’t have any individuality to them, as they definitely did, but their differences weren’t so deep as to exist like some chasm that set them apart so easily. If it wasn’t that Vic had the ends of her brown hair dyed sort of turquoise, she knew she would have found it much too easy to mix them up.

She barely knew the twins, and she had never even known that Lily was a singer, so when they started to sing, one and then two and then all three at once, Maya was amazed. That was really what it was. She was just amazed at the sound of their voices, together and apart, and for the next hour she just sat there… listening, nodding along, sometimes mouthing the words, and smiling, and… and…

When the video ended, the image stopping on those three girls sitting together and smiling back at the camera, Maya closed her laptop and got up. The exhaustion of the day was really starting to dig into her, but she stood there, staring into nothing for a beat or two, and then she nodded to herself. She knew what she had to do, she knew… She sat on the edge of the couch, pulled the laptop open again. She returned to the e-mail from Lily and she typed in a quick reply, two words. _I’m in._

One deep breath… and she hit send. She nodded to herself, content, and she climbed back up the stairs, went into her room and slipped under the covers of the bed. Her sleeping boyfriend found her there and slipped his arm around her and she took another deep breath, this one for a feeling that she could finally settle down and find sleep. She couldn’t put the image of how happy Rosa had been tonight out of her mind, and when she’d been looking at those girls on her screen, she’d known… She had something to provide to their journey, too, and she was going to do it.

TO BE CONTINUED


	113. Their Shock of Horrors

As the month of October got to the point where Halloween was on most everyone’s mind, it always got to feel, for Lucas and for Maya, too, he knew, like they had arrived to the best part of the year. It would be sort of non-stop, with Halloween, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas and New Year… But also, for the two of them at least, there was something else in between of all that and this year… it was a big one.

November 1st of this year would mark five years from the day they had become boyfriend and girlfriend.

Neither of them could really believe it, and at the same time they could do nothing but believe. All these memories they had accumulated from that day after the haunted house up to now, how could it not have been years, no matter how brief the gap in between truly felt?

“Are you going to ninja your way in again this year?” Lucas asked Rosa when she came up to the counter, where he was presently holding down the registers while Pete was on break.

“I don’t know, maybe I will,” she shrugged. “For old times’ sake,” she presented a mock grin, even though Lucas knew, through Maya, that she had been trying to adjust to the attention she’d been getting since their last show, when she had come into the forefront and everyone had heard her song. The reaction had been overwhelming, and on the positive side without a doubt, but it was still a lot and Rosa was having difficulty adjusting, especially at school.

“Or Maya could do up your face so much no one will recognize you,” he offered. “You could be a zombie… with glasses.”

“Just because you’re undead, doesn’t mean you don’t want to see where you’re dragging your feet to, right?” she claimed as she considered his suggestion.

“That’s the kind of thinking that will make you queen of the zombies,” he pointed at her.

“The party is tonight. Don’t you think I have my costume already by now?” she finally had to remind him.

“You haven’t told me what it is yet, what am I supposed to think? The theme _is_ classic Halloween monsters.” It hadn’t taken much for them to convince everyone. Five years ago, he had been dressed as a guy with an unfortunate gap between his head and the rest of his body, while Maya had been a vampire with some serious mojo… He couldn’t take his eyes from her every time their paths would cross. So now, to celebrate this milestone between them, it only seemed right to pay homage to that night. Dylan had been breaking out his old zombie walk all week to practice and show Chiara.

“I’m not telling you, stop prodding and oh look, clients,” Rosa tapped the counter before strolling off. Watching her go, Lucas could only chuckle. As much as she was trying to adjust to people’s reactions to her, the majority of good and the unavoidable minority of bad, on the whole he could see how her confidence seemed to have increased. They could all see it, and none of them were prouder than Maya.

He had been thinking about what to do for this anniversary, what to get her, for several months already, if he was being honest. Even though he was aware that, on the whole, it wouldn’t be about the presents or the activities, he wanted to make this a special day, for the both of them to remember it for years to come. His love for her had never been so strong, and he only needed to look at her, the way she looked at him, and he’d know that she felt the same way, so he could have parked them both up in their room, with a computer, some movies, and something to eat, and she would have been as happy as he was, but that wasn’t going to be it, not this time. Five years needed to be celebrated.

“Alright, you two, get out of here,” Miss Coleman came along soon after, addressing her daughter and Lucas. “You have a party to get to, don’t you?” The slight undertone reminded them that she hadn’t forgotten about the year before and Rosa’s ninja act, and they knew better than to pretend otherwise.

“Gone,” Rosa promised, with a smile which might have been one of the reasons she was not grounded from attending that night. “So, I know it’s kind of far away, but I kind of told my mother I’d go to prom at the end of the year,” she revealed as they were driving.

“Okay…” Lucas replied, unsure what else to say but also guessing she’d keep talking.

“I don’t really see the point, but it means a lot to her and I might be able to get a car out of that, so…” she shrugged. “Not sure what I’ll do for an escort. I was thinking I’d ask Joseph?”

“My cousin?” he blinked.

“Yeah. As a friend, you know? No pressure.” He didn’t know what to say to that. He knew how Joseph felt about Rosa, just like he knew Rosa was generally hopeless on picking up those signals, as she would freely admit.

“Just… Make sure he knows that. He likes you, Rosa,” he finally told her, deciding it would be less painful that way and hoping he was right.

“Oh… Oh!” Rosa’s eyes went wide as she understood. She sat there quietly contemplating this for a few seconds. “Thanks for the heads up.”

As they drove up to the house, they could see the others had been hard at work to transform the place from their nice little house into a place of terrors and horrors. Already it was their second Halloween here and it continued to take them by surprise. He guessed every second occurrence would get them like that, and before long it would be third ones, and fourths, and then… well, who knew if there would be a fifth here, once they graduated, but that was still some distance away, wasn’t it?

“Hey,” Franny was there to greet them as they arrived, and Lucas had to inquire as to the look on her face. “It’s nothing, I was just hoping it would be Maya. She’s supposed to do my makeup.”

“She’s not here yet?” he asked, frowning in concern.

“No,” Franny shook her head. “We were supposed to come back here together after class, all of us,” she turned to indicate where Kayla sat along with Lily and the King twins. The trio was still working to find a name for themselves as they waited for Maya and Isadora – who had agreed to pitch in, too – to complete their first songs. For the time being, they were going by Weaver Kings. It had a way of leading to confusion, and they kind of liked that. “But then when we were about to leave, she told us to go on ahead and come here. She said she had to go somewhere first and she’d meet us, but…” she gestured around as though to say, ‘she’s not here.’

“I’ll check to see when she’ll be here,” Lucas told her. He turned and walked back outside, taking out his phone. He had no messages from her. He texted her, asking _Are you almost home?_ Then he waited.

He didn’t want to be that guy who immediately leapt to conclusions, but by now he’d gotten pretty good at feeling out his instincts where she was concerned. And his immediate impression here was that something was amiss. Still, he was going to wait, wasn’t going to call her when he’d written not a minute before. Even if she didn’t answer right away, there could have been a reason, no? Yeah, he’d wait. Everything was fine.

Going back inside, he went up to their room to at least put on his costume. Already he could see all of those in their group who were waiting for their turn in Maya’s hair and makeup chair, their costumes coming off as incomplete as his own without that final touch. When he had the clothes on, he looked at himself and the same thought came to him. He looked at his phone, and there was still nothing, except…

He’d chanced to look out the window in time to see a familiar blond head. She was walking up the street, toward the house. Lucas moved at once out of the room and down the stairs, arriving just as she came in to be greeted by the others, wanting to know who’d go first. They were all asking, but they weren’t seeing what he saw, somewhere in the back of her eyes. What was that? Something was going on there, but he couldn’t understand what it was.

“I know I’m late, I… Just give me a few minutes, okay?” she moved past them to head toward the stairs, but then stopped and turned to them. “Just… figure out whoever needs the most work and line up like that, most to least,” she told them. Then she turned around again, and she saw him, and she stopped. She was giving him the slightest look and he knew what that meant at least. _Act normal._ So, he did.

“Okay, but I get to go first, right?” he smiled, and she smiled back.

“Always,” she promised, moving to join him on the stairs.

“Nepotism!” Sophie called out.

“You know it!” Maya called back as she followed Lucas up to the second floor and toward their room. When they got there, she shut the door and turned the lock on the knob, and then she stayed there, her pretend smile disappearing and leaving only something that looked a lot like trembling. “I have to do all their faces, a-and our faces… And the trick-or-treaters will start showing up soon, the kids, the…” She was talking, but it felt a lot more like she was talking to herself and not to him. He wasn’t sure she remembered he was even there.

“Hey…” he spoke quietly. Her head moved just a bit, not all the way, not enough to be looking at him. “Maya,” he tried again. “Where are you right now?” he asked, taking the three steps that would bring him to stand in front of her. He reached out for her face, bringing it up slowly until he could see her eyes. As she leaned into that touch, he could feel the tremor in her, and there was a shine to her eyes like she might be on the verge of tears. “What’s happening? Is it school? The Robinson thing? The restaurant?” She shook her head, closed her eyes for a moment.

“Freaking out,” she finally spoke, her voice as shaky as the rest of her, quiet and frazzled.

“About what?” he asked, trying to pour everything he had at his disposal for comfort into her. She let out a breath before reaching to open her bag. It had been on her shoulder the whole time, though he hadn’t noticed until now just how tightly she’d been holding on to it. But now that it was just the two of them, she released that hold and she pulled it open, until he could see just inside.

Stuck over her books and her laptop, taking up all available space until it was a miracle that the bag even managed to close, were a load of boxes. He could not have said how many there were right now except that there were several. He stopped caring about how many there were when he looked at them and recognized them for what they were. Five, six, maybe more, of different brands, but all of them designed with the singular purpose of determining if someone was pregnant.

Now he looked back at her and the trembling made sense… he was kind of trembling, too.

TO BE CONTINUED


	114. Their Shock of the Unexpected

So here it was now, between them, not yet a fact but a possibility, and after having allowed that possibility to stew in her mind from the moment she’d left school… She was here now, with him, and he knew as much as she did, and… and…

She bowed her head, pressing it to his chest, he put his arms around her, and they stayed this way for a few seconds. But then she had to step back, and breathe, try to breathe… She felt like she’d been in denial for the last hour or however long it had been, she couldn’t say anymore, but now that she was here, and she could talk, she could feel her heart drumming inside her.

“When we… When we got out of class, me a-and… Franny, and Kayla, and Lily, we were talking about the party, and how it’s almost November already and…” she told him as she moved about, had to move, couldn’t stand still. “And then it hit me. I mean I know I’ve been busy, with work, and school and all that, so maybe that’s why I didn’t realize it until then, but I didn’t have my… I… I have never been late, never, it’s been clockwork since I was twelve, okay? So, this… this doesn’t happen, except it’s happening, and if it’s happening then maybe… maybe…”

She pulled her bag from her shoulder and let it drop on the bed. The boxes spilled out on the covers. Seeing them there, it was like a flashback, and it made her even flightier.

She might have laughed about how at least she was guaranteed not to run into her mother or father while standing in front of that aisle, staring at all those boxes, but mostly she’d just looked catatonic. Only the thought of people staring at her and wondering what was up with her had set her to moving again. She just remembered standing there with a basket on her arm, picking up one box, looking it over, tossing it in the basket, and again, and again…

She’d bought eight of them, four kinds, two of each. It was excessive, more than excessive, but she had to be sure, right? What if there was a mistake, what if it was too early? She’d do one of each now, and then the others in a few days if she had to. That was all the logic she’d been able to muster up, and she realized it wasn’t all that logical to begin with, but what else could she do right now?

“I-I have to get changed, I need to do your makeup and mine and the others’…” she grabbed her bag again, sweeping the spilled boxes back inside as best she could, which was not going too well, by the way they would just tumble back on the bed again, slipping through her shaky hands. At this, Lucas moved to help her, but then he was holding one of the boxes, and he looked at the image on the front, the silhouette of a woman with a round belly and a baby curled up inside, and he was no more able to hold on to it than she was.

“Oh…” he just blinked, his hands raising to sit on top of his head, with no clue what else they were supposed to do, since they couldn’t even pick up a small box like that. Maya looked at him, and right then she wasn’t thinking about the party anymore.

“I thought I wanted you to be the guy who’s got everything together and knows what to do, but I’m kind of glad you’re being the freaking out guy right now,” she breathed.

How could they not be freaking out right now? They were in the middle of college, they could barely juggle everything right now, work, and school, the band, friends near and far, family back in Austin, new family that had just been revealed to them not two months before, and now… if they had to add a baby to all that… When she’d been standing in the store earlier, staring at all those rows of boxes, soothing colors and serene images, all she heard in her head was a loop of _not now, not now, not now…_

“We were careful, right?” he looked at her, still with that bewildered look on his face.

“We were,” she could only nod. Living out here, together, it had been much easier to do as they wanted, and needed, and getting to be together without always feeling like they were doing something they weren’t supposed to, or keeping in mind the possibility that any of their parents could walk in and find them in the middle of… Even so, that freedom didn’t come without the need for them to know where they stood, and what they did or didn’t want at this point in their lives. And a baby, a child…

“Okay,” Lucas spoke up now, letting out a breath and, looking at him, Maya shook her head.

“What are you doing, where’s freaked out guy, I need him,” she pointed at his face, and he reached up to take her hand, hold on to it.

“He passed out. I’m tagging in.”

“Poor freaked out guy,” Maya frowned, all the while feeling how he held her hand. He wasn’t trembling now.

“Look, if you take those tests and it says you are…” he started and, much as she tried to let him just go on, she couldn’t help but cut in.

“Then that means a…” she closed her eyes, feeling her breath caught in a trap.

“If you are…” he tried again.

“Two and a half years left…” she shook her head, feeling her eyes well up again, shutting out the images her head kept conjuring.

“If you are…” he gave her hand a light squeeze, reached the other to hold her face again, and she breathed, looking into those eyes and wondering how they had managed to get so steady all of a sudden. “… then you are, _we_ are, and… and we’ll be okay.” She shook her head, still unable to see through to any place where this could be okay. “It’s… it’s earlier, I know, but it’s what we were headed for anyway, wasn’t it? It’s what we wanted? You, me… a family?” She looked at him, and it was impossible for her to do anything but answer truly.

“Yeah…” she spoke softly, feeling a tear break free and roll down her cheek. It didn’t get far before Lucas’ thumb swept it away. “But after…” There was a beat of silence in the room, and they could vaguely hear the voices of their friends, downstairs. Someone had turned the music on already.

“Maya, look at me,” he asked, and she did. He looked like he was struggling to say something and, somehow, she knew exactly what those words would be if they ever broke free. He was going to ask her what she wanted to do if it turned out she really was pregnant. He was opening the door for them not to… not to… She shook her head at once.

“No going back,” she told him. “If we are…” She loved him so much for even opening that door for her, but she could see how he breathed out when she closed it again. She slipped into his arms again and he held her, and for a minute neither of them moved or spoke.

When there was a knock at the door, they both jumped, turning their heads as one.

“They’re getting kind of impatient down there, how’s it going?” Dylan’s voice asked.

“Damn it…” she whispered, letting go of Lucas and clearing her throat as she dabbed at her face. “Gonna be a while!” she called out.

“Right, I’ll try to distract them. I’m next by the way,” he declared before walking off, giving some zombie grunts that would have gotten them both laughing if not for…

“We don’t have to do this, you know? The makeup, the party… I can make up an excuse, we’ll go somewhere else, or stay and hide up here…” Lucas offered. Maya shook her head. She felt better, just a little. Not so freaked out, definitely, though still plenty freaked, deep down.

“No, right now I think I need to do this. If the tests turn out positive, then everything’s going to change and right now they haven’t yet, so…”

“Got it. Who’s first?” he asked, and Maya looked at him a moment before stretching up on her toes to kiss him. If this was going to be happening, who better at her side than her good Huckleberry? At the same time though, they turned their heads and there were the boxes, still on their bed. They looked back to each other.

“I don’t want to do those, not right now. We have to get ready, all of us, and… well… I don’t have to go,” she motioned, and he couldn’t stop from smirking.

“What, can’t pee on command?” If he could just get one smile out of her… He got a smack to the arm first, but then he got that one, small smile.

“I’m chopping your head off for that one,” she told him, grabbing her bag, the boxes, and stuffing the whole thing in the closet, out of sight.

“Again,” he nodded, taking a seat.

As she did his makeup, neither of them said a word. He would look at her, and she would paint at his face. When she was done with him, she went and changed into her costume. He couldn’t help looking at her as she did, looking at her shape, trying to see if she’d changed… imagining what she’d look like if… if…

She did her own makeup, and he watched, assisted where he could. When she was done, he smiled. She looked very much as she’d done five years ago, same as he did, and he loved that. She caught him staring and she breathed deep, not wanting that tremor to get at her again. Last thing she needed was to ruin her makeup and have to explain why.

“Two things,” she told him before they could call in the next one.

“Yeah?”

“One: Don’t tell anyone, okay?” she asked, and he shook his head. He wouldn’t. “Two: I need you to stick with me tonight. The way I’m feeling right now, I might be a bit… snappy… and it’s not their fault.” He nodded.

“I’ve got you,” he swore, and she hummed. “But you knew that.”

“It’s one of the things I’m secure in taking as a sure thing in life,” she confirmed. “That, and the fact that you love me as much as I love you.”

“That’s a lot,” he smiled.

“We can take it,” she raised her chin.

“Agreed.”

“Kisses for courage?” Maya requested, and Lucas complied gladly.

The lineup of faces in need of being done up started to roll through the room. Maya quickly found backup assistance from Catriona King, who turned out to be very good in this department. Little by little, their band of creatures and monsters and creepy things came to life. Zombies, and vampires, werewolves and witches, and Rosa the spooky doll… As it turned out, she could deal with _this_ dress. With the makeup and the hair and everything that came with it, she became someone else. She even managed to brave her contacts, which were a battle in and of themselves.

She was the last of them to be done up and, when Maya was done with her and she moved to leave the room, to return downstairs. She looked back to the closed closet door and she took a breath. No… She couldn’t wait… She’d have to find out, today. She had to know.

TO BE CONTINUED


	115. Their Shock of Anticipation

It wasn’t as though she had _always_ anticipated this moment, but then at one point, as she’d been told about babies, and she’d seen what pregnancy tests were like, in movies and all of that… She had imagined a day would come where she would be sat in a bathroom somewhere, waiting until a plus or minus sign appeared, or one bar or two bars, whatever it was that was supposed to come. And when she’d create that scene in her head, it would be her and Riley, sitting together.

Of course, back then, there hadn’t been someone else in the picture, someone who would be as involved and as concerned as she was over the results. So, much as she would have liked to have her best friend from New York next to her, as she decided to just rip off that band-aid and find out if she was having a baby or not, it was her best friend from Texas that she went and sought out that day.

She needed to find him, needed to get the two of them in that bathroom before the party really started. She also needed water… so much water. She made her way down the stairs, feeling like a spy, prowling along. Her mission was simple. Get in, get water, get boyfriend, get out. Her obstacles were made of friends, plenty of them, eager to start talking or to get her to dance with them, or asking after the candy for the trick-or-treaters, or wanting to take pictures… She needed to let it all roll off of her, nothing could stick…

“Pitcher… pitcher…” she muttered, opening the cupboard doors until she found it. She set it in the sink and turned on the tap, letting the water rush in. It didn’t matter how silly it made her feel, she stood there and she watched that water, letting it hopefully scare up something she could use.

“Is that for me?” She almost spilled the pitcher as she turned and found Willow standing there. She was to be their ‘fair maiden’ tonight, the unsuspecting innocent who was to get caught up in the midst of monsters. But then she wasn’t so innocent after all, oh no, she was a monster slayer…

“What?” Maya blinked, looking back to the pitcher and understanding. “Oh… no, I, uh… I’m just thirsty,” she nodded, and she could have kicked herself for how unconvincing she was to herself and probably Willow, too.

“Okay?” the girl smiled and frowned at once.

“Have you, uh… Have you seen Lucas?” Maya asked, trying again to look casual.

“I was actually coming to find you because he wanted me to tell you to meet him upstairs,” she hooked her thumb over her shoulder.

“Did he?”

“Yeah, he must have been thirsty, too, he had a big bottle with him,” Willow shrugged.

“Of course, he did,” Maya breathed. Of course, he knew she wouldn’t be able to wait. “You can have this one,” she told her bandmate, indicating the pitcher, briefly wondering if maybe she’d need it, too. How much was this going to take?

“What are you guys up to?” Willow asked, clearly not buying whatever she was selling, because who would be dumb enough not to see through her?

“Maybe nothing… maybe something…” Maya breathed to herself. When she looked back up, she saw Willow’s eyes go wide before taking a quick downturn. Maya moved to her at once, holding a finger to her lips. “Please don’t say anything?” she whispered.

“I won’t,” Willow promised. “Are you okay?”

“That’s a complicated question right now,” Maya admitted. “Can you just… cover for us down here? Please?”

“You got it,” Willow nodded.

Maya hurried back up the stairs, whispering her boyfriend’s name until he appeared at the door to their room. She nudged him back inside and shut the door again.

“Give me that?” she indicated the water bottle, and he gave it to her. “There’s no way this is going to be dignified,” she held up the bottle like ‘cheers’ and got to drinking the water.

There was nothing to this but waiting now. As Maya went to dig out one each of the boxes from the closet, Lucas went to the window, checking the party’s progress as best he could.

“There’s some kids on the street already,” he reported. “No one for the party yet, too early.” When he looked back, he found she was pacing the room, still nursing her bottle, trying to work up the need to go, by the looks of it. He didn’t know where her head was at right now, but he was certain she hadn’t heard a word of what he’d said.

He wouldn’t have known what to tell her. Right now, he was keeping it together and that was solely thanks to her. He needed to give her this much to hang on to until they knew where they stood, and once they knew, well… they’d know, and they’d go from there.

“You ready?” he asked when he saw her move to stand by the door, the four boxes stuffed inside her cape. She shushed him, listening at the door.

“Go see if there’s anyone?” she asked him and he nodded, moving around her and into the hall. He moved quietly to the bathroom door, saw there was no one, and signalled for her to follow. She dashed after him and he locked the door once they were inside. “This would be so much more exciting if it wasn’t… you know,” she sighed, turning to him.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked. She tossed him two of the boxes.

“Open, lay out, read?”

“Got it.” He got to work on his first box. “If they’re positive, it’s going to be a funny story someday, us in here, in our costumes and…”

“Don’t…” she started, paused. He turned to her and she let out a breath, looking for how to say this. “I… I can’t start to think about stuff like that, not yet.”

“Stuff like what?” he asked, confused.

“I don’t know, just… stories, the future, with a real kid, not… not until we know that there’s one right now. Because if there isn’t… if it becomes real to me and there’s nothing, I…”

He hadn’t even thought about it that way, and now that he did, he felt like an idiot. So, he nodded to her, vowing that he understood, and he got back on task. Slowly but surely, they had the four tests and their instructions laid out. The times were different on some of them, so they set them up from shortest to longest.

“Right,” Maya sighed. “Guess it’s time to get on with it.”

At least the water had done its work, and from the way they had not been interrupted by a knock at the door, they could hope this meant Willow was doing her part, too. Maya told Lucas about their encounter and how she’d figured out what was going on. She didn’t say anything about her, but Lucas could see on his girlfriend’s face that she sort of wished it had been Riley who had caught her and put two and two together. Instead, she had brought one more person into the secret and it hadn’t been her.

“So… did that,” she breathed out when she was done. “Just going to go and wash my hands now. Do you have the timer?”

“Got it, started it,” he reported. They would just wait as long as the longest took, then they could inspect them all at once. She came and sat next to him on the edge of the tub. When he held up his arm, she gladly tipped over to set her head on his shoulder, and he closed his arm around her, holding her near. Neither of them said a word, only kept on staring at his phone, watching the seconds tick down.

He knew, as they sat there, that he’d already fallen into the trap from which she was working so hard to keep herself. All it had taken had been a thought, a simple thought. They were sitting there, waiting to know if they were about to become parents or not, and he remembered how Willow knew, how _she_ was pregnant, and so he thought about how their kids would be born almost at the same time, and they could grow up together and…

And just like that, he’d made it real, in his mind. But they were still waiting to know. Maybe there wouldn’t be a playmate for Willow and Lion’s baby…

“Guys?” a voice was heard from the other side of the door, and it made them look up.

“Willow?” Maya asked.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, it’s just… They need you downstairs, and I wouldn’t be up here if it wasn’t…” They could tell by the tone of her voice that she hated to interrupt, knowing what they were looking to find out, so that said plenty about what they needed to do right now. There were still two minutes for them to wait, and they might not even have that.

“Go see what’s up,” Maya told Lucas. “I’ll find a way to hide all this,” she went on, then, seeing the look on his face. “I won’t look alone. I’ll wait until we can both be there.” He could trust her word on that, he knew, so he sighed and, after kissing the top of her head, he went out to join Willow. “Now where do I…” she mumbled to herself.

She had to be quick or she might see something she had just sworn not to see until he was back, and she didn’t want to break her promise. But she also had to ensure that no one would stumble on any of these things if they came up here. They shouldn’t, as the upstairs would be off-limits all night, but she couldn’t take any chances. Finally, carefully, she picked up the towel on which they’d set everything, and she scurried from the bathroom and to their room. She placed the whole thing in the closet and shut the door.

“Better not all smell like…” she grumbled to herself before stepping out of the room, shutting that door, peeking into the bathroom to confirm everything looked normal in there, and finally marching off down the stairs to find out what was going on.

Whatever it was, it looked like Lucas had settled it in the short time it had taken her to hide the tests. He’d only just turned back and spotted her when they both heard the chime of the timer on his phone. They stared at each other, and she figured he had to be as aware of its meaning, that he was as set to tremors as she was. Upstairs, hidden in their closet, was the answer to the question holding both their lives in its grip. Baby or no baby? They only had to go and see.

This was just the moment when the first of their guests had to arrive.

The next thing they knew, both Lucas and Maya were caught up in a series of greetings, commenting on this costume or that costume… They found some of their own classmates, their own guests, which made it impossible to just disappear for a minute to go look at some sticks. Much as they tried to stay together, easing the chance that they could go upstairs together, it took no time at all for them to be pulled in opposite directions.

Maya didn’t need long to figure just how likely it was that they wouldn’t manage to go up there for a long while. She was going to have to navigate this party and try to act normal, all the while trying not to get attached to a possibility… and all the while having to stay mindful of what she should or shouldn’t do, in the event that this possibility was a reality.

TO BE CONTINUED


	116. Their Shock of Stress

“Hey, everything alright there?” Bishop asked. Lucas looked over at him, breaking from the line of sight he’d been working to maintain with Maya, well across the room. The place had filled up a lot faster than any of them expected. They had to guess word of mouth had gone around from the previous year’s party. It was going to spill over into the backyard, too, they could already tell.

“Yeah, why?” Lucas asked his friend.

“I don’t know, you just look like you’re not all there tonight.” _I’m really not._

“Just thinking about tomorrow, and her,” he nodded to where he could still just barely see his girlfriend. That wasn’t a total lie, was it?

“Oh, that’s right. Five years, yeah? Congrats, man,” Bishop clapped him on the shoulder. Distracted as he was, it almost bowled him over. “Sorry,” Bishop laughed.

“It’s fine,” Lucas told him. “And yes, five years.”

“Day after Halloween, huh?”

“Yeah, well there was more to it than that,” he shrugged.

More to it, like a kiss, and months and months of knowing they liked one another and not being ready to take that leap before, finally, an almost second kiss, in a haunted house, had set up all the pieces for them to make that change the morning after. He would go so far as to say it had been seven years, since that day outside the principal’s office.

“So, special plans?” Bishop asked. His smile said all it meant to say. He wanted to know if Lucas intended to make a proposal.

He wasn’t going to, at least that wasn’t what he was aiming to do, not for a few years still, but now… should he? If she was pregnant… But if he did that now, tomorrow, if he did it with the chance of a baby coming, wouldn’t it just make it look like he was only asking because of that? And if he _didn’t_ ask, would that be any better?

“I… I’m not sure,” he answered honestly, as honestly as he was able to without breaking his promise not to tell anyone about what they had been up to before coming downstairs earlier.

_I have the ring though…_ His grandmother’s ring, passed on to him for whenever the occasion presented itself. All he’d need to do would be to go and get it back from his safe deposit box at the bank… in Austin. _I sort of have the ring._

Even if he didn’t have it with him, he could do it, could go to her, and he knew the words would be there. She’d know he was serious about it, that it wasn’t just about this baby… if there was one. _You love me as much as I love you._ She’d said the words, and it was true, so then she’d have to know how serious he was about this, if…

Oh, there he was again, getting ahead of himself, treating their situation like something real when they didn’t know that it was, not yet. He had to get to her, find a way for them to head upstairs…

“Hey, Lucas!” he heard as he was working to cut his way through the room. When he turned, he spotted Rosa, waving her arm at him, signalling for him to head in her direction.

“In a minute!” he called back, then, “Five minutes! I don’t know…” Whatever it was, it was going to have to wait, he needed to get to Maya, to…

“Your cousin’s here!” Rosa shouted, and he stopped, sighed, and diverted back toward his co-worker. “Looks like I’m not the one sneaking in this year. For the record, I was a lot more subtle about it than he was.”

“Where is he?” Lucas asked, trying to find him. Rosa stretched on to her toes, aiming to see over the others’ heads. When that didn’t work, she started to hop around.

“Over there!” she finally reported, pointing. “Dressed like a centurion. He’s either into ancient Rome or Doctor Who, find out for me?”

“Thanks,” he started to go but turned back again a second later. “Can you get to Maya, tell her I’m looking for her? I have my phone on me.”

“On it!” Rosa disappeared into the crowd while Lucas went in search of the centurion.

When Joseph saw him coming, he stood up at once from where he’d been sitting, eating chips from the handful he’d grabbed. Lucas ushered him to a corner where they might be able to talk and actually hear one another.

“What are you doing here, Joseph?” he asked.

“I heard about the party, I wanted to check it out,” he shrugged, looking moderately startled at the reception he got. Lucas sighed.

“Sorry, I’m not yelling at you, it’s just hard to hear,” he indicated their surroundings and hoped the lie would hold. He _had_ been yelling, sort of, although if it wasn’t the noise then it wasn’t because he wasn’t happy to see him either. If not for everything that was happening, or not happening, it would all have been fine, but now… “Do your parents know you’re here?”

“They do,” Joseph nodded.

“And the party?” Lucas pried.

“They do,” his cousin nodded again, then, “I didn’t tell them how big it was, but in my defense, I had no idea it would be.” Lucas sighed, his hand very nearly going to rub at his eyes before he remembered the makeup that turned him into a headless ghost. “Do you want me to leave?”

Lucas looked at him, fifteen years old, straight-A student, polite… He’d just wanted to visit his cousin, go to a party, maybe see the girl he had a crush on… He looked at Joseph and he thought about the child that may or may not have been growing in Maya’s belly at that exact moment. He was trying so hard not to think about it as real, but now he was standing in front of his young cousin and he thought… If he was about to be a dad, shouldn’t he start being a good example? He didn’t see Joseph as being the kind to get himself into trouble, but then _he_ had been a good kid, too, and then he’d gotten suspended and had to start 7th grade all over again. And who knew what could happen if he stayed here and got out of sight and…

“I’m sorry, Joseph, I… Look, I’ll drive you home for now, but we’ll find another time and hang out. I’ll make up for this.”

“Okay,” Joseph replied, abashed. “I should say goodnight to Rosa,” he looked around as they were moving toward the door. Lucas closed his eyes, took a breath. So much for going upstairs with Maya. It would take an hour at least to drive to the Hillards’ and back. He might have tried to get her to come along, but he could already guess that would only spiral, too. All he could do for now was to let her know where he was going and why. He texted her, then told Dylan to tell Maya, in case she didn’t have her phone after all.

The drive up to the Hillards’ was mostly quiet on the cousins’ part. The radio was on, and they listened to the music. As they were pulling on to the street, the car was flooded with the sound of Rosa Del Vecchio’s voice… the new song. Joseph was trying to play it cool, but Lucas could see the smile hiding in the corners of his mouth.

“By the way,” he sighed, looking to his cousin as the car pulled up to the house, “Rosa wanted to know if you were dressed like that because you like ancient Rome or because of Doctor Who?” The centurion couldn’t hide _that_ smile.

He didn’t have to lie when he went up to the house with Joseph and explained to his uncle the reason why he was bringing him back. The party had not been what he’d expected, and Lucas had figured it would be safer to just get him home. After his uncle thanked him, Lucas turned back to his cousin, telling him he’d call in a couple days to figure out what they’d do to make up for tonight. They shook on it, and then he was bound back for the house, the party, and the unanswered question.

If not for the promise he’d made, he knew he had been so close to just calling on his uncle for advice. He was the closest thing he had to a father figure, near enough that he didn’t have to drive all the way back to Austin for it, which was almost odd to think about when he’d known the guy for all of two months, but it was still the truth. Maya had asked him not to tell anyone though, and he would hold himself to that request, so long as she needed him to do so.

Alone in his car, with the windows rolled down, the air of the waning October night flowing over him, he had never been so aware of how much being stuck inside that party, with so many people around him as he tried to work through this revelation, this potential, had been… stifling. Out here, finally, he was breathing, and it felt good. He hoped whatever she was doing, back at the house, Maya had managed to get some air, too. If he was having trouble breathing right now, it would be so much worse for her.

Getting back to the house, it didn’t look like the party had missed him. It was still going as strong as ever. Rather than to cut through the throngs, he went around the side and to the back. There were plenty of people there, too, but it was open.

“Lucas!” He turned, finding not Maya but their second New Yorker. Riley came toward him, shambling along in all her zombie glory. She hadn’t donned her vampire costume of five years ago, instead melding into the pack of the undead with Chiara… with Dylan.

“Do you know where Maya is?” he asked.

“Last I saw her, she was in the kitchen,” Riley turned back to look, even as he did. They could see well enough into the kitchen, and she wasn’t there anymore. “Want me to help you find her?” Lucas looked at her, and in a split second he made a decision. The way he saw it, she should have been read into this a long time ago, and Maya would be relieved for it.

“Come with me,” he started back toward the front of the house and she followed. He didn’t stop until they were a little way down the sidewalk, far enough from the house that no one could possibly hear them.

“What’s going on?” Riley asked now, concerned.

“Maya… She… There’s a chance she might be… pregnant,” he finally said it, and he could see the surprise work its way loose from the zombie girl. He held up his hands at once. “No one else is supposed to know right now, okay?” he told her, and she made herself nod instead of speak. “Willow found out by accident earlier, and we were upstairs waiting to see what the tests said, but then we had to come downstairs, and we haven’t been able to get back up there and look, and…”

“Alright, come on,” Riley took hold of his arm and pulled him back toward the house. They were going to get to the bottom of this. They had to get to the bottom of this. “Go upstairs, I’ll find her and get her to you!” Riley shouted over the music.

“Okay!” he shouted back. “Thank you!” Riley just pointed up the stairs, and he went.

TO BE CONTINUED


	117. Their Shock of Uncertainty

She had been looking forward to this party for weeks and, now that she was in it, all she wanted was for everyone to just go home and let her have her peace, let her and Lucas head on up the stairs to find what she’d hidden in their closet earlier. Oh, she could fake her way through this and no one would have any clue just how miserable she was. But that would just mean that she was still miserable and no closer to an escape.

“I’m going to go and grab a drink from the kitchen, you want one?” Leona asked her, moving her witch’s hat around when it looked ready to fall off her head.

“I… no, I’m good, thanks,” Maya shook her head and watched her disappear out of sight before sighing to herself, rolling her head around to give her neck a stretch.

She just had to assume that those tests would be positive, until she knew for sure, and that meant no drinks, not the kind that was handed out by whoever of their friends was presently in charge of that. It wasn’t as though she made a habit of it, but at a party like this she would have had one or two, definitely. After the infamous drunken night, she was more or less aware of her limits, not that it would matter, not tonight, when she was abstaining for the sake of a fetus she may or may not be carrying.

“Maya!” She looked up, looking for whoever was calling her name. She couldn’t find them, so… maybe she’d imagined… “Excuse me, sorry!” Rosa appeared now, cutting in between the backs of two people dancing with other people. “Is my wig still on alright?” she asked, and Maya was thankful for the smile it brought out of her.

“Come here,” she waved her bandmate forward and reached up to settle the bone-white fake hair pulled into two braids, one on either side of her face and dangling over her shoulders. “You’re good.”

“Lucas was looking for you,” Rosa reported, and now Maya felt her heart speed for a beat as she scanned the crowd, hoping to spot the face she wanted to see.

“Where is he?” she asked Rosa.

“He went to find Joseph!”

“Joseph… Hillard?” Maya frowned, lost. “What’s he doing here?”

“More or less what I was doing last year!” Rosa laughed. Maya moved from where she stood, but it was no use, she couldn’t track her boyfriend down.

“Maya!” a new voice called soon after that, and she tried not to look too disappointed when she found that it belonged to Dylan and not Lucas. Their zombie friend reached them and nodded at her. “Do you have your phone on you?”

“I…” she patted at herself for a moment before letting out a breath. “Nope, upstairs,” she told him.

“Lucas wanted me to tell you to check your phone before he left,” Dylan revealed.

“He left?” she repeated.

“Yeah, he was with his cousin? Was he supposed to be here?”

“No… No, he wasn’t,” Maya excused herself from her friends before heading up the stairs to hers and Lucas’ room. Her phone was on the dresser, right where she’d left it.

_Lucas: Joseph showed up, I’m driving him home, be back in an hour. 366._

“It had to be tonight, didn’t it?” she mumbled to herself, bowing her head.

It felt good to be up here for a moment. No noise, more air… She wished she could just go down there again and enjoy the party, dance with her friends, laugh at some of the costumes… They were supposed to have this game. They’d told everyone they’d invited about the theme, and everyone was to be a vampire, or ghost, or werewolf, or witch, or zombie, their choice. Then, they would group up here, the vampires together, the ghosts, etc. And then they’d see who reigned supreme. Now, Team Vamp was minus one bloodsucker. Maya pulled out her fake fangs, breathing out for relief.

Her gaze drifted to the closet door. It was closed, but then she knew what was inside. All she had to do was open that door and pull out the bundle of sticks and she would know if she was pregnant or not. Whatever the answer was, at least she’d know and she wouldn’t be caught in limbo anymore.

But she couldn’t look. She was going to find out with Lucas, both of them together, that was the deal. And he wasn’t here now… wouldn’t be for a good hour.

“I saw you come up here, are you okay?” She turned at the sound of Willow’s voice.

“No,” Maya replied frankly, eyes sweeping back to the closet door without meaning to.

“Is that where you hid them?” Willow wondered.

“Yeah,” Maya admitted. “I really hope it doesn’t smell in there right now,” she scrunched up her nose. Willow laughed quietly.

“Did you look?”

“Can’t. Lucas and I were going to look together earlier, before…”

“I’m sorry about that,” Willow stepped forward.

“Wasn’t your fault,” Maya insisted, turning to her. When her friend and bandmate opened her arms up for a hug, Maya didn’t have to think about it twice. She took it gladly, holding on to the older girl, breathing deep.

“The moment was weird for me, too,” Willow told her. “I know our situations are different, but… it was still huge.”

“Yeah… How many tests did you take?” she had to ask.

“Two. You?”

“Uh… three,” Maya lied. She told Willow about Lucas going to the Hillards’ to drive Joseph home, how he would be gone for a while.

“Want to go in the basement and play around while you wait for him to get back?”

“So much,” she hummed, and she followed her friend down to the ground floor and then the basement. There was a lineup waiting for the bathroom, as was to be expected. When they spotted Maya and Willow, a few of them clearly recognized them for being in the band, though they tried not to look like they were staring.

Maya unlocked the instrument room and locked the door again once she and Willow were inside. She wasn’t looking for anyone barging in. Only those of them who lived here or were in the band had a key.

“We were here last year. That’s when we became part of TXNY. So, does that mean this is our… bandversary?” Willow pondered, and Maya chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess it is.” They could have managed to get the others down here with them but, if they did that, there was much more of a chance that she’d end up having to tell them about the maybe baby, and that would only make it more real. Until she knew, she just couldn’t…

“Go ahead, I’ll follow,” Willow nodded to the guitar. Maya picked it up before going to sit on the ground, her back to the wall. After a moment, she started to strum at the strings, an old favorite of her mother’s. When Willow recognized it, she smiled, picking up her ukulele and taking a seat at her side. She played along, and when Maya started to sing, she sang with her.

They went on like this for some time, one girl and then the other picking a song. Maya could just feel the stress evaporate from her. She forgot all about the party, the noise, the crowded heat. Still, she couldn’t forget about what lay hidden up in that closet, or what might be taking root inside her. Eventually, she set her guitar aside.

“Thanks for that,” she told Willow.

“Anytime,” her friend smiled.

“Will you join me in a tasty glass of… milk?” Maya intoned. Willow laughed.

“My treat.”

They went back upstairs, locking up behind them, passing one more bathroom lineup. In the kitchen, they found Riley was now the one in charge of handing out the drinks.

“Hey!” she smiled when she saw them. “Do you want something?” she indicated her ‘bar.’

“I’m backing up Willow and Willow Junior, so two glasses of milk, please?” As Riley went to get their cups, Maya could see Willow looking at her with a curious look. Maya only shook her head. When they got their milk, they thanked Riley, who was nearly due for a switch with whoever would come to relieve her.

“Why didn’t you tell her?” Willow asked when they ended up back upstairs, in Maya and Lucas’ room. Willow sat on the edge of the bed, Maya on her desk chair.

“I wanted to,” Maya shrugged. “But it was crowded, and hot, and I just wanted to get out of there.”

“Yeah, this is much better,” Willow agreed. They drank their milk in silence.

Maya was getting to feel like she was in the middle of the Telltale Heart, only it was four sticks and they didn’t exactly make a sound but she could still feel them, and it was too much.

“I can’t stay in here,” she sighed. “I just want to look, and I can’t, and it’s driving me nuts.”

“Okay, come on,” Willow stood, and Maya followed her. Soon they were back downstairs, and they managed to find a corner of the living room that wasn’t too crowded, so they sat together. That only lasted so long before Lion spotted them and reclaimed his girlfriend for a dance. Willow offered to stay with her, but Maya told her to go. One of them should enjoy this night, shouldn’t they?

“Maya, there you are,” Leona found her soon after, and she pulled for her to sit at her side.

“Stay with me a while?” Maya asked, semi-dramatically.

“Sure,” Leona laughed. “Where’d you go?” She told her about being in the basement with Willow, and then upstairs, and now here. “You miss Lucas, huh?” the girl guessed, and she couldn’t have been more right. At this point, his absence was starting to feel substantial, and she needed him to be back already.

“Peaches! Peaches!”

“Here!” she looked up when she heard Riley’s voice. Good, this was good, she was just going to hoard all her friends, here in her quiet corner. When she got up to help her friend find her, the brunette emerged from the masses and immediately locked her arms around her. Something in the way she held her… She couldn’t explain it, but she knew that Riley knew, and if she knew, then she could think of only one person who’d actually tell her, which meant that Lucas was back.

She hugged her friend with all that she’d been feeling since earlier that afternoon, held on for a good minute, and then she asked where Lucas was. Riley revealed that she’d sent him up to their room to wait while she found her. With thanks, Maya cut her way through the crowd, or at least Riley cut through, her voice defying anyone to stand in their way. Finally, Maya wound her way up the stairs and to her bedroom door. Finding her ghost inside, she rushed into his arms and he held her tight. He’d been waiting for this moment as much as she had.

“Shut the door, okay?” she told him.

“Okay,” he went to do as much while she went to the closet and retrieved the bundle without looking at any of its contents. She brought it to their bed and set it down before taking a seat. He came around and sat next to her, looked at her… It was up to her now, he’d follow her lead.

“Twice I was up here tonight, and I so wanted to look, but I waited… I couldn’t do this without you,” she looked at him. He took her hand, gave it a squeeze, kissed her fingers. They had to look now. They’d been made to wait long enough.

TO BE CONTINUED


	118. Their Shock of Discovery

They weren’t going to return to the party, it was sort of agreed upon without ever being spoken. So, before they would actually look, she set herself to the task of removing their makeup and, when that was done, they changed out of their costumes. It wasn’t the ghost and the vampire who were about to find out what those tests had to say.

Lucas and Maya sat together, looking at the contents of the towel before them. Somehow, all four tests had ended up face down, which was just as well. They could turn them over and see what they showed. Everything else, the boxes, the instructions, had been set aside.

“I can’t…” she breathed, looking back at him. It would have been so much easier if they hadn’t been stuck waiting so long. It had made the whole thing feel so much bigger than it already was and now… now it felt like she wouldn’t remember how to breathe in a few seconds.

“Do you want me to?” he offered. He was starting to feel it, too.

“No, I… I can do it, I…” She wasn’t even moving her hand. “Okay, turn one over,” she finally relented. They shared a look. Lucas sat forward, looking to the four tests.

“This one was one line for no, two for yes, right?” he asked, pointing to the one on the left. She nodded. He reached out and turned it over. There was one line.

“Next one,” she told him, quietly. “That was a plus or minus,” she recalled.

“Yeah,” he agreed before turning this one over, too. It showed a negative sign. The next one was also a one line or two result, and as with the first there was only the one line.

Maya reached out and the turned the last over herself. By now, she had a pretty good idea of what it would say, and the fact that this was the one that said so with actual words, it was kind of to the point. _Not pregnant._

“So… Now we know,” she stated, her voice even.

“We do,” he agreed, sounding a lot like her.

“Can you do me a favor, can you go downstairs for a second?”

“Drink?” he guessed.

“Yes, please.” He got up, but before he could go… “Wait,” she told him. She pulled her bedside table’s drawer open, knowing there was an empty plastic bag inside. She gathered all the empty boxes and instructions and the negative sticks, tossed them inside, tied it shut. “Can you…”

“Yeah,” he took the bag from her, held her gaze.

“I’m okay,” she promised him. After another beat, he went and left the room, to throw out the bag in the bin outside and pick up two cups from the kitchen.

As she waited for him, Maya listened to the muffled sound of the music from downstairs, the sound of people shouting, laughing… She looked down at herself, her fingers just wanting to graze at the hem of her shirt, to pull it up, just to look… There’d be nothing there, she knew, nothing except what there had been before she had believed there was anything different. All she saw here were the results of the last several weeks going to the gym with Lucas. She let her hands fall at her sides, waiting for her boyfriend to return.

Instead, the first person to come through was Riley. Going by the cup she carried over, Maya guessed she’d run into Lucas downstairs, and he’d sent her up with the drink. She took a few sips before looking to her friend, who now sat across from her. She didn’t have to say anything, neither of them did. Maya leaned forward, and Riley embraced her.

“I wanted you to be up there with me, you know?” she mumbled.

“I know,” Riley told her. “Next time, I will, okay?”

“Next time…” Maya repeated.

Riley stepped back out when Lucas returned with his own cup. He shut the door, came to sit with her. They looked at each other, but neither knew what to say, where to start. So, he told her about Joseph, how he’d shown up dressed like a centurion, which was apparently a Doctor Who reference. When he’d told Rosa about it, she’d been very happy, just like Joseph had been when he’d figured out that she’d picked up on it.

She told him about going into the basement and playing music with Willow for a while, and then their conversation over a glass of milk. She didn’t have to tell him about what this party had turned into for her, he could see it all over her face.

“You got there, didn’t you?” he quietly asked, and it took all of three seconds before he saw one, and two, and three tears break from her eyes. He put his cup on the bedside table, took the other from her hand and set it next to his own, before stretching out on his side of the bed and pulling her close. “I did, too,” he confessed, kissing her forehead, brushing the hair from her face as she let it go, let go of the image which had been growing steadily and relentlessly in her mind all night as she waited to know the truth.

She hadn’t meant to, oh, she’d worked so hard not to cross that line, not to look at this maybe baby as anything but an unconfirmed thing, not as something with a potential, with a future, with a timeline that lined up with their own at this very moment. But then the more time had gone on, the more her mind and her heart had conspired to betray her. They presented her with this image of a beautiful boy with her eyes, a beautiful girl with his smile… and then they let her wonder if he or she would be an artist like her, a musician, if they would love animals like he did… She saw a little blond-headed child running after a child that had to be Willow and Lion’s one…

And now… now it was all gone, and she didn’t know why she was so upset. It had never been real, there had never been anything in her that would turn into a human being, not now. This was a good thing, she knew it was, for all the reasons she’d told Lucas earlier. It was too soon. They both still had a couple of years and then some before they were done with school, and to have added a baby to all that… They could never have managed it, she knew. They would have needed to make so many sacrifices, and in the end, they wouldn’t have been able to give that kid the future it deserved, the future it would get by being born later, when they were older, better positioned in the world.

She knew all that, she understood all that and she agreed with it. But still she cried, and she held onto him, as he held on to her, whispering words of comfort. She could hear it in his voice. He was crying, too. He was upset, too. He’d imagined it, too. They’d lost nothing, had nothing _to_ lose, and still they ached and grieved for it. There may not have been a reason that would make sense to most people, but it mattered to them and that was all there was to it.

At some point, they became aware that the party had ended downstairs, or at least he did. When he looked down, he found that Maya was asleep, still holding on to him. There was a quiet knock at the door a few minutes later.

“Come in,” he replied, just loud enough to be heard. When the door opened, he could see Sophie, Chiara at her side, and Dylan and Riley behind them. Lucas found Riley’s gaze, and he knew she must have guessed the outcome of the tests and told the others, so they would be able to support the two of them, however needed.

“You okay?” Dylan whispered.

“Will be,” Lucas told him.

“Maya?” Sophie whispered, seeing now that she was asleep. Lucas replied for her, he hoped.

“Will be.”

It was well over midnight now. November 1st… He looked down to the sleeping girl in his arms. He wouldn’t dare to wake her, not even for this.

He couldn’t remember what it was like not to know that this girl was his future, not only that he wanted to make his family with her someday but that she felt the same way. They’d lived for so long with this idea at the back of their mind, and tonight it had been forced to the front, paraded around, and then forced to march right back to its hiding space. It hurt now, but still… He knew it hurt for a good reason, and he knew that when they reached the other side, they would be made stronger for it.

November 1st… Five years… He’d made all these plans, but now he didn’t know if she’d be up for them. He had a strong feeling she wouldn’t even go to class in the morning. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to go if she stayed here like this. Then again, maybe she would go after all. Maybe she would prefer to sit in class, to let it occupy her mind instead of the disappointments of this night.

“Lucas?” a sleepy voice asked, and he looked down.

“Right here,” he reported, kissing the top of her head.

“It’s after midnight, isn’t it?”

“It is,” he nodded. She breathed out, turned her eyes up to look at him.

“I never thanked you, for telling Riley, for sending her to me.” He shook his head. She didn’t have to. “No, really,” she insisted. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Happy fifth,” she gave him a small smile.

“It will be,” he told her. “And the start of five more, ten more, all the years more.”

“All the years more,” she repeated. She liked the sound of that.

“Do you still want everything the same?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” she frowned. He didn’t have to say it. “I… I want to spend tomorrow with the man I love,” she looked at him. “And I want to remember the day of our fifth anniversary. I’m going to remember today whether I like it or not, but I want to remember tomorrow for all the reasons I should remember it.”

“Good,” he smiled. That settled that. They might have had a small thing tomorrow and the ‘real’ anniversary over the weekend, instead of taking another weekday night off from studying or work, but they couldn’t just let the milestone down, could they?

Soon, they both drifted off to sleep together. It didn’t matter that they hadn’t changed into their pyjamas, or gone under the blankets, or brushed their teeth… All they wanted was this. Peace, quiet, and each other.

Lucas knew, even as he was falling asleep, that this wasn’t going to be over just like that, as much as he wanted for them to start a new page, to put this one aside. This night, the feelings it had called up in them, it wasn’t just going to go away. How it would manifest in their lives, he couldn’t say, couldn’t know. Would it ever reach his parents, or her parents? Would it still exist as sadness or would it keep them looking toward the future, the one they’d wanted, the one which had come so close to being… so close.

They had lost Halloween that year, but now that it was November 1st, it was a beginning, as it had been for them, five years ago. It would be a day to remember, just as she wanted it to be.

TO BE CONTINUED

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After posting the 2020 daily, I will bring along the weekly alternate universe tale that spun-off from this block of chapters, where the tests were positive... Be on the look-out! :)


	119. Their Shock of Truth

When Maya opened her eyes that morning, for a few moments, she didn’t remember the night before. She only felt a mix of warmth and chill that agreed with her. The chill of fall in the air, and the warmth of arms around her. It was as she realized that she was still in her clothes from the day before, and that they were sleeping on a still made bed, that she remembered everything else, as though it had been held back, barely, and now she’d knocked over whatever was holding it back, letting it tumble over her.

She was late, and she’d believed that she was pregnant. There had been tests, and hours later, there had been answers. Negative all around. No baby, just tears for something that had never been there, and this lingering feeling like, for a few hours, it _had_ been real.

It was November 1st. She remembered that, too. Five years ago, today, after much debate and uncertainty, she had known that there had been enough waiting on both their parts. When Lucas Friar had come to walk her to school that morning, she’d taken him up by his collar, the better not to allow doubt into her intentions, and she’d kissed him, and he’d kissed her, and they’d been together ever since.

He was here now, holding her, supporting her, keeping her warm. Whatever else she was feeling in that moment, the one thing that didn’t change was how much she loved him. That was what she’d think about today.

She extended herself until she could press a kiss to his lips, and a few seconds later she felt him kiss her back. He opened his eyes, only for a moment, then closed them again and went on kissing her.

“Morning,” she told him.

“Morning,” he replied.

“Happy anniversary,” she followed.

“Happy anniversary,” he agreed. He kept her gaze now, and he didn’t need to ask.

“I’m okay,” she promised, then, because she knew better than to assume that he couldn’t see right through her, “Today is not a day for tears, or regrets. Today is a day for great things. It’s also a day that was yours to plan, so tell me: where do we start?”

When they made their way downstairs, the house still hadn’t quite shed the evidence of the previous night’s festivities, but on the whole it was their home again, complete with four roommates, who were presently in the kitchen, hard at work cooking up what looked to be breakfast for two alone.

“Aren’t you guys eating, too?” Maya asked, and they all looked up, only now realizing that they’d come along. Riley left the pan where she’d been making scrambled eggs, in a beeline to hug her best friend. “I’m good, Honey, I’m good,” she promised quietly, though she gladly took the hug anyway.

“We already ate,” Riley eventually answered her question. “Sit, yours is almost ready.”

They were soon served, as promised, and Maya seriously doubted _their_ breakfast had been this extensive, or that it included the rose, which Lucas offered out to her. She remembered, every time, on this day and Valentine’s Day, how he had adopted the custom from his father, and it never failed to make her smile.

“Thanks,” she set it before her plate.

Whatever she continued to feel from the day before, it didn’t affect their conversation as they ate, not entirely. At first, they looked to be struggling to figure out where to start, what to say, but then the more time went on, the old rhythm came to them, and they were laughing by the end of it.

They ate alone, and they drove up to school on their own. The others had exceptionally travelled in Sophie’s car, which they found just a few spaces away from where they usually parked.

“They changed those in the night, didn’t they?” Maya chuckled when she spotted the Christmas decorations already adorning some of the areas where, just the day before, they could see pumpkins and black cats.

“Midnight on the dot,” Lucas nodded. His smile seemed powered on the sight of _her_ smile. When she looked back at him, she turned to face him, grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

“Anything I should know about what comes next?” she asked, inches from his face.

“I’ll be outside your last class when it’s over, so don’t wander off too far, okay?” he replied.

“Got it,” she smiled before kissing him. He held her for a few moments after that, knowing they needed to head off to their own classes but wishing he didn’t have to be away from her.

“I miss those days when you sat just in front of me,” he told her.

“Me, too,” she laughed. “It was a perfect place to lean back, be all cool.”

“You’re still cool,” he assured her.

“Oh, yeah, didn’t you hear, I’m a rock star now.”

“You most certainly are.” He breathed as she held his gaze for a few moments more, and then they had to let go and head on their way.

He wouldn’t get to see her until their classes were over, no, but it didn’t mean other people wouldn’t see her. And lucky for him, several of them had been at the house the day before. He may have been somewhat – very – preoccupied, but not so much that he didn’t find ways to implement his plans.

So it was that, at one time or another, in each of her classes that day, she would be handed a note by one of her classmates. Franny had one, as did Kayla, and Lily, and so did a couple others he’d had to track down on his own and more or less introduce himself with ‘Hi, I’m Lucas, can you do me a favor?’ He could only find out how each hand off had gone once he would be reunited with his girlfriend at the end of the day, but he knew very well what each note would say. It was his luck that, on this day, Maya happened to have five classes.

_X_

_Our first year together was the third where I loved you. It started out with a Date that was designed to fail thanks to a whole lot of rain, and mud, and a rude security guard. But when it was over, and we sat together, up in my room, I looked at you and I knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with you, the same way that, when I first saw you, at school, I felt like I’d been waiting for you all along._

_X_

_Our second year together didn’t turn out the way either of us expected. We lost basketball, no matter how hard we fought for it. But I also got to be there, to watch you find your voice, up on stage. I got to watch you shine, and it’s still one of the most amazing things I have ever seen to this day. It was also the year where you became someone’s sister, and that is just as amazing in its own right._

_X_

_Our third year together… you know what happened then. It would almost feel better to forget it ever existed, but then if we did that, we would forget just how hard we fought for one another. We would forget how much stronger we became. And we would forget that you were so absolutely right about French toast. There, I said it, on paper, so you’ve got the proof._

_X_

_Our fourth year together was big enough to compensate for the one before, for all the times we were in pain. It wasn’t easy, not all of it, but for those hard parts we had everything else. We took those steps to get us into the world, together, and I can’t imagine my life being any better being anywhere else than next to you. And we finally went to Europe, after all this time. We’ll go back someday, you and me._

_X_

_Our fifth year together, this year, we made a home together. It’s crowded sometimes, and noisy, and it’s also a miracle. I get to wake up next to you every morning, and I get to go to sleep the same way every night. Our lives are more complicated now than they’ve ever been, but so long as you’re there with me, every morning and every night, it doesn’t seem so complicated anymore. I have everything I need. I have you, the woman I love 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, 366 on leap years._

_X_

She had them in her hands when she came out of that last class. They’d been rolled when she’d received them, and now they were all rolled together, in her hand, as she walked, jogged toward him, until she could put her arms around his neck, and he could put his own around her waist. They kissed, caring not one bit about onlookers.

“How was your day?” he asked, smiling.

“You know, I could be really annoyed at you for making me almost cry in front of five different professors, right?” she asked back, also smiling.

“Almost?” he teased.

“They were the good kind,” she breathed. “After last night, you have no idea how good they felt. So, my day has been wonderful. It’s not over though, is it?”

“Not even close.”

If not for the fact that it was Tuesday, and they both needed to be here, in Houston, the following day, he would have loved nothing more than to take her back to Austin, to touch on landmarks of the past five years. He was sure he could have called on ‘Air Zvolensky’ and she would have come through in a pinch, but he decided that they would be better off taking it easy and staying in Houston.

They headed back home first, to shower and change. When she asked him what the dress code was, casual, formal, somewhere in between, he told her to put on whatever made her feel best.

“What if that’s PJs?” she asked, smiling.

“The ones with the angry owl on the shirt?” he guessed. She nodded. “Then go for it,” he shrugged.

“Where are we going?” she asked, skeptical. “Are we actually leaving the house?” He told her that they were. “Then I am not wearing those PJs…”

“You might want to, it’s kind of chilly to go out naked,” he played on.

“You don’t say,” she held his gaze for a moment before turning to her closet in exploration.

It was the one moment where he felt her wobble, where this spirit of joy she’d let take over, powered by the anniversary, lost its grip just a little, and he guessed why. Without meaning to, she’d gone and attached the memory of those hidden tests with her closet. Now she stood there and she remembered.

She didn’t let it take hold too long. She reached in, and she found a dress, pulled it free and turned to show him. It had something of the dress she’d worn on that first, failed date, and he appreciated the symbolism all the more for the way she smiled at him when she showed it to him.

“I would have loved to take you to Ma Maggie’s, but it’s a bit…”

“… two hours away?” she guessed, as they pulled up to the Nook.

“Basically,” he nodded.

“This is as close as it gets and it’s fine by me. Breakfast for dinner, you know how I feel about that.”

“Strongly, passionately, with bacon on the side,” he replied and she nodded firmly.

Sure, they came here more often than they could ever count, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t make this time a bit more special. For one, he’d come by a few days ago and dropped off a few items which now adorned the booth by the window where they usually sat. The table had been given the style of a much fancier restaurant, and for all that they still knew which of the two they would always choose. Breakfast was King, Queen, the entire royal family.

“Here,” he presented her with a small square box. The size of it made her curious, dispelling all options she could think of. “Might want to be a bit… covert about it,” he suggested. She wasn’t sure where this was going, but she went with it, holding the box under the table as she opened it and found… a pocket knife? She looked at him, and he just smiled, and waited, until…

“Oh!” she reacted, covering her mouth and looking around briefly. “Really?” she whispered.

“I will if you will,” he told her.

They waited until they had their food and they knew they wouldn’t be interrupted. It was discreet work, but he could just see her trying so hard not to giggle, and that was almost more important to him than the reason behind it. He took his turn after her, and he had to admire how she managed to act all aloof as she waited, listening to the scratch of the knife.

“Done,” he told her.

“Just take a picture this time, don’t need you to bump your head again,” she smiled.

“Agreed,” he took out his phone and positioned it under the table. When she heard the click of the camera shutter, she leaned in, curious to see. He put his phone on the table, and she saw, just as he did, that he had gotten the whole thing, the MH, the LF, and the 5 in between.

“I thought for sure they would have Christmased the place up like everywhere else by now,” Maya noted as they drove back to the house and found it still had the airs of Halloween about it.

“They wanted to… very much so,” Lucas informed her. “But I asked them to wait. You and I, we didn’t really get our dance last night. We didn’t get our Halloween, and we deserve to have it.” She looked back at him, and he saw those happy tears make a return.

The others were out of the house, as requested. They’d all be hanging out at Willow’s place, with her and Lion and Bishop and Leona. The dogs would be at Rosa’s, and so there would be nothing and no one except their Halloween house, and him and her, and a playlist he had carefully assembled. Music had always played a role in their lives, before the band and beyond it. He remembered so many songs because of what they had meant to the two of them, and he’d brought them together now, so they could dance, and think back on the past five years… seven years… and look forward to all the years to come.

TO BE CONTINUED


	120. His Help to Move On

In no time at all, Halloween had given way to the run up to Christmas. That meant the end of the semester, with final exams and projects, and it meant going home to Austin for a couple of weeks. The closer they got to that time, the higher their excitement would rise. Sophie’s mother had already revealed to her daughter and her girlfriend that she was flying the whole Mantovani family over from Italy to be with their daughter. Chiara had been so happy about this revelation that it seemed to the others as though her accent had never been so pronounced. Riley had been assisting Dylan as he worked on a present for his grandparents, who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on Christmas Eve, so the two of them had been running around for weeks like a couple of spies. And Maya…

He wouldn’t say that she wasn’t excited to go home, but even without saying it in so many words or… any words at all… he could feel her holding back. They hadn’t been to Austin since October, since before the night of Halloween and their maybe baby situation.

It had happened before that, if they were busy enough with school and work and everything else, they could go several weeks without seeing their families, except that hadn’t been the case, not this time… There were a couple of times where he’d overheard Maya talking with her mother or father, apologizing for having to cancel their coming over to Houston, when in truth neither of them was so busy at all. She’d talk to them, on the phone, on Skype, but every time it would just feel like she was putting on an act, and when she’d hang up, she’d just… breathe out, sitting there in silence for a few seconds before moving along with her day.

That had been going on all through November, and now into these early December days. He was glad, if nothing else, that she wasn’t holding on to all of that on her own, that she would talk to him, that she let him in on where her head was at.

Lucas had needed time, too. That whole night had just brought up so much for either of them to think about, to consider for their immediate future, and even though it had gone nowhere in the end… Neither of them could just shuffle everything away like it had never been there. For all that, their experiences were never going to be the same, between their pasts and their potential futures. For him… It all came down to this image he’d been filling in more and more over the past few years. They might still have been young, but they’d known where they were headed all along, so it all came easy.

That night, when he’d thought, just for a few hours, that it was all about to happen, it had felt like… He was scared, just a bit, just as much as he might have been expected to be scared, at the thought of becoming a father at twenty-two, midway through his college education, sure, but… Much as he’d tried not to, the leading emotion twisted with that fear had been joy. What else was he supposed to feel about the idea of a human being that was half him and half her?

Then, they’d turned those sticks over, one by one, and it was like extinguishing those lights, that dream. He knew it was only this one moment, this one instance where they’d thought it could be real. Someday, in a few years, it would be different, and they’d be all the better for it. He could hold on to that, and he would be okay. For the most part, that was all he needed, except then there was Maya, and how he would look at her, see her, and know that it was not so easy for her. And if she was feeling it, then he was feeling it right alongside her.

“Are we going down there next week?” he asked her, one week into December. They were in the kitchen, tending to the dishes, as it was their turn, and he’d looked to the calendar on the wall. His eye had caught on the box for the 12th. There was a hand drawn little birthday cake with a candle shaped like a 1, with the letters MJ repeated along the border, to note the approach of Matthew Jonathan Hunter’s first birthday. Maya looked up, catching his line of sight. She let out a breath, much as she did when she’d hang up after a call with her family these days.

“Can’t believe he’s going to be a year old already,” she smiled to herself before looking back at him for a moment. “No snowstorm this year, huh?” He wasn’t going to push, and he didn’t need to. After a few seconds of silent scrubbing at a dish, she set down her sponge, standing there with her wet hands in the air like she didn’t know what to do with herself. He just nodded to himself and, smirking, she accepted his invitation and patted her hands at his shirt until they were dry. “Mom said they’re just going to do his birthday the week after, we’ll be down there by then anyway and it’s not like he’ll remember.”

“Okay,” Lucas nodded. He kept watching her, waiting for what was bound to come after. They’d been talking about it, now and then, how she hadn’t been home, but the closer they got to the holidays, it only meant they were running out of time before they couldn’t put it aside anymore.

It was never going to feel the same for her as it did for him, what they’d almost had. He couldn’t know her side of it, not completely. He couldn’t know it when she didn’t know it herself.

“I don’t know why it’s making me feel this way.” That was what she’d tell him, in one way or another, when it’d be just the two of them and she’d have that look in her eyes like she was thinking about it again. She’d be fine, most of the time, but then it would come back at her, and then she wouldn’t be fine anymore, but he would be there with her and in time she would feel better.

The fact that she wouldn’t go home was the easiest way for either of them to know that she was still not letting it go, that she wasn’t ready. Deep down, Lucas felt like it was exactly what she needed, to be over there, with her parents, and her siblings, to talk to her mother and father, but she wasn’t ready for that, and he wasn’t going to make her do anything, whether she was ready or not.

So, in the meantime, all he could do was to carry on with their life here, with her, with their friends and roommates. It wasn’t as though they were lacking for occupation.

It was unlikely that the girls of Weaver Kings would ever know the context of their songwriter’s early Christmas present coming together the way it did. All they would know would be that, midway through November, they were presented with an envelope containing a stack of lyrics and sheet music and a thumb drive, all of which constituted everything they could possibly need to go along with the eight songs Maya had written for them.

Lily was stunned, receiving this envelope, especially when she found out how many songs she was getting. Maya told her that it would be up to her and Cat and Vic whether or not they liked them and wanted to use them, just as she reminded them that, in time, they would also receive some contributions from Isadora. Lucas had been there to see how the girl just hugged Maya with a flurry of thanks. All he could see was his girlfriend, and how happy she was that her friend was happy.

Working on those songs had been so much of her free time since Halloween. It was a distraction for her, they both knew it, but it worked, so that was all that mattered, right? And the day after Lily was handed the envelope, Maya’s phone chimed and chimed with excited messages from the three Aussie singers. They loved their songs, they truly did, and they were looking forward to the time when they would be able to sing them for her. Maya offered to get together with them, to tweak where tweaking was needed, to mold them properly to their voices, their sound.

As for school, the approach of finals was starting to feel very familiar for all of them, as they drew closer to the end of their third semester. It was like some heightened version of what finals had been like back in high school, especially when their schedules were so different from what they’d been back then. It used to be that they could all get together when any reviewing was needed, because they’d all be going through the same subjects for the most part. Now it was just a bunch of clusters, everyone doing their own thing.

The more this second year advanced, the closer they were coming to another change, too, one they could almost have forgotten would be coming after all this time. After this semester was over, they only had one more to go before Sophie’s path would divert or, truly, before she diverted _back_ on to the path she’d always intended to take. In the coming fall, she would be bound for the police academy. They never had to wonder, never to ask if she was still as intent on this as she had been when they had all been telling one another about their plans for their futures. That was who she wanted to become, and she had been making herself as ready for it as she could until, finally, she’d be getting started.

Until the time did come, she was still there with them, day to day, heading into school. The days passed them by, and Christmas neared, and so did their holiday, their break, their return home. MJ Hunter’s first birthday – the official one – came and went with a Skype call from his big sister in Houston. Finals and the semester came to an end, and soon they were just a few days from the drive to Austin, where they would remain for two weeks.

“Maya?” Lucas went looking for her, finding her in the basement’s music room, dusting and cleaning around.

“Yeah?” she asked, brandishing the small vacuum his mother had insisted on buying them.

“Uh…” he hesitated for a beat. “My father’s driving up here tomorrow, he wants to go check out something for Pappy Joe’s Christmas present, wants me to go with him.”

“Huh…” she smiled, likely wondering what this present would be that he couldn’t get it in Austin.

“Anyway, I, uh… I’ve sort of been thinking that I need… I would like to talk to him, about… Halloween, and the…” he gestured awkwardly, and she looked at him, understanding.

“Okay…” she spoke quietly.

“I mean, I don’t have to, if you don’t want…” he immediately added.

“Lucas, it’s fine,” she moved up to him with a smile. “You don’t need to ask me permission.”

“No, I know, it’s just…” She didn’t have to say anything. She just kissed him, and he breathed out with a smile of his own.

“Just… when you do talk to him, can you make sure…”

“It’ll be just between the two of us,” he promised. There was a reason he was only even tempting to do this with his father. If he’d gone and told his mother about any of it, much as she’d have tried to hold on to it, Katy and Shawn would have known in no time.

TO BE CONTINUED


	121. His Help to Reach Out

Lucas woke up the next morning to the sight of a light snowfall outside the window. It made him smile and, peering carefully to find that she was still asleep, he leaned forward to kiss the side of Maya’s head, repeating this a few times over until he felt her squirm, and blink, and finally open her eyes and see what he’d seen. It resolved itself into a smile on her face before she turned in his arms and looked back at him with that same smile.

“Ho ho ho,” she intoned quietly.

“Almost,” he laughed, as she stretched her neck up, the better to kiss him.

“How many texts do you think your dad’s sent by now?” Maya asked. He reached out to his nightstand, stretching until he had to turn and pull her along with him, in order to get his fingers on his phone and pull the thing, close enough that he could reach it and grasp it.

“Four,” he reported, making her chuckle. His father was notorious for his complaints whenever he had to drive in snow. Once he read the texts and saw the time, Lucas let out a sigh. “He’ll be here soon, I need to get ready,” he turned back to her. “You can stay here if you want to sleep some more,” he insisted, brushing her hair from her face as she stared back at him.

“Can’t, I told Rosa I’d help her study for her finals. Taking her to the Nook in a little bit,” she revealed. He made an exaggerated shocked face, as though he was stunned that she would take someone else to _their_ study spot of choice. “Hey, whose initials did we carve under that table?” she shook her head in amused reprimand.

“No one’s, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he played innocent.

“Sure, yeah,” she kissed him one more time before slipping out of his arms to get up and get ready. With a breath, he moved to do the same before his father would arrive.

By the time Tom Friar pulled up to the house, his son was standing on the steps, watching Sophie and Chiara as they chased Trix and Lou around the front lawn, lightly snow-covered as it was. Lucas jogged over and climbed into the passenger seat, slipping the travel mug filled with fresh coffee into the holder at his father’s side.

“Thank you,” Tom bowed his head as though to say ‘you’ve read my mind.’

“I can drive,” Lucas offered. “Give you a break.”

After switching seats, they were off to accomplish their Christmas errand. As he drank his coffee, Mr. Friar talked to his son about the condition of the roads, finding new ways as ever to express how much he hated driving in the snow. It reminded Lucas of Maya’s comment earlier, and he pretended to look to something at his left in order to hide his smirk. He wasn’t going to go into the whole topic of his and Maya’s situation… lack of a situation which then turned into a different one… They’d go and do their shopping, and when that was over, they’d stop to eat before his father started back for Austin, the better to get home before the sun started to go down.

“Uncle Hank’s house isn’t far, maybe we can take him with us?” he heard himself suggest at one point, as they passed a store which he now associated with his driving to the Hillard house. His father found this to be a great idea, and he got on the phone with his cousin at once. A few minutes later, they were taking a detour, meeting up not only with Hank but two of his daughters, the now thirteen-year-old Sarah and eleven-year-old Evie. They would follow in their own car, trailing after Lucas and Tom.

Maya would have called this sabotage, like he was giving himself reasons not to do what he’d set out to do, but that wasn’t even it. He just knew how much his father and his uncle/professor had to catch up on, after being out of one another’s lives for all these years, so any chance they had to spent time together… It was a good deed and he didn’t regret it, but now he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to get time alone with his father and have the talk he’d wanted to have.

Change of plan aside, he couldn’t be upset at the morning he got to spend with his uncle and cousins. He and Hank had gotten pretty good at drawing the line between family mode and academic mode, and they respected those boundaries with sufficient ease. In class, Lucas would want nothing more than to sit and listen and learn from the man. He was really a wonderful professor, and he would have thought so even if they weren’t related. Out in the real world, he would see the more laidback, jovial side of the man, which only went even further to highlight the resemblance he bore to _his_ uncle, Lucas’ grandfather. When he’d found out Hank shared his uncle’s ease at slipping into the role of Santa throughout the holidays, it had made his day, and Pappy Joe’s, too.

As for the girls, they had really come to warm to him in the past few months, which hadn’t been too much of a stretch from where they’d stood at the beginning. Really, the place where they’d really changed was where Maya was involved. He would still smile, thinking back to how they’d reacted the first time they’d met her and recognized her for being part of the band they loved. Nowadays, they were much more comfortable chatting away with her, treating her like part of the family more so than like someone out of reach. As they hung out that day, them and their respective fathers, Sarah and Evie confided that they were working on their Christmas gift for her, which sounded a lot like it might have involved lip syncing.

When they were through with their shopping, they all went and had lunch together. After they’d all finished, it wasn’t long that the Hillards needed to head off, to go and reunite with the other half of their family. This was his chance, he knew. If he could just manage to get his father to stick around a little while longer before he started back on the road to Austin…

“Dad?” he spoke, as his father was waving at the Hillard car, driving off. They stood outside the restaurant and, when he turned around, Tom Friar stared at his son with that look he’d get, the one that said ‘I see you, what do you need?’ Lucas could still remember the time, when he’d been on his suspension from school, when that look had been barred away by so much disappointment, or the time following the accident with Maya, when it would come laced with sadness and helplessness.

“Think I’ll grab a coffee before I start back. The way the roads look today…” he tipped his head back toward the door, and so they went back inside. It had stopped snowing, and there probably wasn’t so much left on the ground anymore, but an excuse was as good as any, and soon they were sitting across from one another, each with a cup.

Lucas didn’t know why he felt so nervous. It wasn’t as though he was about to tell his father he was about to become a grandfather, nor was he going to be revealing anything as to him and Maya no longer being virgins. No one had needed to say anything, at some point it had just become something rightly assumed. Still, for all that, his heart was going like he had just been running. If it wasn’t for the fact that he realized that the longer he kept quiet, the worse it would get in his father’s head, it might have taken him even longer to actually speak up. He looked up from his cup, finding his father staring back at him, waiting, and he let out a breath.

“A few weeks ago, on Halloween, actually, we thought… well, Maya… She was late, with…” he sat up, hesitant. “You know…” His father sat up now, too, still looking at him.

“Yes,” he simply said, leaving it up to him to continue. Lucas frowned to himself, remembering that whole evening.

“She wasn’t, she’s not,” he cut to the chase, and if he was looking for any telltale reaction from his father, a sigh of relief or a simple nod of understanding, he only got more of that ‘I’m listening’ face, and he was glad for it. “Except it’s been like six weeks now, and it’s still in our heads… hers especially.” He looked at his father, his face easily signalling that this entire conversation was to remain between the two of them.

“Is this why the two of you haven’t been over to visit?” his father asked in response. Lucas looked at him. _More or less…_

“All I want to do is help her,” he sighed. “She’s not… She’s okay, for the most part, but it’s still there in her eyes and I… I don’t know how to make it better. And…” He paused, staring at the stain on the tabletop, following its curve, getting lost in wondering what had caused it, basically drifting off anywhere that wasn’t the place where his words tried to go.

“Lucas, look at me,” Tom Friar told his son. After a moment, he took his eyes from the stain and back up to his father. “I know how much Maya means to you, how much you love her. I know you’ll always put her first, her feelings, over yourself and your own. But there are going to be times when all that will do will be to blind you to the big picture. You want so much to look after her that you’ll convince yourself you’re fine. I know, you’ve done it before.” Lucas didn’t reply, didn’t have to. He knew exactly what his father meant. _The accident._ “And I think you’re doing it now.”

He bowed his head. He wasn’t even looking at the stain anymore. He retreated into himself, taking his father’s words with him, and there in his thoughts he could see it. His father was right. He was not okay. It didn’t make it any easier for him to understand why, no more than Maya knew for herself, but it was still the truth. Whatever feelings had been shaken loose on Halloween were still not completely gone.

He told his father the whole story, how she’d come home and told him what she believed, and then taking the tests, and then the hours that went by before they actually managed to see what those tests said, hours where they’d both been left in limbo with what they’d come to call their maybe baby. He told his father about how ready he’d been to accept those responsibilities, if it turned out that they were really about to become parents, about how even though he’d tried not to he had come to consider what it might be like if they did have this baby, what that little person would be like to have in their lives… He recalled how finding Joseph there at the party that night had immediately left him with this feeling like he needed to do the right thing, to set an example.

“Why are you smiling?” Lucas asked his father. He’d looked back up at him and there he sat, across from him, like something had just amused him.

“I’m sorry, it’s not… You just looked so much like your mother just now,” Tom replied, sitting back in his chair for a moment before straightening up again. “There was a time when we thought we might be having another baby, you were… oh, you’d just turned four.”

“I know, she told me once,” Lucas nodded.

“We didn’t know for sure for a while either, and until we did, well… As far as your mother was concerned it was real, it was happening. And then it didn’t.” Lucas knew how much his mother lamented the fact that she’d never had another child. Farkle had filled that gap in a way, and then Ray, too… “I don’t think there’s anything I can say that will make things go right any faster for you and Maya, but… they will go right, I promise you they will.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	122. His Help to Pack Up

“We could always go shopping once we get to Austin,” Maya told him as they walked through the mall, holding on to one another’s hands, to ensure they wouldn’t lose track of each other more than anything. The place was as packed with people as they would expect to find it, days before Christmas. “If this keeps up, we’ll need a third car.”

Along with the six of them roommates, they would be giving a ride to Franny and Kayla, as they would also be headed to visit their families. They would also be bringing Rosa. Her mother was headed out of town for a few days, back just in time for Christmas, so Maya had invited her to come along. Tracy Coleman would be coming to join her daughter and spend the holidays there along with them.

“Ah… See, you never really had the chance to notice before, because we were still living at home before, and last year was just the one time, but this is one of those… traits my mother just hammered in when I was growing up,” he explained with a smirk. “Gifts are not a pit stop,” he intoned, which made her giggle.

“Right, alright, fair enough.”

“Hey, come here, look,” he tugged at her hand and pulled her to where she might get a glimpse into ‘Santa’s village.’ He pointed to the man himself, up in his chair with a small girl perched on his knee. She frowned, confused, until she kept on staring, and staring, until she gasped, her eyes gone wide.

“Shut up…” she chuckled, then laughed out properly as she realized she wasn’t imagining what she thought she saw. “He really is just like your grandfather, isn’t h… Wait, is that Joseph?” she grasped his arm, melting into giggles all over again when one of the elves went and turned around, standing near the man in red.

“I didn’t even know until yesterday,” Lucas explained with a grin. “So, back in the day, before the whole rift between Pappy Joe and his sister, he was already doing the Santa thing, and Hank would be… well, the same thing Joseph is doing now. Then, when he got older, he started doing this, I guess, in honor of his uncle.”

“This reminds me of the first year we went shopping together and there was Pappy Joe…” she smiled as they walked on, he noticed, with a definite curve that would take them closer and closer to Santa’s village.

“This reminds me of you in that elf costume…” he tossed back, and she laughed. He was glad to see her like this, all happy and excited. He knew that this didn’t mean those old lingering thoughts had completely left her, but that didn’t diminish the good that this beat of carefree joy would be doing to her.

They made a brief stop to say hello to Santa and his jolly helper. Lucas wasn’t sure how his cousin would react, being spotted by people he knew, but as he might have expected, Joseph was all too happy to see them, proud to assist his father. It said a lot about how the Hillards were at Christmas. They even got to take a picture with Santa and his elf before moving along.

“You’re going to show it to Rosa, aren’t you?” Lucas guessed as he watched her smile at the picture on her phone.

“Oh, you know I will.”

After completing their gift hunt and getting their hands on all the paper and ribbons they would need, they returned home. They would need to balance present wrapping and getting their bags packed if they wanted to be ready to hit the road the following morning, so Maya volunteered herself to do the wrapping while he went about filling their suitcases.

“If this box were any bigger, this would never reach around,” she frowned, sitting on the ground, testing the length of the unfurled roll of ‘cheerful but tasteful’ wrapping paper around the large box containing his present to his mother.

“Need a hand?” he asked, turning from where he was counting out how many shirts he’d be bringing. He had already grabbed everything she’d asked him to take from her drawers and her side of the closet, which now left him with his own things.

“I’ll manage,” she promised, though she still glared at the box like its size frustrated her. After a few seconds, maybe to distract herself – which would somehow turn around and help her focus all over again – she asked him how the talk with his father had gone. He hesitated for a moment before turning to her. She stared up at him with a simple smile. “You think I didn’t catch how you haven’t said anything about it? You can talk to me, I’m not going to… crack, or break,” she shrugged, slicing through the paper before setting the roll aside.

After a few seconds, Lucas set his stack of shirts on the bed and went to sit on the ground, across from her and the box. He pressed his finger to where the two ends of the paper overlapped, allowing her to reach for her roll of tape.

“I told him about what happened on Halloween,” he told her. “I told him… about why we hadn’t been going home to visit, or he sort of guessed.”

“What did he say?” she asked, setting her pieces of tape in place. It sounded as much like ‘how did he take it’ as ‘did he give any advice.’

“He told me I have this tendency of pretending like I’m fine, that I just…”

“… want to take care of the ones you love?” Maya guessed. He looked at her and she smiled, somewhere between sad and understanding. “Lucas…” she scooted around the box until they were sitting side by side. She reached for his hand and he gripped hers, breathing out. “You know how much I appreciate how you’re always there, how much you care, and take care… But you don’t have to protect me all the time. If something’s wrong, you don’t have to hold it back from me. Please…”

“I don’t know…” he shook his head, feeling her eyes on him, feeling the breath in him just expanding like it couldn’t quite pass through.

“Makes two of us,” she leaned in, sounding like she was having the problem, same as he was, with her breathing. She brought her arms around his shoulders, setting her head to the crook of his neck, and he felt just a bit like his breath was returning. “So, we’re going home tomorrow and we’re both going to be a mess, yeah? Merry Christmas to us…”

“No…” he frowned to himself. “We already lost Halloween…”

“We patched it up a bit in the end,” she reminded him.

“We did,” he nodded with a small smile.

“And Thanksgiving wasn’t so bad, though all the praise goes to Chiara trying to copy Dylan’s turkey calls,” she added, and the memory made both of them laugh.

“We’re not losing Christmas,” he vowed, looking over to her. “We’re going home, we’re going to see our parents, and Pappy Joe, and Nellie and Gracie, and MJ, all the dogs… Rosa will be with us, and the others, too, and everyone who’s flying in… We’ll have music, and food, and movies, and presents, and all the old places…”

“That’s true,” she nodded along, pausing for a moment. “Until then, I need you to talk to me. Yeah?”

“I wouldn’t even know what to say,” he told her. “If I did, I could have helped you.” All these weeks, she’d been telling him she didn’t get why it still weighed on her the way it did, and he couldn’t get any closer to an answer than she did, so much that he didn’t see he needed one, too. “We should finish… for tomorrow,” he gestured to the half wrapped present, and the ones still waiting, before looking to the open suitcases on the bed.

She released her hold and he stood. They went back to their tasks, both of them silent for a few minutes. In his head, he kept trying for an answer, for something to give her that might start them both toward putting Halloween to rest. When he finished with his own clothes, he started on hers. He picked up one of her shirts and realized it was the one she’d been wearing that night, before and after her costume. It smelled like her, even fresh out of the closet, or maybe he was just imagining it. Either way, for a moment it felt like he was back on that night, and he said the thing that immediately came to mind.

“When you showed me those tests in your bag, I know I was freaking out a bit, too, but I think deep down I was… I was happy.” He looked over at her, found her staring back, surprised.

“You were?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he slowly nodded. “Nothing mattered, whatever difficulties we might have had to deal with, I didn’t mind. But I was ready… I think for a while I was already in the trap.”

“The trap?”

“You said you didn’t want it to let it feel real, not unless it _was_ real, and after that I’d be trying not to get there either, except I think I was already there the whole time. I couldn’t see it. And when we looked at the tests, I…” He’d stared at them as he’d turned them over, one after the other, the options playing in his head, but if he put himself back in that moment, he could just see it, feel it… He’d been looking for double lines, plus signs… He’d been looking for a yes, to strike the maybe from their baby.

“You wanted it,” she stated. He looked down to her shirt in his hands, to her again. He gave her a nod. She bowed her head for a moment, her hand reaching up to swipe at a tear threatening to roll from the corner of her eye. “I wanted it, too,” she admitted. “I felt… I don’t know, or… maybe I do, and I just can’t…”

“Maya…”

“Guilty. I felt guilty,” she set down her ribbons.

“What for?” he asked, moving to go and sit with her again.

“Because I… I realized that I knew it wasn’t the right time, and things would be so much better for all of us, you, me, the kid, if it didn’t come now, and I didn’t care, I wanted it. What does that make me?” she looked at him like she was pleading for him to give her an answer, whether she liked the one he’d give her or not. All he could give her in that moment was an embrace, and a sustained kiss to the top of her head. She’d been going around believing herself selfish, a bad mother to a child that never even existed except as a dream in their heads. And coming from her, who knew a thing or two about problematic parents, he could only imagine how big of a hole she’d been digging herself these past six weeks.

“One day, you and I we’re going to make our family. And whoever comes to be a part of it is going to be… so lucky to have you to look up to. It didn’t happen now, but that’s okay, because when it does happen… We’re going to love that kid so much we won’t know what to do with ourselves.” He could just hear her chuckling, though he could also hear tears in her voice.

“Big family,” she declared, hugging him back.

“Sounds good to me,” he replied. They were not going to lose Christmas.

TO BE CONTINUED


	123. His Help to Ride Home

The next morning started with sunrise for the two of them. The others would go on sleeping for a good hour or two, but Lucas and Maya had long been the ‘official’ early birds of the household. And on a day where they were set to pack up the cars and leave the house for as long as they would do, with all passengers – human and canine – and their luggage and presents loaded to go, there was just no way they would have been able to go on sleeping.

Still, it didn’t take long for either of them to feel as though this might have been the best night’s sleep they’d had in a long time. Their heads had been considerably lightened after the previous day’s conversation. Neither would go so far as to claim that they’d cleared out every bit of the clutter of thoughts, which had been bothering them since Halloween, but on the whole it just felt like getting to the last dozen or so pieces of a puzzle. All of a sudden, things were falling into place so much easier.

“Are you going to tell them about Halloween?” he asked her as they sat up in their bed, one stretching, the other yawning.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Part of me thinks there’s not really any point anymore except to put ideas in their heads.”

“And the other part?” he asked.

“Oh, her…” she breathed out, letting herself fall back on the mattress until her head was just next to where he sat and he could look down at her. “ _She_ just hates the way things have been, and… she doesn’t think it’s fair to keep them in the dark, not when all these other people know. I… I’ve been holding back from them all this time, I wanted to figure it out on my own, or just between the two of us, I guess. We did that now, so…” she shrugged. He nodded, leaning down to kiss her. “And now we need to get going, or else we won’t make it to Austin before dinner,” she smiled.

Everything that needed to be put in the car, so far as the six of them were concerned at least, was already sitting downstairs, waiting to be packed in either Lucas or Sophie’s car. There would still be Franny, Kayla, and Rosa’s things to add to all this, but for now they had this much. Once they’d gotten dressed, Lucas and Maya went about getting everything into the trunks, as it would fit, leaving just a few items that would need to be held in one passenger’s lap or another’s.

“Right, so, my car is me, you, Riley, Dylan, and Rosa,” Lucas counted off on one hand.

“And Gideon,” she reminded him.

“And Gideon,” he nodded.

Last year, they’d left Trix and Lou with Rosa and her mother over the holidays. This year, with Tracy being out of town for the next few days and Rosa heading to Austin with them, they had no one to take the two dogs in for them, three of them when they counted Rosa’s dog, who would also find himself with none of his humans at home. Willow and Lion would be visiting Lion’s family, and Leona was headed to France with Bishop to visit _his_ , so before long the one solution left to them became to just take the dogs to Austin.

“And then the other car is Sophie, Chiara, Franny, and Kayla, with Trix and Lou,” Lucas went on.

“The girl car,” Maya nodded.

“And we’re all meeting at your parents’ house,” he went on. They might have saved Sophie a trip if they had Trix and Lou in his car, but the thought of three dogs in one car for two hours seemed like a bad idea, so the dogs would be split.

“A+, well done,” Maya gave another nod.

“Good, okay, so now…” he looked around, finding there was nothing left to do until the others were ready. Rosa would be coming over with her bags and her dog, and his car load would take off for Austin while Sophie’s went to pick up Franny and Kayla before starting their own journey home.

“Now, breakfast,” she got hold of his arm and lead him toward the kitchen.

“Hey, waffles!” Dylan proclaimed when he appeared a half hour later to find the two of them finishing up their plates. Maya got up at once to go and make some for him, the batter ready and waiting for when the others would come along.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked him as he went to get juice from the fridge. He turned back to look at her, looking like he didn’t know what she was talking. “You know… the thing?” she gave him a pointed look. He still didn’t understand. Maya sighed, tipping her head toward him before turning to look back like she was making sure no one was coming down the stairs.

“Oh… Oh!” Dylan blinked. “I... Yeah, I did, yeah,” he smiled. “I mean… I hope it’s… Thank you, for letting…” he gestured, though Lucas had no idea what that or this entire exchange was about. When Maya turned and saw him sitting there, chewing the last of his waffle with a confused frown on his face, she gave him a look he guessed to mean ‘you’ll see later.’

“Don’t mention it,” she looked back to Dylan. “I mean, really, don’t mention it,” she held a finger to her lips before opening the waffle maker and pulling its contents on to Dylan’s waiting plate. “Hot, hot,” she warned, shaking out her hand for a moment before returning to her seat and her plate, which only contained the bits of fruit she had left.

She’d be done with those and clearing empty dishes by the time the other girls came along. One by one, they were treated to their own waffles. Maya was just pulling the last one free when Rosa and Gideon arrived, which meant one more waffle to make.

“Woah, hey, easy!” Riley startled as Lou, who’d been in her lap and nibbling at a bit of bacon from her hand, went chasing after Trix, who’d gone chasing after Gideon. The three of them together had been dubbed the wild bunch, whenever they’d be in the same place. They could only imagine how they’d be when they met Dash, and Tuck, and Queen, and Ghost…

“Maybe we should go now,” Chiara suggested, looking to Sophie as the two of them had finished their breakfast.

“Yeah, I mean, you guys are leaving soon, too, right?” Sophie looked to him, and Lucas nodded. “I’ll check with Franny and Kayla,” she pulled out her phone.

A few minutes later, they were getting a hold of Trix and Lou and heading out to Sophie’s car, to go and pick up their passengers before they’d all meet up in Austin. Not long after that, having confirmed that they hadn’t forgotten to do or bring anything, the rest of them packed into his car, five humans and one dog, suitcases, presents… They left their Houston home and hit the road for the holidays.

The back seat of the car was busy enough with its occupants that it made it easy for the front seat to feel like a whole separate world, just him and Maya up there. She’d get that look about her, like she was just thinking of home now, her family… She hadn’t been with them in almost two months, and as much as the calls helped, as much as it had been a separation of her own making, now that they were finally on their way to see them… she was thrilled but also nervous, much as she tried not to show it.

“What was that about earlier with Dylan?” he whispered, offering her a distraction as much as feeding his own curiosity. She turned to him with a smirk.

“Not telling you that,” she shook her head.

“Come on, please?” he smiled.

“I really can’t,” she insisted, and when he was able to look at her, she gave a discreet turn of her eyes to indicate the backseat. After a moment, he slowly nodded. She couldn’t tell him because it was a surprise, and that surprise involved someone within earshot. Still, from what little she’d said and done, he was almost sure he’d pieced it together.

They’d all stuck to the old standard as far as presents between the lot of them. Secret Santa was the name of the game and, now that he thought about it, he was almost certain he remembered seeing that she’d picked out Riley’s name this year, only when they’d gone shopping, she’d bought a set of books Franny had been wanting for some time. Now, Dylan’s thanks to her had Lucas guessing that he and Maya had swapped, so that he’d be the one in charge of Riley’s present…

The highlight of the ride home came when, as they’d occasionally be so lucky to find, Rosa’s song came over the radio. Maya was the one to recognize its first notes and she immediately turned the volume up. When his best girl’s voice filled the car, Gideon started to make something that sounded halfway between howling and barking which showed plainly how happy he was. It left the rest of them laughing uncontrollably, so much that they’d doubt any of them was spared getting red in the face the longer it went.

“Hey, look, it’s Sophie!” Dylan called out as they were finally rolling through the old neighborhood. Lucas turned and spotted the car, not too far ahead of them. Maya was quick to grab her phone and send a message out to Chiara. Not too long after, the passengers in the back – Franny and Kayla – turned and looked around until they spotted them.

They managed to ride on, one behind the other, all the way to the Hunter-Hart house. Once the other car unloaded its canine passengers, it left again, to get their friends to their families before heading on to the Zvolensky house, where Chiara’s visitors should have arrived by now. They could practically feel the giddiness coming off the Italian girl.

“What do we do about the dogs?” Maya asked, looking to the three of them presently sitting up on the back seat of Lucas’ car. It’d be hard for any of them to do much of anything, as far as the people inside the house, if they brought the dogs in the car and the dogs in the house together.

“I can keep them with me and go drop you guys off,” Rosa offered with a grin that said plainly ‘I can do that now and I love it,’ turning to Riley and Dylan.

So, the car drove off again, leaving only Lucas and Maya behind to head toward the door. Before they could get to it, said door was pulled wide open, ushering a pair of eager three-and-a-half-year-old brunettes making a mad dash for their big sister. Maya was ready for them, sweeping them up in a tight embrace at once, crouching and then kneeling, giving no care to the light snow coverage, not for herself at least.

“Hey, hey, come on, you guys are going to get a cold, let’s go inside, yeah?” she moved to rise again, which was not so easy with the two of them still holding on.

“Can I cut in?” Lucas stepped up, soon pulling Gracie up in his arms, which allowed Maya to rise as well, with Nellie still locked tight on her. The four of them headed into the house, finding Shawn waiting for them at the door, smiling at them.

“I couldn’t hold them back any longer,” he declared, nodding to the twins.

“Hey, Dad,” Maya smiled, setting Nellie down before throwing her arms around him.

“Hey, Kid. Welcome home.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	124. His Help to Deal

Lucas stayed there, with Gracie Hunter perched in his arms, while Maya was reunited with the rest of her family. He felt almost like he was spying on them, like he should have left them, but he kept looking at them, at their faces, and the way they held to one another. It said so much of the things they felt without ever using words.

He would look to Maya, more often than not. He knew what being here today meant for her, knew she’d probably be psyching herself up to do what she needed and wanted to do, no matter how much it had her nerves tied in knots. He could tell she mostly didn’t want them to be left feeling like something was wrong with her and she hadn’t felt at ease going to them. But even as she was dealing with all those thoughts, there was the other side, the one where she _had_ missed all of them so much, and to be back here with them, finally… it filled her heart with so much joy that she could barely hold it all.

And then Shawn… The guy had come into her world less than half her lifetime ago, where he’d found her already grown and more independent than any average kid her age. You wouldn’t suspect that, looking at them together now. This was her father, in any way but biology, and anyone meeting them wouldn’t know any different if they never pointed out the fact that he was her stepfather. This was his little girl, his first child, and he had missed her very much. And he knew something was going on. He didn’t say it, didn’t show it, except in very discreet, likely subconscious actions. They’d be talking, the two of them, recounting the drive up from Houston, and his hand just stayed at her shoulder. She seemed to appreciate that contact as much as he did.

Then, Katy Hart had come down the stairs, with one-year-old MJ in her arms and looking like he’d just woken up from a very cozy nap. His blond hair, matching his mother and sister in shade, was abundant and all over the place, even as he kept burrowing his head in his mother’s neck like he wanted to get back to whatever dreamland he’d woken from. Shawn motioned to his wife to hand the boy over, which she did, the better to go and wrap her arms around her eldest child, her best friend… her baby girl.

“We weren’t expecting you guys for another hour,” she told Maya, still hugging her.

“We can come back later,” Maya joked.

“Don’t you dare,” Katy laughed. The emotion in both their voices was matched to a point where they sounded remarkably alike. When they finally pulled apart, just enough to look to one another, Katy took in her daughter’s face, held it in her hands as she smiled at her. “Two hours away and we still don’t get to see each other,” she sighed, her smile turned bittersweet. “I’m so glad you’re home.” Lucas could feel his girlfriend tense, just a bit, weighed down by her mother’s words, knowing the reason for this lack of visits.

“I am, too,” she nodded, brushing away a tear as she smiled.

When the two Hart women stepped apart, Maya turned back to her father, moving toward him to receive her little brother, who had been growing a bit more wakeful, slowly but surely, thanks to Shawn’s attention. When he felt a new touch at his arm, MJ turned his head around. He saw his big sister, and if he knew the good that he did her just by the way he smiled at her, showing he knew her… He was handed down into her arms, and she pressed some happy kisses to his chubby little cheek.

“Hey there, bean. I know I told you last week, but now I get to say it to your face… Happy birthday, Matty.” The boy squealed, making Maya laugh. “Hey, if you wanted to go and start to walk in the next two weeks that’d be great, yeah?” she whispered at him. Lucas, standing next to her, heard the words and smiled. His first birthday still fresh on him, the best they could ask for at the moment was how he seemed to have adopted his twin sisters’ habit of referring to the eldest of his siblings as ‘Ya.’ The twins, by now, had gotten around to filling out their sister’s short name to its full length.

“Maya, come see the tree!” Nellie came forward now, likely deciding she’d been polite long enough and it was finally time to commandeer her big sister’s attention again. She tugged at her jacket, trying to move her along.

“Coming, I’m coming, let’s go,” Maya waved her arm to tell the little one to lead the way. Lucas finally set Gracie back on her feet at this point, the better to let her follow after her twin. The quiet one looked back up at him, motioning that he had to come, too. He gave her a nod, promising that he was indeed coming with them.

They spent a good hour inspecting the tree, being told the tale of how they had decorated it, with their mom and dad, and Uncle Cory, and Aunt Topanga, and August, both of the small girls being held up to carefully place one thing or another on the branches. Lucas recognized some of those items from Maya’s stories of their very first Christmas in Austin, the one where she and her mother had first been introduced to Shawn Hunter.

The story of the tree was followed by the arrival of Rosa and the dogs. Up to that moment, they hadn’t even seen the trio of Ghost, Tuck, and Queen, who had been in the basement. Even now, it got to feel as though the three of them still associated the place as _their_ place, theirs and Maya’s. She didn’t live there anymore, and when she’d come to visit, she’d be upstairs in her old room, but they still had a special attachment to the basement when she wasn’t around.

When Rosa came along, with Trix in one arm, Lou in the other, and Gideon trailing at her heel, they might have thought Christmas had come early for how the twins reacted at seeing the dogs. They’d met them before, several times, whenever they visited over in Houston, and still one might think this was the first time they saw them, for how they crowded around them. It wasn’t long then that they heard the familiar scratching at the basement door, telling them the trio below wanted to be let out.

Shawn went and opened the door, and in a rush they came, moving toward the unfamiliar trio. The Houston dogs were not far behind, which turned the next several minutes into a lot of barking and sniffing. Lucas had a feeling both trios were picking up on scents they’d previously gotten off Maya and him, whenever they’d go on or return from a visit. Whatever it was, the six dogs didn’t take long to grow familiar with one another.

“Help me get those up there?” Maya asked him when they pried themselves away from the heap of dogs. The twins had taken Rosa hand in hand and started dragging her to the tree, so they might tell their story all over again, giving them the chance to get their things from the car, including the presents they now had to hide before ‘Santa’ had a chance to make his visit.

“Got it,” he picked up the large box first, hoisting it up on to the shelf in the closet. One by one, they hid everything up there, doing their best to then hide all the colorfully wrapped things, in case any curious tiny people should come around and see something they weren’t meant to see. They still very much believed in Santa Claus, and it was everyone’s intention to keep it that way for as long as they would believe.

“Not unpacking today,” Maya declared before taking a dramatic plunge back on to the bed. She let out a breath of contentment before turning her head to smile at him when he came and sat next to her. “It’s like we never left,” she told him, and he agreed. Just that morning they’d been in much this same position, sitting on their bed back in Houston.

“Except with way more dogs, and toddlers and parents,” he replied. She laughed, turning on to her side and planting her head in her hand.

“And tomorrow morning, getting a very spirited wake up call by the twin brigade,” she reminisced fondly. “No more spoon for you, Huckleberry,” she pointed her finger at him and he made an appropriately bummed out face at this declaration. “We could always take more naps,” she suggested as a compromise.

“Around here?” he chuckled.

“Hey, sixty percent of the population of this house is pro napping, who are we to tip against the majority?” she told him, and he nodded.

“Alright, fair enough.”

They were quiet for a few beats, looking around, really taking in the fact that they were here at last, back in her parents’ house, her old house… her old room. It was not the same as it had been back when they were first getting to know each other, not really, but the structure was the same. All they needed to do was to look around and they could remember everything as it had been, right down to the bay window.

Their moment to themselves was short lived, as the twins soon came seeking Maya, bellowing her name until she’d reply and help direct them to wherever she was. When they stepped into the room, they saw her and Lucas sitting on the bed and took it as an invitation to hurry up and climb on to be with them. Maya held her arms open, the better to receive Gracie into her hold, peppering her head with little kisses that made her laugh, while Lucas soon found himself with a Nellie-shaped cape dangling down his back.

The rest of the day saw a lot of playing around, the twins never letting up once, like they meant to get as much of their big sister as they could get, making up for the time they hadn’t gotten with her in recent times. Maya wasn’t about to deny them, and neither were their parents. Once the novelty of her and Lucas being there would start to wear off, they could look forward to quiet times with a movie, maybe a book, but for now it was ‘look at this!’ and ‘let’s play that!’

Eventually, Nellie, Gracie, and MJ were all up in their respective beds and crib, sleeping this busy day away. Rosa retreated to the guest room upstairs for a bit of alone time to herself, as much as to allow the family some quiet time together. She didn’t even know about the conversation her friends were aiming to have all along, or how her leaving them would actually enable it. Either way, she was gone now, her and Gideon upstairs, Trix and Lou back in Maya’s room, the other dogs in the basement. It only left Lucas and Maya sitting around the kitchen table, across from Katy and Shawn.

He could see as much as she did in that moment that, if they were looking for a chance to get this thing dealt with, they could not have asked for a better time. Lucas looked to Maya, silently, as discreetly as possible, asking if she wanted him to leave. Looking back at him, her eyes said ‘stay,’ so he stayed.

“So,” Katy spoke, drawing both of them to look back at her. “Care to tell us what’s been going on with the two of you?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	125. His Help to Open Up

It wasn’t a surprise, to either of them really. Lucas had picked up on Shawn’s signals earlier, and he figured Maya would have seen those, too, just like she would have seen her mother in the same way. All day long, they had been jollying around with the little Hunters, and the dogs, and Rosa, so it had been easy to ignore the fact that this conversation was now officially on the clock, and the hands would tick down to zero as soon the opportunity presented itself. Now, here it was.

He was as much a part of this as she was, but he couldn’t start this for her, so the best he could do was to keep sitting there and be all the moral support she could need. Something like that, he knew it would press down on her, make her feel small. He was going to sit there, and he was going to imagine her ten feet tall, twenty…

“Baby girl, what’s been…” her mother started again, when neither of them had said a word.

“I-I’m sorry, I just…” Maya shook her head. “I know I haven’t been fair to you, I guess I should say… thanks? For letting me… letting us get there,” she spared a look to Lucas.

He gave her a smile, nodding, and she turned back to them.

“Right… So, a few weeks ago, well on Halloween actually… I thought…”

He could practically see her brain fuming at the thought of actually saying the words. All he could think about now was the day she’d recounted how she’d gotten ‘The Talk,’ or more to the point the _days_ when she’d gotten it. Once from her mother, once from her father.

The first one, with her mother, had happened when she was ten. There was a girl who lived in their old building who would sometimes watch her after school, whenever she wasn’t at Riley’s place. One day, she’d been hanging out with her and a couple of her friends, and she’d overheard the three girls laughing over something. She’d spied, finding that they were watching a video on her neighbor’s computer. Later, when she’d told her mother about it and asked what the people were doing, Katy Hart had sat her daughter down and been straight with her.

Alright, first, she’d gone down the hall and yelled at the girl, who was then yelled at by _her_ mother. Then, she’d come back to the apartment and she’d answered her daughter’s question.

“I mean, try and imagine my mother back when we first moved here, before the house, the good job, the… Shawn… It was just her and me in a crappy apartment in New York, and things between us were so different. Then she gave me all this information and ended with ‘Don’t tell Riley about this, okay?’ Like I was just dying to tell her about any of that.”

By the time Shawn had come into the picture, by the time he’d stepped fully into the role of father, she was older, she had a steady boyfriend, and from what Maya had eventually figured out, when he’d talked with Katy, expressing concerns, wondering if maybe that conversation needed to happen, she had not dared tell him that she’d already told her everything years before, and she’d let him give it his shot. It had been awkward, so… so very awkward, for both Shawn and Maya, doubly so for her as it brought back the awkwardness of that day when she was ten.

No wonder she didn’t want to tell them about Halloween until she had everything figured out.

“For a few… really weird hours, I thought I might have been pregnant.” There, she’d said it. At the very least, she’d set the ball to roll. The rest would get to follow just a bit easier.

Looking back across the table, it was easy to guess Katy and Shawn had guessed as much. Actually, what they probably guessed was that she _was_ pregnant, and she’d been trying to find a way to tell them. Now that she had told them that she actually wasn’t, it left them with the task of readjusting what they had believed with what they now knew. There were still holes in the last several weeks that needed filling.

“But… you’re not?” her mother said after a few seconds, her voice even, like she didn’t want to sound as though she was reacting one way over the other.

“No,” Maya shook her head. “Took four tests that night, they were all negative. Anyway, two days after everything was… back to normal,” she frowned before sitting back, looking at him.

Even with those negative tests, he could sort of see it in her, the day after, on their anniversary, and then the one after that, too. She was still holding to the possibility that it had just been too early and that this was why the tests had said no. Then that had gotten snuffed out, too, and that was really when things had started spinning out in some places.

“I was upset, I… We both were,” she reached out and found his hand under the table. _It’s you and me,_ her eyes said.

He’d convinced himself for all those weeks that he was fine, that he was doing better and all he had left to do was to look after her, to get her feeling better. But then he’d talked to his father, and he’d talked to her, and he’d both realized and accepted that he wasn’t as alright as he’d let himself believe. His father had not given him the solution, he’d let him get there on his own, but at the same time, looking back on it, on his words, he could realize that actually his father _had_ told him all he needed to know, when he’d brought up that story of his mother and the time when she’d believed they’d be having a second child to follow him. _She’d wanted that child and it had never been there… like it wasn’t for us either._

“We didn’t know what it meant, couldn’t explain it, except that it hurt… and it kept hurting, which felt weird because… What was there to be hurting about when we weren’t having any baby? Except then we did find a way to put it together and… that was kind of the problem.”

“What was?” Shawn asked. He looked concerned more than anything. All he’d need to know would be that his daughter was hurting, and he’d be all in to try and help. On that, he and Lucas were riding the same page, always.

“We… we wanted it,” Maya answered softly. He gave her hand a squeeze. “It didn’t matter how complicated it would have been for us, there was a part of both of us who wanted those tests to be positive, to have this baby be real.”

“My first instinct…” Lucas spoke now, knowing at this point that he had to, “When I found out that we might be, that she… I was happy, like the rest of the world was gone. Except then it came back, and when we couldn’t know the answer for a while, I tried to pull back, not to make it real until it was,” he went on, turning to Maya, who nodded along. “I kept thinking about it though, couldn’t help myself. And I was thinking about what it would mean for us, now, in college… and I still wanted it.”

And then he’d pushed it all down, the better to help her, until he’d been forced to let it back out all over again, and it had been a mess.

“I wanted it, too, and I couldn’t admit it to myself, much less to him, or anyone, I… I knew it was better this way, better that it didn’t happen now, and I still wanted it. But it wasn’t there.”

_I realized that I knew it wasn’t the right time, and things would be so much better for all of us, you, me, the kid, if it didn’t come now, and I didn’t care, I wanted it. What does that make me?_

That was what she’d told him, the night before, in their room. She said as much to her parents now, and Katy just sighed, laying her outstretched hand across the table. Maya looked to him before sliding her own hand out of his in order to meet her mother’s waiting grasp. She’d put it all out there now, put herself out there, showing her parents how she’d cultivated this sort of shame toward herself, which had prevented her from seeing them until today, all those weeks later, a shame for recklessly wanting something that would have made her happy.

“We’ll be okay though,” Maya told her parents, and him, too.

“We will,” he agreed with a nod.

Shawn got up from the table at this point, and the three of them still at the table watched him, wondering where he was going. He opened the fridge door, looked inside, closed it, opened the freezer door and did the same, apparently finding about as much there as he did in the fridge, which was a whole lot of nothing. He turned back around and, seeing the three pairs of eyes staring back at him, his gaze focused on the one belonging to his daughter.

“You want ice cream? Feels like there should be ice cream.” There was a beat, then Maya laughed.

“Feels like there should be ice cream?” Katy repeated, with a tone that suggested something more like ‘where did that come from?’

“Maya?” he turned back to her like she’d be the judge of that.

“Mint chip?” she squinted, and Shawn gave a firm nod before turning back to his wife like he’d proved his point.

“Done. Wanna come?” he asked Maya.

“From experience, it won’t be long before someone up there wakes up and they won’t go at it alone for long,” she indicated the upstairs. “I kind of want to be there for that.”

“Good point. Alright then, Lucas?” Shawn pointed at him now. He hesitated only for a moment. As ever, Maya’s well-being took precedent over everything, including whatever conversation might take place tonight when he found himself alone with her father.

“Yeah, okay,” he got up to follow. First, Shawn came up to the table, set his hands on either side of Maya’s head and kissed the top of it before looking down at her. She looked back at him, her smile flowing with gratitude.

Whatever he’d expected of this late expedition for frozen treats, he came back from it with this feeling like his relationship with the man in line to one day become his father-in-law had taken a few steps forward. For the first time, he came around to the feeling like he hadn’t been treated as ‘the boyfriend.’ Tonight, after he and Maya had shared this moment in their lives, he was family.

He told as much to Maya, much later, when they finally turned in for the night. First, when he and Shawn came back, they tempted Rosa out of the guest room with the promise of black cherry ice cream, and then the five of them ended up sitting around the living room, turning the channels on the television until they landed on a Christmas movie they had all seen at least once a year for as long as they could remember, none of them too concerned on talking, instead eating one spoonful of whatever flavor ice cream they had sitting in their hands at the time.

Lucas sat on the ground, his back to the front of the couch, with one of Maya’s legs on either of his shoulders. She’d mess around, twisting one of her feet toward his face every so often, making him dodge, making her laugh… She was sitting in between her parents. After being away from them for all this time, he could tell how good it felt to have them near to her again like this.

TO BE CONTINUED


	126. His Help to Cheer

The days following their arrival in Austin were possibly, easily, the best they’d had in a long time. A great weight had been lifted from them, leaving them feeling light and easily imbued with holiday cheer, surrounded as they were by their families, and their friends, and their hometown.

The morning after they’d driven in, Maya, Lucas, and Rosa made their way to the Friar house to see his parents and his grandfather. The day started, as they’d figured it would, with a visit from a couple of dishevelled little spies. Their technique for sneaking in had not improved so much in the past year, nor had their ability to see when people were actually asleep or not. Before long, they had been captured into the arms of their big sister and their pal Lukey, which made them melt into giggles. If only they knew how much good that sound was doing for the ones who now held them in their arms.

They let themselves into the Friar house, only to be greeted by one more of the wild canine bunch. Dash looked to be vying for an upgrade to her name, the way she’d hop and hop before him, so Lucas caught her up on a leap and was rewarded for this with many kisses. As much as he loved their Trix and Lou, he always felt a rush of happiness when he’d come back here and be greeted by the one who had been his dog, before any of the others, still was.

Next to come was his mother, and one look at her told him that his father had done as he’d asked, a few days past, when they had their talk. It might have been that he would have wanted to tell her about Halloween himself, that he _should_ be the one to tell her. But as they’d been getting back into his father’s car, Lucas had turned to the man and made this one request. _Can you tell her?_ He hadn’t needed to say more than this. His father understood him well enough.

It wasn’t the kind of conversation one had on the phone, at least not one who had been raised by Melinda Friar, and Lucas came to the conclusion that the best thing for everyone would be if his mother had a couple of days to process what she had been told so that, by the time Lucas and, more importantly, Maya arrived there to visit for the holidays, his mother wouldn’t be all over the place.

Habit would lead them to expect that, when she came along to greet them, she would embrace her son first, but that day Melinda Friar went right for her son’s girlfriend, welcoming her back with that kind of warmth she would display at times, the kind that reminded you how under all that exuberance of hers she was simply a very loving person. As surprised as she was by the greeting, Maya smiled, hugging the woman back and stealing a look up to Lucas. His mother never actually said a word about what she’d been told, and on that as well they were quietly thankful to her.

As they’d been doing ever since they’d moved to Houston and started being visitors to their old homes, they had divided their time between the two homes. They would be with Maya’s family for the first week, and with his family on the second. When it came right down to it, they knew that, with her siblings being so little still, getting to spend Christmas morning with them would matter much more than deciding which home to go to and when.

After their breakfast with Lucas’ family, which involved the Friars feeding any number of stories from both Lucas and Maya’s earlier days on to the visiting Rosa, all six of them made their way back to the Hunter Hart house for what was to be MJ’s belated birthday party.

The birthday boy was not having it with being dressed up for the occasion. The sound of his complaints was the greeting they received upon arrival, so Maya dashed up the stairs to assist her mother. Rosa went off to the backyard, where August Matthews and Michaela Zhu were playing with the dogs. Lucas could just see the rest of the Matthews family off in the kitchen, along with Dylan. The thing that drew his attention most of all was Shawn coming to greet his family. He only had to look at all of them together and he could just know that, in those weeks where he and Maya hadn’t been visiting, his parents and hers had been exchanging their concerns as they would arise.

Every morning that would follow would start in much the same way. They would be ‘awakened’ by Nellie and Gracie, after which they would be dragged toward the kitchen, where the twins would each get to move the little magnetic figure on their respective calendars on the fridge door, telling them how many days remained before Santa came along. Six, five, four, three, two, one…

On Christmas Eve, before they all went off to the Friar house for dinner, Lucas, Maya, and Rosa teamed up to help in the very important task of baking cookies for their jolly visitor. Gracie, of all people, insisted that they needed to be made, not just taken from a box.

“You’ve been hanging out with Mrs. Friar, haven’t you?” Maya squinted down to her little sister, who responded with giggles and a nod. “Your mother is going to turn my Mouse-Mouse into a Southern Belle,” she turned back to him, and Lucas held up his hands in ‘surrender.’

“Can we stay with you tonight?” Nellie requested of her big sister as they were sitting around the table, the twins perched on their knees on their chairs, the better to be higher, all of them rolling bits of dough into balls.

“Why?” Maya stared back at her suspiciously. “You want to spy on Santa?”

“No,” Nellie denied, shaking her head.

“Really?” Maya pressed on, trying not to smirk.

“You know, if you’re not asleep, he might not come,” Lucas added. Nellie’s blue eyes went wide, turning to her twin, who shook her head with a similar look on her face.

“We sleep, we sleep,” Nellie promised.

“Good,” Maya laughed. “You still want to stay with us? We can have a sleepover in my room.” At this, Rosa raised her hand. “Yes, you can come, too, I mean… if _they_ want to,” she tipped her head back to the twins. So, that decided it. They would all sleep in Maya’s room that night, and no one would interrupt Mr. Claus in his magical work.

“Can MJ come to sleepover, too?” Gracie asked.

“Uh… I don’t know, maybe?” Maya looked to Lucas. “It’ll get a bit crowded with the five of us. And he’s still tiny…”

“Next year he could come with us, when he’s bigger, like you two,” Lucas offered.

“He is a baby,” Nellie agreed. Gracie looked a bit disappointed at this. Of the two of them, she had always been closer to their little brother, always looking after him when he’d be upset, fetching one thing or another for one of her parents when they’d be changing him or feeding him… All the same, Nellie would always want to take care of _her_ , so Gracie’s little sad face moved her to hop off her chair at once and move to loop her arms around her twin. “It’s okay, Mouse,” she whispered. Lucas smiled, as much for the gesture as for how it made Maya smile and tear up at once. Nellie was mimicking her, and it was working. Gracie nodded, and she didn’t look so sad anymore.

If she needed something more to help her feel better, she got it when they all went and changed into their dresses for the Friars’ Christmas Eve dinner. Their hair was pulled into identical braids before being twisted into buns and fixed with a red ribbon.

“Here, one gift early, just from me,” Maya called them both forward with great conspiracy. “Santa said it was okay. We’re old friends.” The twins stared with quiet awe as she produced two small boxes from her pockets and distributed them. The one in the green paper went to Nellie, the pink to Gracie. Watching them unwrap their presents made them easy to identify. Nellie pulled and tore eagerly, while Gracie showed surprising dexterity, pulling the paper apart at its seams. The boxes inside were identical, their contents for the most part identical, too. Each held a thin golden chain, holding a small golden locket. One had been engraved with a looped letter P, the other a G.

“P…” Nellie read.

“Like Penelope,” Maya smiled and got one back from her sister. “And G for…”

“Grace!” Gracie beamed.

“You have to be careful with them, but you can do that, right?” The girls nodded. “You might only get to wear them for special occasions at first, then when you’re older you can wear them more. And the best part, you can put pictures inside,” she explained as she pulled Nellie’s locket from its box and fastened the chain around her neck before opening the golden heart. “See?”

“Wow…” Gracie breathed. Maya placed the second locket around her neck, and now the girls looked to one another, faces bursting with smiles.

“Merry Christmas, sisters,” Maya told them. They turned back to her now and piled in for hugs and kisses of thanks.

“What are you going to put inside them?” Lucas asked, crouching at their side.

“Mommy,” Nellie declared.

“Daddy,” Gracie added, both sounding as though they’d been forming a single sentence.

“Excellent choice,” Lucas nodded.

“Now?” Nellie asked.

Ten minutes later, the twins were barrelling down the stairs in search of their parents, talking over one another and pointing to the lockets around their necks and asking them both to open and look inside. When they were asked where they got those, they turned and pointed to their big sister.

“She knows Santa!” Gracie revealed. “He said okay!”

The dinner at the Friar house was a grand affair to rival Professor Robinson’s dinners. It was made all the more so by the presence of their friends, who had poured in from Boston and New York and, of course, Houston, until it was near on all of them. They were all sitting together at one end of the table, and as ever it never felt as though they’d been physically apart for months on end.

By the time they returned to the Hunter Hart house, Lucas and Maya’s sleepover buddies, the littler ones at least, were fast asleep in their mother and sister’s arms, but the promise was kept, and after they were changed into their pyjamas they were laid out in the space between Maya and ‘Lukey’ in their bed downstairs, while Rosa had her sleeping bag on the ground. She wasn’t long awake by the time she climbed in there, which left only two of their five still awake in the wee hours of December 25th.

“Merry Christmas,” Lucas whispered. He was turned on his side, facing her, also on her side. In between them, the twins were curled up together, not clinging to either of them lying nearby.

“Ho ho ho,” Maya whispered back with a grin. “For real this time. Merry Christmas.”

For a few moments they were quiet, listening to the girls between them, their breathing even, peaceful… Lucas watched as Maya carefully traced her fingers down their backs, brushed hair from their faces… All over her face he could see her inspect them, take in how much they’d changed, grown, since they’d first moved out to Houston. Those old fears, that either of them would ever forget her or feel any different about her, had long been vanquished, but still… She missed seeing them the way she would when they were back here, in Austin.

At the same time, the way she looked at them, he had to wonder if maybe she wasn’t also seeing them, not just as her sisters but as children, little ones she’d seen grow from the start. Was she thinking about the maybe baby again? She probably was. It didn’t look as though it pained her anymore, not the way it had done in the last several weeks. Once they’d put into words the things which they’d been feeling all along, it never had the same hold on them it once had. Now, she looked at her sisters, at these children, and the future was once again in the future, and that was good enough.

“Listen,” she whispered. He did as told, turning his head just a bit. He could hear someone out there, outside the closed door to their room. He looked back down to the twins, as Maya did, confirming that they were still sleeping. A few minutes later, the door was opened just a crack. Shawn peered in, munching on a cookie. Maya held up her hand, gave him a thumb up, and he held up his cookie with a nod before shutting the door. “I think Santa’s going to be hopped up on sugar soon,” she whispered to Lucas.

They had left the whole pile of cookies on the plate out there, as Nellie insisted. The way she saw it, Santa had a long night, so he needed to eat. And the reindeer could have the rest, of course.

“So, tomorrow… later today… Who’s it going to be?” Maya asked. It had been uncertain exactly who would be coming along to fill the big buckled boots this year, with Bishop off in France, but they knew there would be _someone_ bringing Santa to life, same as the previous year.

“Uh…” he hesitated, turning his eyes to the girls. Maya held up her finger for him to wait.

“Woah, look at that…” she spoke quietly, then waited. Neither girl moved. “They’re asleep,” she confirmed.

“Coming out of retirement,” Lucas finally whispered. Maya blinked, then gasped.

“For real?”

“I guess he really felt the spirit this year. And one night only… he couldn’t pass it up.” Maya beamed.

“Better get to sleep then,” she settled down, and he did the same. Now they couldn’t wait for morning, to see the looks on the twins’ faces when they went and saw the signs of Santa’s visit, and then had the privilege of being visited by Pappy Joe Christmas himself, with a few more treats, many stories, and many thanks for all the cookies they’d helped to prepare with their own little hands.

TO BE CONTINUED


	127. Their Comfort With Memories

By the time they would all find themselves back in bed the following night, it would get to feel as though they had all been in a whirlwind for hours and hours, from the moment they’d been awakened by a pair of very insistent three-year-olds, shaking them and begging that they come and see if Santa Claus had come (Nellie) and if he’d liked the cookies (Gracie). Lucas was tasked with keeping an eye on the two of them, mostly to ensure they wouldn’t get carried away and start diving for presents before the others had a chance to join them. Maya went up the stairs, stopping in the nursery to find MJ sitting up wide awake in his crib. She picked him up before poking her head in her parents’ room.

“Rise and shine, Christmas waits as long as a couple toddlers!” she called before moving to go and wake Rosa.

The day’s activities were to take place right there at Maya’s parents’ house, so almost as soon as the wrapped parcels under the tree had been freed of their coverings, they needed to get a move on. First, there was breakfast, finally, and then they had to get themselves and the house ready. Lucas saw to the picking up of all the discarded paper, ribbons, and bows, holding the bag open while his designated assistants went grabbing at the wrappings and brought them to him. If nothing else, it was a nice exercise in picking up after themselves, though it wasn’t long that he counseled the girls in pushing the paper as much into balls as they could before trying to toss them in the bag.

“I’m willing to put money on one day seeing the two of them following in _your_ basketball shoes,” Lucas confided to his girlfriend, and Maya was at once taken with pride at the thought.

“I might collect on that in like ten years…”

The next few hours were in line with what they might expect of a gathering of family and friends at Christmas, especially what this year and the one before had become, now that they were all spread out in a handful of cities, away from parents, siblings… It was a precious enough sort of gift that they would all be together again, so adding to this the holidays, and all they entailed, they were in for good times, and funny stories, and one good awkward moment or two, but generally the kind they would later laugh about.

It was technically MJ’s second Christmas, but seeing as he’d been all of two weeks old during the first one, his proper first Christmas had involved little more than sleeping, and pooping, and getting passed around from one pair of arms to another. This year, though he was still all of a year old, he had grown into a happy little guy, and though he was not likely to remember this day any more than he would the previous year’s, he was having a great time.

Somehow, this was turned into a game between his big sister and her friends. It started as a drinking game, because why not, but it wasn’t long before they all agreed that at this rate, if they kept chugging every time someone made MJ laugh, they’d be passed out by lunch time. So, they switched to snacks, though in the end it didn’t exactly help them get through lunch either, as they were already near on full by the time they sat around the table.

The real entertainment came in the form of Pappy Joe’s much lauded return as the man of the hour. He was absent from the party until his passage in costume, the better not to let the girls grow suspicious. When he came in, though there was only one other child at the party who was still in that sweet spot of being old enough to know about Santa and young enough to believe in him – the littlest of the four Zhu girls – the twins went for him as though it was the most important thing that they got to him as soon as possible. Why was he back? Had he forgotten something? Did he eat all the cookies or did he give some to the reindeer? Santa Joe had not lost his touch in the slightest, and for the next little while they were eating out of the palm of his hand.

For all that, the moment which would stay with them in days to come happened when the group of friends gathered for their Secret Santa gift exchange, all of them piled into Maya’s room after the twins had been put to sleep in their own beds.

Much later, after the guests had gone away and the permanent and visiting residents of the house were turning in, Maya and Lucas went back into the room looking very much like they had been playing it cool all for hours, all with the sole purpose of getting to this moment where they would finally get the chance to discuss what they’d been wanting to discuss. They went about getting ready for bed, waiting until they could sit there and talk, which only made them more eager, and _that_ made them startle when they heard the door creak open, revealing two pairs of blue eyes staring up at them.

“Well, hey,” Maya spoke at once, blinking. “What are you guys doing down here?” she whispered, moving toward her sisters and crouching before them.

“Sleepover,” Gracie declared, and Nellie nodded.

“Again?” Maya asked, her voice sounding more surprised than she truly was.

“Tomorrow you’re going away,” Nellie reasoned. Maya let out a breath. That was true, sort of. They weren’t going back to Houston, not for another week, but they _would_ be relocating to spend the next week at the Friar house, with Lucas’ family, which would mean no more mornings together, not for a while more.

“Alright, that’s fair, yeah?” Maya turned to look to Lucas, who was already working to fix up the pillows as they would do when the twins would come and stay with them. “Yeah, let’s go,” she scooped up her sisters, huffing with the realization that they kept on getting bigger and she didn’t, which made lifting them up at the same time harder than it used to be. They didn’t complain, of course, melting into giggles instead when she dropped them on to the bed.

The four of them soon scooted into place, where it took a series of stories and songs before the two in the middle were fast asleep, leaving the two on the outside awake and looking to one another.

“What do we do now?” Lucas asked, whispering.

“We talk… very quietly,” Maya told him. “Because I am _not_ that patient… and because if they wake up and hear anything, they _will_ repeat it, probably at the worst time possible.”

“So, what do you think? Do they know?” Lucas asked, keeping quiet as told.

“I… I really don’t know,” Maya frowned. “Maybe, but…” she sighed. “Maybe not.”

As best they could tell, all the pieces on the Rilan… Dyley… board remained as they had been… Dylan had feelings for Riley, Lucas knew, Maya knew, Riley did not know. Riley had feelings for Dylan, Maya knew, Lucas didn’t, Dylan didn’t… Riley didn’t. But now, just a few hours ago, the friends had exchanged presents with whoever they’d picked out of the hat, all except Maya and Dylan, who had swapped names, the better to enable Dylan to give a gift to the girl he liked, even if she didn’t know that was the reason or that there had ever been a switch to begin with.

“Classic move,” Lucas had told Maya when she’d told him about the switch a few weeks before. She’d laughed, but she’d agreed.

For that reason, there were three of them watching with particular curiosity when Riley received her present and set about unwrapping it. Dylan had handed it over to her with that same smile of his, the same they’d known for years, while Riley looked instantly pleased to learn he had been the one to get her a gift. She would no doubt have been happy to receive something from any of them, but it had been from Dylan, and somewhere in that part of her heart she wasn’t even aware of yet, there had to be a party going on, flashing red lights that settled almost like blushing in her cheeks. Dylan was watching as she started unwrapping the object. Lucas watched. Maya watched.

Whether anyone else saw Dylan’s gift as anything stretching past any kind of boundary separating friendship and something more than friendship, no one said a thing or showed any sign that they did. On the whole, even Lucas and Maya wouldn’t have said that it was too obvious either, except for the amount of attention it showed. Specifically, it spoke of just how much Dylan had been paying attention to Riley over the years he’d known her and quietly cared for her.

As much as Riley’s transition from New York to Texas had in many ways been miles smoother than Maya’s had been, as happy as she had been and continued to be in Texas, there were still many things she missed about New York. The box Dylan had given Riley was filled with several items, and as they were pulled out, one by one, Riley gasped and explained what they represented. Maya didn’t need to hear any of it to know that they’d end up well on display in Riley’s room back in Houston, and that she’d look at them and smile. She didn’t even need to hear her explain anything to remember more or less when Dylan would have come to know that they held any meaning to Riley. Their summer trip to Europe, one afternoon playing basketball three years ago, that night they’d been a live painting, at a sleepover six years ago…

“How did you…” Riley finally looked to Dylan, baffled, looking to the collection of small trinkets she held in her hands. “Did you go to New York, how…”

“I had help,” Dylan just smiled, looking to his best friend. Asher gave an elaborate bow, complete with hand flourish. “Merry Christmas, Riley.”

She sat there for a beat, blinking. She set everything back in the box, set it aside before pulling herself over to where Dylan sat. She hugged him and thanked him, and for the tiniest sliver of a moment their eyes locked on to one another’s and… and…

It was up to interpretation, really. Had something happened in that moment? Had Dylan tipped his hand? Had Riley finally put it all together for herself, or had she seen through _him_? Whatever had happened, it only lasted that one tiny moment, and then they carried on, the gifts went around, and eventually the night ended.

“It was really sweet, everything he put in that box,” Maya whispered, smiling and absently brushing at Nellie’s hair, the girl sleeping away with her thumb hanging perilously between her teeth.

“If she even knows what it means,” Lucas replied. “I just don’t want him to get hurt, if it turns out she doesn’t feel the same way about him…”

“Lucas…” she looked back up at him, sighing. That was all it took, no further words, just his name and that look and he knew what she’d figured out for herself, that Dylan’s feelings were not one sided. She didn’t go into details, didn’t explain how, as far as she could tell, Riley wasn’t even aware of it herself, and he didn’t push any further to inquire on details. So, for now, they left it there. Whatever would come of the night, time would tell.

TO BE CONTINUED


	128. Their Comfort With Curiosity

The morning after Christmas began with Maya, Lucas, and Rosa all packing up their bags and their dogs for the transition over to the Friar house. Actually, it _really_ started with the twins leading a campaign with the sole purpose of keeping the visitors from leaving them. They could prepare them all they wanted, when it came down to it, it didn’t matter that they would still hang out while they were in Austin, or that they would keep on seeing each other even after they went back to Houston. The way Nellie and Gracie were tailing them, one might have believed they would never see their big sister and her boyfriend ever again. They would turn those blue eyes up to Maya especially, and she would be left to remind herself that they were still so little and didn’t know any better.

Eventually, and following an outing to Ma Maggie’s for breakfast, they said their goodbyes to the Hunter-Harts, with thanks for hosting them, before making their way to the Friar house. Both Maya and Lucas, and even Rosa, were commanded into raining solid amounts of kisses on the small faces presented to them, until they would finally let them go.

“It’s like we just checked into a hotel,” Rosa whispered as she trailed after Lucas and Maya, the three of them heading up the stairs to their rooms, after having been greeted by Melinda Friar. “Like I really wouldn’t be surprised if there was a mint on the pillow.”

“Wouldn’t you be?” Maya looked back at her with a smirk. Her bandmate’s eyes went wide.

“Shut up?”

“She tucks those sheets in tight, too,” Lucas added as Maya laughed.

“Just don’t request the wake-up call,” she added, feeding more fuel on to Rosa’s growing smile.

They split off at the top of the stairs, where Lucas pointed the way to the guest room for Rosa before following Maya to his old room. He was always glad to be back here, every time they visited… It never felt like anything less than home.

“Uh, does she make these herself?” Rosa wandered in a minute later, taking a bite from the mint she _had_ found on her pillow, wrapped in a square of wax paper.

“For as long as I can remember,” Lucas told her with a nod.

“Your mom’s intense,” Rosa declared. “And this thing is so good…” she hummed, taking another bite of her chocolate.

“Say that where she can hear you and there’ll be a tin of them waiting for you when we head back to Houston next week,” Maya suggested. Rosa looked to be considering this plan already.

“Dylan just wrote,” Lucas turned to the girls, holding up his phone. “Wants to know if we want to meet at his house and ‘hoop it.’”

“I’m in,” Maya replied at once before looking to Rosa. “Wanna come?”

“Do I have to play?” It was one thing that she could sort of throw the ball and see it fall through the hoop from time to time, she was in no way a player, and they weren’t going to get anything by making her do it anyway. No, she didn’t have to play, so she agreed to come.

When they arrived at the Orlando house, they found that the invitation had extended to Franny and Kayla, and soon to whoever of their old high school team was available. In no time, they went into the garage to extricate and assemble the standing hoop before pushing it to stand in opposition to the one mounted over the garage doors. Teams were assembled, with more players than they needed, the better to be swapped in at one time or another.

“I’ve missed this…” Maya grinned as she stood across from Lucas on the ‘court.’

“We all played the day before we drove out here,” he reminded her.

“It’s not the same,” she shrugged. “Like the victory’s a little sweeter out here…”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” he shook his head.

There really was something special about those games they had at the Orlando house. Maybe it went back to all those years they’d been coming to play here, most of them. They could change schools, they could move to different cities, different states, but then they’d be back here and it would be like nothing had changed.

“Hey, tag me in!” Keilani Avelino called from the sidelines at one point, and Maya raised her hand to offer out her spot, swapping out with her former teammate with a high five as they crossed paths.

No sooner was she cleared from play that Maya felt someone take her hand from behind. She turned and saw Riley there, a look in her eyes saying plainly ‘follow me.’ Maya tipped her head in agreement and let herself get pulled away from the driveway and toward the house. The rest of the Orlandos had left to go and visit some family friends, so the place was empty, leaving only the two former New Yorkers to take refuge in the kitchen.

“Think we should order pizza? How many would we need for all of…”

“I think I…” Riley cut her off, then just as quickly closed off, eyes gone wide and now wider as she stalled and found herself in her best friend’s attention with words failing her. “I…” she breathed, bowing her head for a moment.

“Yeah?” Maya took a step toward her. She guessed it was fortunate for her that she had a pretty good idea where this was going. Then again, Riley was not so fortunate, as she was giving off the definite signs of someone who was only now putting a few things together. She would have thought that, as she’d guessed it some time ago, she would only be relieved whenever Riley got there, too. Instead, she felt a sort of trepidation for her best friend of old. It had been so long since she’d gone through this kind of realization herself, but Riley… This was new…

She’d been on a few dates, over the past few years, though none of them had ever gone anywhere. And certainly, none of the guys involved had caused any kind of reaction like this. Riley was looking back at her, hesitating, looking around the room to ensure they were really alone, and even then, she kept on hesitating. It _would_ be weird, telling one of your friends that you had feelings for another one of your friends, especially after so many years…

“You and Lucas, when you… when you knew you liked him, and when you knew you loved him, what was different?” Riley finally spoke, and Maya blinked. This wasn’t exactly where she’d expected this conversation to go.

“I don’t… I mean, I…” She really wanted to answer this properly, to give Riley what she needed, but she really had to stop and think about it before she could reply. “I figured out I liked him, after I went out with Joey that one time,” she started, and Riley nodded, remembering. “I was out there, with Joey, and all I knew was that my heart wasn’t in it, couldn’t be, because it was with him, with Lucas.” To this day, she still remembered what it had felt like, sitting on that bus afterward, understanding that she liked this boy, understanding these feelings that had been in her for a time already, without definition.

“And after that, when you…” Riley asked. _When I knew I loved him…_

“The day my parents were married,” she smiled. “I thought we were moving back to New York…” Riley remembered this, too. “For weeks, we both thought we would be pulled apart, me in New York, him back here in Texas, and it hurt, it almost physically hurt, just thinking that we wouldn’t see each other, that we would be so far away from one another… so, when we found out it was all a misunderstanding, we were so happy, so…” she shook her head, _that_ feeling still familiar in her, too, like her heart had its own memory banks, filled with old feelings she’d kept, bound to the memories of her mind. “And we knew… and none of that’s changed, except to be stronger.”

“Yeah…” Riley took this in, looking as though her mind had just travelled somewhere far away, though all the while keeping hold of reality, of her friend.

“Riley, hey…” Maya gave her hand a squeeze. Riley turned back to her, and she gave her confused friend a nod.

“Can you like someone and not know it?” she finally asked. Maya smirked.

“Definitely,” she nodded. “It’s a lot of being really blind to what’s right in front of you until… eureka,” she motioned, making Riley jump just a bit.

“What about the other one?” she asked after a moment. Maya stood up straighter at that. Was it that she’d assumed her friend had taken a hop and a skip into realization, when she’d actually surpassed all of that and long-jumped right into the next part? _Can you_ love _someone and not know it?_

“Y-you think you love him?” she blurted out, and Riley startled all over again, looking around, checking… They’d been in hypotheticals all this time, but now she’d pulled them into real happenings.

“What? I didn’t… I… How did you…” she asked. Maya didn’t know how to answer that one without overstepping her bounds any further than she might have done now.

“Assuming there’s a him… or a her…” she played it smooth, trusting that it would be enough to nudge the already frazzled Riley along, which it did, sent her along and pacing.

“Maybe it’s going to sound crazy, I don’t know, but I…” she turned back around, moved to stand close enough that she could whisper. “I might have some feelings… for Dylan… the more than friends kind.” The room remained silent for a few seconds, and then Maya just pulled her old friend into a tight hug. “It doesn’t freak you out?”

“Not at all.”

“Okay, because it’s freaking _me_ out a lot,” Riley confessed, and Maya pulled back.

“Why?” she asked.

“I don’t know, I mean I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t, not until… well… maybe I started to realize it, the last few weeks, but then last night… last night, oh…”

“Ton of bricks?”

“The whole building,” Riley nodded. Maya laughed. “It’s not funny…”

“It is though,” Maya assured her.

“But what if he… doesn’t…” Seeing that little tremor in her Honey’s eyes, Maya wished so much that she could just put her mind at ease and tell her all she knew, but she couldn’t do that, no. If this was to be Riley’s great love story, then she deserved to live it out fully, no shortcuts from her best friend.

“You’ll figure it out,” she did promise, reaching out to brush Riley’s lengthening brown hair behind her ears. “Whatever happens in the end, I’ll be right there with you.”

“Yeah…” Riley breathed out, once, then again. “Yeah…” She hugged her again, and Maya received this gladly.

“Come on, let’s go back out there, okay?”

“Okay… Can we get those pizzas now?”

“We’re going to need a head count…” Maya nodded as they walked back through the house and rejoined their friends outside, where the game was still going on. At this point, Sophie, Chiara, Keilani, Nadine, and – by some surprise – Rosa were facing off against Lucas, Dylan, Asher, Zay, and Ray. Maya could see how Riley would try and play it cool, even though her eyes now seemed bent on following the progress of their host. Her eyes didn’t care that she was trying to play it cool, which really sounded about right, with this being Riley. “Deep breaths, pull that smile together, Matthews.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	129. Their Comfort With Nerves

The next morning saw Lucas recruited into helping his father with a few chores around the house. Maya offered to help, but he convinced her to go and spend more time with her siblings while she had the chance. He had her there with him every day, and those kids missed her so much… So, off she went. Rosa was gone, too. Kayla had invited her to come and hang out at her parents’ house.

Lucas and his father had plenty to do to keep them occupied that day. The garage door had been acting up and needed fixing. Tom Friar continued to claim that only his son seemed to know how to tame the thing, so he was sent up the ladder to deal with it. Within minutes, the door was back in order. They had boxes of old things to sort through, some to throw out, others to donate. Melinda Friar wanted the kitchen cupboards cleaned, so they started at this, too.

They’d been working through their tasks for near on two hours when there was the sound of the doorbell and, soon after, Dylan came into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Lucas climbed down from his step ladder, dropping his rag on the counter.

“What are you guys doing?” Dylan asked, looking around curiously. “Is it Spring cleaning time already?” he asked then, figuring it out. He and Lucas had been friends long enough that he knew Melinda Friar’s definition of Spring cleaning tended to come closer to the start of the year. And with her favorite helper off in Houston again in a matter of days… “Need a hand?”

“Always,” Tom Friar passed another rag to his son’s friend, clapping his shoulder. “I’m taking my break, boss,” he tipped his head to Lucas before walking off.

Dylan looked to the other step ladder and moved to continue cleaning the shelves Mr. Friar had been working on, their contents pulled down to the counter space below. Lucas blinked, watching him. He’d just shown up, but there was no way he’d come to do chores, so what was it?

“He says he’s taking a break, but I don’t think he’s coming back now that you’re here helping me,” he pointed out.

“That’s okay, I don’t mind,” Dylan told him, wiping at the high shelf. “Bet I can finish my side before you,” he added with a chuckle in his voice.

“Yeah?” Lucas laughed, too. “There is no rushing in Melinda Friar’s kitchen, you know that,” he pointed out, getting back on his step.

“Slow but efficient, got it, you’re on.”

They finished cleaning the shelves and resetting everything right around lunch time, which came down to the two old friends heading out to the Garcia twins’ uncle’s diner, the site of many a gathering between them and the others in the last few years, especially while Maya, Asher, and Nadine had been working there. They slipped into their usual booth, plenty of room left to spare with only the two of them. They were exhausted from the work they’d done, which was soon to be remedied by the loaded plates set before them by none other than Kamani Avelino, Keilani’s twin and Lucas’ former neighbor and teammate, who had gotten a job there after the others had left for college.

“Think I came on too strong?” Dylan blurted out as Lucas took the first bite of his burger, which left him to sit there and chew, and chew, until he could swallow and reply. “O-or too vague?”

“What do you…” Lucas started to ask, once he could. Dylan picked up one of his fries and, after a beat, Lucas understood. The gift, Riley’s gift, at Christmas. “Oh…”

“Should I get her something else?” Dylan went on.

“No, hey, you did good, relax,” Lucas tried not to look overly amused, though he felt a chuckle rumbling on the inside. “You know, you could just tell her how you feel about her.”

They’d had this conversation before, and the answer remained the same as it had been for some time now. He didn’t know if she felt the same, and he didn’t want to run the risk that he’d mess things up for all of them, make things awkward… Lucas understood that, and he respected it, but after a while it really lost some of its sense… actually, all of its sense. He knew how it could get, when the feelings were there but they went on existing in a standstill. The situation wasn’t identical to what it had been back before he and Maya had gotten together, but it was close enough…

Dylan couldn’t just go on like this, could he? Just feeling what he felt for Riley, not saying anything, but also being stuck with a hope that was actually very much in his control, if he would just talk to her and tell her the truth. If he never did it, and if she never did either, how long would he let this go on? _But she does like him…_ He knew that now. He didn’t know the details and he hadn’t gone digging for them. All he had was Maya’s confirmation of sorts, from two nights ago.

But still, suddenly his nudging Dylan to just go ahead and talk to Riley held a different sort of weight. Before, it had just been about honesty, taking a chance. Now, knowing the answer that awaited him before he ever asked his question, it had more to do with helping two friends without revealing any information he couldn’t reveal.

“I… Maybe…” Dylan breathed. Lucas almost choked on his drink.

“Wait, really?” he asked, after he’d finished coughing. Dylan looked confused.

“Why, don’t you think I should? You just said…”

“No, no, I don’t think you shouldn’t, you should, you…” He stopped, sighing before sitting up and starting over. “You should tell her,” Lucas told his friend, then, “If you’re ready.” Dylan sat there for a moment, looking like he’d retreated into his mind, the better to consider whether he _was_ ready or not. “If you ask me though… Now’s as good a time as any. You gave her that gift, you saw how happy it made her.” Dylan grinned.

“It did, huh?”

“Yeah,” Lucas laughed. Dylan considered his options, and as he sat there, he seemed to grow just a bit… wakeful, thrilled…

“Okay,” he smiled. “I’m going to tell her,” he declared, and Lucas knew that when Dylan made up his mind about something there was very rarely any going back. It was how he’d ended up with more than one of the scars he had on his body. This one, at least, should be free of bodily harm… yeah?

“Great,” Lucas grinned, clapping his old friend on the arm.

“I think I should wait until we’re back in Houston,” Dylan went on, nodding to himself.

“Sure, okay,” Lucas replied, rolling with it.

“Do I just… Should I do something special?”

“Special?”

“Should I dress up for it, or… Maybe I should write down what I want to say, then I won’t forget anything… Should I get her flowers?”

“Dylan…”

“How did _you_ do it?” he asked, and Lucas sighed, again finding himself on the border of a laugh.

“How did I tell Maya I liked her?” he had to ask, to make sure that was what he meant. Dylan nodded. “I guess I never really did, it was just sort of… at some point we both just knew.”

_In New York, that booth… It was the first time we kissed…_ It didn’t really count as ‘their first kiss,’ it wasn’t the first one where it meant something, it was a reaction, giving in to a moment. They’d been looking into each other’s eyes, and it was like they’d finally allowed themselves to act on something which had been a part of them on the inside up to that point. It wasn’t until much later that they actually got together. And that was them, their story, but that wasn’t going to be Dylan’s, wasn’t going to be Riley’s.

“Just be you,” he told Dylan. “You’re still the same person, you’re still her friend. That’s the guy she needs to see.”

“Right… okay… thanks…” Dylan nodded, still amped up, still nervous.

“We should finish up here, I’ve still got chores to do at home,” Lucas told him.

“Cool, I’ll come with,” Dylan offered at once.

So, after they finished their lunch, they headed back to the Friar house, where they were greeted with the next item on Mrs. Friar’s list, which turned out to be assembling the new bookshelves she’d bought to replace the old ones in the den. Lucas and Dylan made quick work of these, bringing the old ones down to the basement. The Hillards were set to drive up for a visit and they would be taking the old shelves with them, to put in Sarah and Evie’s room.

“Thanks for helping,” Lucas told Dylan when he finally had to go.

“You, too,” Dylan told him. The smile on his face was so hopeful and at the same time so loaded with questions. Of course, he would be nervous, how could he not be?

Maya returned soon after, sporting a messy manicure which suggested what she and her sisters had been up to today.

“Sparkly,” he noted, and she displayed her hands as though she was in the middle of a photoshoot.

“Right?” she smiled.

“You’re going to keep them that way until we leave, aren’t you?” he guessed.

“It’s either that or I wear gloves for as long as we’re still in Austin. Otherwise, I’m going to be getting a whole lot of sad face and frowns for the next few days. No one wants that…”

He didn’t tell her about his conversation with Dylan, didn’t tell her about the choice he’d made. It would have been easy to tell her, to share in this secret with her, as they’d done since she’d finally figured out who it was that Dylan had that private crush on. But then he could just imagine how it would all go, how she would be the first person Riley ran to after the moment passed, and it would be better this way.

“Your mom keep you busy today?” Maya asked.

“Fixed the garage door, sorted some boxes, cleaned the cupboards, put the new shelves together…” he counted off. “I still need to put the books back in there and…”

“And what you need right now is an assistant,” she grinned.

“Funny you should mention that…” he matched her with a grin of his own.

It took longer than they might have anticipated. They couldn’t just put everything back as it had been, so they had to channel their inner Melinda and organize everything in a logical and aesthetically pleasing way. They were halfway through the task, debating if they should sort the books by color, which would mean starting over entirely, when Maya’s phone rang.

“Professor, hi,” she answered, a frown of surprise on her face. “Merry Christmas,” she went on, echoing a wish she likely received from the woman on the other end of the line. She listened for a few seconds, her face moving from surprise to amusement, then surprise again. “Uh, sure, yes, that’d be great… Yes, sounds good.” She went on to give Patty Robinson the address to the Friar house. “I’ll see you then… Bye…” After she hung up, she turned back to him, blinking.

“Is she coming here?” he asked, curious now.

“Uh, day after tomorrow, yeah. There’s an event at a museum here, she has an extra ticket, and she figured, since I was already in Austin, she would offer it to me. We didn’t have any plans, did we?”

“No, we didn’t,” he confirmed, then, after a beat. “I need to tell my mother.” She asked why. “One of our professors is going to be showing up here,” he gave her a look and she raised her chin.

“Right… So, more cleaning?”

“More cleaning.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	130. Their Comfort With Family

They woke up the next morning, feeling very much as though they’d only just stopped minutes before. As Lucas had rightly predicted, the announcement that Professor Robinson would be passing by the house the following day had incited an immediate and unforgiving pass of Melinda’s Spring Cleaning: The Extreme Edition. Much as Maya insisted that she’d only be picking her up at the door, Lucas’ mother looked at her like she was blessedly out of her mind. The professor couldn’t possibly make the return trip to Houston after a day like that, so Maya would have to contact her again and invite her to spend the night. This would eject Rosa out of the guest room, but she was more than happy to bunk in with Maya and Lucas, so that was that.

Lucas had to admire his girlfriend for how she managed to sound natural as she called Patty Robinson back and made the invitation. As it turned out, she had been about to put in a call for a hotel room when Maya had called her again, but now she accepted the invitation, and here they were.

“She just said yes right away?” Lucas asked, after Maya hung up and sat back next to him with a sigh.

“I may have spoken to her about your mom a few times, so she decided it would be easier to say yes.”

They didn’t get to sit there very long before they were pulled into the cleaning duties, and for the rest of the day they didn’t sit much either. Everyone was put to the task, as much as they could assist, in Pappy Joe’s case. He was the first one to tap out for the night, followed by his son, which left Maya and Lucas to do whatever needed to be done next. Most people would have looked at the Friar house, before any of this cleaning had started, and claimed that it was already spotless. By the time they were all off to bed, it might have actually sparkled for how clean it was.

“What are we going to do about today?” Maya grumbled as she lay there with her head on Lucas’ shoulder, the two of them only just waking on that morning after.

“What do you mean?” he asked in the same sort of exhausted voice.

“Your uncle is coming, and the rest of them. Robinson’s not coming until tomorrow, so what? No one’s going to be allowed to touch anything? Do we have to wear gloves? Masks? Those little plastic booties like at the hospital?” He laughed. “It’s a bit chilly to just sit out back in the yard.”

“We’ll be fine,” Lucas assured her. “My mother has a way to… control the chaos.”

“What does that mean?” Maya asked, pulling herself up to look at him.

“It means living room, dining room, and that’s it… Well, and the bathroom… And my room’s okay, too. But that’s it. No one goes anywhere else. And when they’re gone…”

“More cleaning?” she frowned, dropping her head back down with a thump.

“I’ll save you, I swear,” he smiled, closing his arms around her.

“My hero,” she breathed in a mock swoon.

It had been the original hope that the Hillards would get to come and spend Christmas with the Friars, as it would be the first time in far too many years where they would all be together. Unfortunately, they had been forced to change their plans due to a family emergency on Tanya Hillard’s side. So, they had rescheduled to this day, which would be like Christmas part two. This meant much food, and putting on your holiday best, and welcoming the family with fun, and laughter, and presents.

When the minivan came along, after everyone was welcomed into the house, the first order of business was to load the old bookshelves out of the garage and into the van, getting the task out of the way and leaving everyone free to enjoy the day.

It didn’t take long at all for the gathering in the living room to turn to the telling of stories from Pappy Joe, his son, and his nephew, with some assists from Melinda and Tanya where the stories took place in the time where they had come into Tom and Hank’s lives. Stories soon turned to photo albums being brought out. Lucas would be sent to fetch those, and when he’d return the stories would start anew, now with visual aids.

As entertaining as this all was, it was to be expected that, after a while, the kids would grow restless. So, Lucas and Maya, along with Rosa, escorted the five Hillard kids upstairs to Lucas’ old room. There was a moment where Lucas and Maya both had trouble keeping from laughing, as they caught the look from Melinda Friar which seemed to say something along the lines of ‘try not to touch anything on the way.’

The eight of them settled into the room, shutting the door as though it marked the border between their world and that of the adults, downstairs. The dogs, Dash and Gideon, were in the basement, as they would remain until the professor had come and gone. Opening the choice of activity to their guests, they soon found themselves dealing out a deck of cards. They paired out in four teams, one of the older to one of the younger, which left Lucas playing with the almost five-year-old Maggie, Maya with eleven-year-old Evie, Rosa with thirteen-year-old Sarah, and Joseph with his six-year-old brother Henry.

“Lucas, he’s cheating,” Maggie whispered, halfway through the game.

“Who is?” Lucas looked down to the small girl sitting over his crossed legs like he was a chair.

“Josie!” she pointed to her big brother. She was the only one who’d get away with calling him that.

“What makes you say that?” he asked.

“He gave her a card two times,” Maggie reported, pointing to Rosa.

“Did he?” Lucas looked over to his cousin and his friend and co-worker. “Joseph?” he spoke up, and his cousin looked to him.

“Yeah?” Sitting with Rosa, Sarah muttered something that sounded an awful lot like ‘busted.’

“We made an alliance, okay?” Rosa defended the card trade at once.

“Hold on, what’s happening?” Maya looked around.

“Josie gave Rosie cards!” Maggie accused now, pointing to her brother. Maya gave an exaggerated gasp, which incited her partner, Evie, to do the same.

“He _didn’t_ ,” she intoned.

“He did, he did, I saw it!” Maggie confirmed. “He always gives her cards,” she went on, as though one accusation deserved another. “She’s his _girlfriend_ ,” she tossed in with a giggly whisper.

“No, I’m not!” Rosa protested at once.

“No, she’s not!” Joseph did the same, at the same time. The others could only watch and try not to burst out laughing.

“She is, she is!” Maggie insisted. “You kissed her!” she delivered her final blow, and this one silenced the rising laughter and replaced it with shock of a few different shades around the circle of siblings and friends.

“Wait, hold on, what did she say?” Maya looked to Maggie, to Lucas, then to Rosa and Joseph, who now looked like a couple of tomatoes for how red they got.

“It was one time!” Joseph protested.

“I told you I thought I heard someone,” Rosa was looking at him.

“Okay, time out, hang on,” Lucas raised his hand, the old camp monitor coming back to the surface. Everyone looked at him. “No one’s going to cheat anymore, okay?” he told Maggie before looking to the pair of tomatoes. Everyone nodded. “We’re going to finish this game.”

When they _did_ finish the game – with Maya and Evie as the victors – the younger Hillards were tasked with picking out a movie for all of them to watch, at which point Maya and Lucas pulled Rosa and Joseph aside with a clear request in their eyes. _Speak._ Joseph looked to Rosa, like it needed to be her.

“I just…” she sighed. “I wanted to know what it felt like,” she shrugged. “To kiss someone, like _really_ kiss someone, I wanted to know how it would make _me_ feel. I asked him if he would do it,” she tipped her head to Joseph, who looked like he’d rather be anywhere else than in this conversation.

“And?” Maya couldn’t help but ask.

“And now I know, that’s it,” Rosa shrugged again, in a way that suggested as much that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore for her own discomfort as she did for Joseph’s.

It wasn’t until much later, after the Hillards had gone on their way back to Houston, that of all people Lucas was the one to receive the next part of this tale of experiments in kissing. Rosa came up to him, indicating for him to follow her outside. When they went, she turned to him, looking nervous.

“Look, I just wanted to say… I didn’t do all that with Joseph because he liked me and he’d say yes.”

“I didn’t think you did,” Lucas promised, but she went on talking, like she’d been carrying this assumed guilt all this time.

“We’ve been hanging out a lot more, me and him, since Halloween, he’s my friend, he’s… I think he might be my best friend,” she admitted, like she was just reaching this conclusion for herself. “And he knows about me, he knows that I don’t really feel that way for people, and even if I’m still figuring it all out, I can’t return the things he felt for me. He’s okay with that though, I mean he’s a really good guy, he gets it.”

“Yeah, he would,” Lucas agreed, nodding. He hadn’t known his cousin that long, but that impression had been easy to catch right from the start.

“So, one day, we were talking, and… I told him I wanted to know what it was like to kiss someone, and he was the one person I could think of that it wouldn’t feel weird to ask if they might do it. And he said yes. Actually, he hit me with a disclaimer like he wanted me to know he wasn’t going to make this into anything I didn’t want it to be, and when I wanted to stop, we’d stop, and he asked if he should brush his teeth first…” Lucas chuckled. “He’s a dork, basically,” Rosa nodded, though she smiled as she said it.

“I’m glad you were able to do it like you wanted,” Lucas told her.

“Yeah,” Rosa breathed out, then, after a beat, “It was okay.”

“The kiss?”

“I mean it felt… nice, I guess, but it’s not like it made me want to do it again and again, or made me want to do anything else beyond that… Maybe I need to try with a girl, too, see if it feels any different,” she pondered aloud. Lucas smirked.

“Maybe,” he echoed.

“Maybe not though,” Rosa moved back toward the house, and he followed.

Later, as they all moved to their respective beds for the night – including Rosa in her sleeping bag nearby – Lucas relayed the conversation to Maya in whispers, as he’d been allowed to do so. What came from it, in both their cases, was one more instance where they would be left feeling the impact of their choice, the one to go to school in Houston as they did. So many of the things which had come to shape their lives in the past year and a half stemmed from that one choice. They had met people here, and they wouldn’t have gotten to do so otherwise, if they’d chosen another school. And at the same time, if they hadn’t chosen Houston, if they hadn’t met those people, then _those_ people’ lives would have been changed, too. They wouldn’t have met Rosa, or the Hillards. Rosa wouldn’t have found her best friend…

TO BE CONTINUED


	131. Their Comfort With Visitors

It was fortunate really that Lucas and Maya were early risers, or else they both suspected they would have been awakened by any means necessary the following day, the morning where Professor Patty Robinson was descending on the Friar house. It didn’t matter that she wouldn’t be arriving for a few hours still. Everyone had to get up, everyone had to be ready.

“If she comes in here and tries to tell me what I should wear today, I am not responsible for my actions,” Maya warned Lucas with a pointed finger. He laughed. “Oh, you think that’s funny, huh?” she got in his face, though with very little effect, as she was herself grinning widely.

“Little bit,” he nodded.

“So very funny, sure,” she laughed as she leaned in to kiss him. They got away with three whole seconds of this before there was a knock at the closed door and, with a sigh, they broke apart.

“Rise and shine! Breakfast will be on the table in ten minutes, don’t be late!” Melinda Friar’s voice sounded from the other side.

“We won’t!” Lucas called out before looking back to his girlfriend, who was working very hard to stifle the giggles threatening to rise out of her. “Yes, she says ‘rise and shine,’” he nodded.

“Coming from her, I believe it,” Maya told him. “But _I_ do what I want, and I was in the middle of something, so I’ll have that kiss now, thanks.”

They were downstairs and sitting at the kitchen table five minutes later, because they lived in Melinda Standard Time, and ten minutes usually meant half of that. This was not a relaxed sort of meal, where they would take their time, waking and easing into a new day, no. As soon as they were done eating, they were expected to head back upstairs and get dressed, while the kitchen was dealt with.

“Should I just put a sign in the window, like ‘run away while you still can?’” Maya joked when she spotted the professor’s car coming up the street.

“Oh, it’s too late for that now,” he pointed through his bedroom window. “The welcome wagon has rolled out.” When she followed his finger, she spotted the top of Melinda Friar’s head. She had stepped out to greet her incoming guest.

“Come on,” she grabbed his hand, and they hurried out of the room and down the stairs. Lucas’ father and grandfather were already there, standing in wait. “She didn’t even let her get to the door?” Maya asked the pair of them.

“She wanted to go and help with her overnight bag,” Tom Friar explained with a shrug. As always, he had a look that reminded them he knew his wife better than any of them here and he knew what to expect. The best any of the rest of them could do was to take their lead from him. If he wasn’t nervous, then they didn’t need to be, right?

Soon, they could hear the sound of the two women’s voices as they approached, and Lucas and Maya hurried down the rest of the stairs, joining the others and trying not to look like a lineup in wait of inspection. Whatever Lucas’ mother and Maya’s professor were going on about, they were both laughing jovially as they appeared in the doorway. As predicted, Melinda carried a suitcase in one hand as she led their guest into the house.

“And here we are,” she declared with her most melodious voice, setting the suitcase down before closing the door behind them.

“Good morning, Maya, dear,” Patty Robinson moved to her student with a smile and briefly embraced her, as she would, whenever they’d interact outside of ‘academic mode.’ Maya smiled back, returning the gesture.

“Good morning, how was your drive?”

“Long,” Patty breathed out, still smiling. “But, now, what can you do? Good morning, Lucas,” the woman turned to him, and he leaned to compensate their height difference as she moved to embrace him, too. “I was just telling your mother, when Bernard and I were first married, we lived in a house very much like this one. This is where you grew up then?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he nodded. She lifted her chin at him, waiting. “Patty,” he corrected himself, trying not to steal a glance toward his mother as he did so.

“And this is my husband,” Melinda stepped forward again, now that her guest had greeted the pair of them. “Thomas Friar,” she introduced him, as he and the professor shook hands.

“We’ve heard a lot about you from the kids, Professor,” he tipped his head.

“Please, I’m on holiday, it’s Patty,” she insisted. “You get to a certain age and it’s all titles and honorifics, like suddenly you’re some sage instead of the same person you’ve always been who just happened to survive that long.”

Pappy Joe let out a chuckle at this, and Patty Robinson turned to him with a grin.

“I say I did my time being ‘Mr. Friar,’ now it’s his turn,” he clapped his son’s shoulder. “Nowadays, I’m Joe,” he held out his hand, and Patty shook it. “Pappy Joe to those two and theirs,” he nodded to Lucas and Maya.

“So, I’ve heard,” Patty told him. “I also heard you were known to play a fantastic Santa Claus for many years,” she went on, looking to Lucas, who had been the source of this information, the last time they’d been hosted to dinner at the professor’s house.

“Ever since _his_ first Christmas,” Pappy Joe confirmed, indicating his son. “I’ve had to put it all aside the last couple years,” he tapped his once broken leg.

“Years ago, my late Bernie did the same, mostly at faculty events, whenever children would be present. I would assist him as Mrs. Claus. To think, I used to need a wig to achieve this shade,” she pointed to her white hair. “Used to be they called me Carrot Head,” she laughed, and Pappy Joe laughed along.

“Tell you what, I might recruit you next year, if I pull on that old cap again.”

“I might take you up on that,” Patty declared before turning back to Maya. “Now, I’m afraid we need to get going if we don’t want to be late.”

“W… I mean, yes, let’s go,” Maya blinked, shaking her head for clarity before following the professor, who looked to the Friars and gave her farewells until they’d return.

If Patty hadn’t been so engrossed in her conversation with Joe Friar, she might have seen how both Maya and Lucas and even Tom Friar had spent the last minute or two watching the pair of them as they spoke, catching an immediate vibe that took them by surprise. Maya had just barely swallowed a gasp before turning to her boyfriend, nudging him so he’d get control of the startled look on his face. As for Lucas’ father, he seemed to be looking at _his_ father like there was something about him in that moment, something he hadn’t seen in a good long while.

Maya wished she would have gotten the chance to react to it all with Lucas, privately, before they had to leave. For now, though, the best she could do was to push pause on this line of thought. She wasn’t exactly ‘on the clock,’ but she _had_ been granted this invitation and she wasn’t about to spoil it, for the professor or herself.

“Lucas and I had our first date here,” she told Patty as they approached the museum.

“You did?” the woman smiled, curious.

“Well… technically only part of it, and technically it was just… out here,” she motioned around the grounds. She went on to explain about the storm, the rain, and the state they’d been in by the time they’d walked through the doors, only to be turned around and made to leave. “It wasn’t what we had in mind, but it was definitely memorable.” The professor laughed sympathetically.

Maya was soon very grateful for the invitation. She doubted that, even with Mrs. Friar’s connections, she would have made it on the guest list without being Patty Robinson’s plus one. But she was here now, and it gave her the same fluttery sort of feeling as she’d gotten when she and Lucas had found themselves in the middle of the professor’s dinner party. Whereas she got to interact with some of her present and future professors over in Houston, here she got to meet a few people who may well have come in handy to have as contacts, should she find herself settled in Austin once again.

With all she knew of the professor, Maya was left occasionally concerned about Patty’s bringing up her art, her music… As proud and self-assured as she could be, in a setting like this she seemed unable to shake the more uncertain side of her heart and mind. But it never came up, something she eventually guessed came from the professor’s seeing the panic flashing covertly in the back of her eyes.

“You know, for someone who commands so much of a presence standing on stage, you could do with mimicking some of that attitude toward your other talents,” Patty told her as they were leaving the museum. Maya let out a breath that did well enough to say ‘I know, I know…’ “Any one of those artists whose work you saw in there, it’s easy to see yourself as separate, you versus them, but they weren’t always a them, until they were…”

“It’s not like anything I’ve done would be in there,” Maya shrugged as casually as she could.

“Says you,” Patty gave her an encouraging smile.

It was a startling sort of thought for her to think about, as they drove on back toward the Friar house, so much so that neither of them really spoke for the length of the ride, and the next thing Maya knew, they had arrived. It continued all the way until she had made it up the stairs, to Lucas’ old room, where she started to change into something a bit less formal. It had completely pushed the memory of the Pappy/Patty encounter out of her head, until Lucas brought it up again.

“He’s been asking me about her since you guys left,” he revealed.

“What?” Maya looked back at him, confused as to what he was referring to.

“My grandfather, he’s been asking questions about Professor Robinson,” Lucas explained, and after a moment it all came back to her.

“Oh… Oh!”

“Yeah,” Lucas nodded, the embodiment of what she’d been feeling before they left, the overpowering need to just talk about it. “I’ve never seen him like this.”

“Is it going to be weird for you with her spending the night here?” Maya asked, trying not to be so amused by how frazzled he was.

“No… No, it’s fine… Yeah…”

“This is really weirding you out,” she went up to him. He pointed his finger at her. “I won’t say anything, please, I don’t meddle…” He tipped his head. “Anymore,” she specified with a roll of the eyes and a chuckle. “Am I helping or making things worse if I mention that _she_ was asking me about _him_ the whole ride to the museum?” He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, taking a breath. “Hey, this is a good thing,” she reminded him, looping her arms around him. “Nothing to keep a person lively and alive like your heart going all haywire over someone new… and less new,” she smiled up at him.

“I see what you did there,” he couldn’t have kept himself from smiling back if he’d tried. She just nodded, smiling on. “I guess we just have to wait and see what happens now, yeah?”

“Yup. Who knows, though, by next Christmas she might actually _be_ Mrs. Claus.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	132. Their Comfort With Preparation

They walked back into the Hunter Hart house on the morning of December 31st, the world still dark and quiet as it would be when the sun was not quite up yet. They let themselves in with Maya’s key, taking off their shoes and jackets before padding their way up to the second floor. Maya opened the door to the twins’ room, peering in to see if either of the girls was awake yet. She smiled as she spotted them both curled up together in Gracie’s bed.

Turning to Lucas, who stood just behind her, she held a finger to her lips and he nodded. She walked into the room and up to the bed, sitting cross-legged at the end of the mattress. Then, she reached out and tickled one small right foot and then another, sending their owners squirming and soon waking. It took all of three seconds before Nellie and Gracie spotted her sitting there, bathed in the light from the hallway, and they squealed and leapt into her arms.

“Who’s the sneaker now?” Maya laughed.

The whole plan had in fact been Lucas’ idea. The night before, as they were getting ready for bed, looking back on the day with its unexpected encounters and reflections on the future, they had wondered what the next day would shape up to be. It would be New Year’s Eve, after all. They recalled the last year’s final day, how they’d had the twins there with them to witness it all. Maya’s parents and siblings were coming over that night to ring in the end of 2022 and the start of 2023, and that was great, but then Lucas had gone and done them one better.

The whole time when they’d been staying over at the Hunter Hart house, their mornings had started with the twins sneaking in to wake them up. Sure, they were never actually asleep at the time, but it didn’t make the whole experience any less amusing. So, what if they flipped the script? Maya could surprise her sisters as they had always tried to do with her.

They had warned Katy and Shawn the night before, so not to make them fear that someone was breaking in and coming after their kids, and they could only imagine what they would have thought if they’d heard the squeals and shouts that came from the girls if they didn’t know they’d just been awakened by their sister. The only one of all of them who had no idea what was happening, and soon woke up to join his cries to the cacophony, was MJ. They could hear the one-year-old wailing his little lungs out over in the nursery.

“Want me to go get him?” Lucas asked, hooking his thumb out the door. When Maya nodded, he went, passing the parents’ room, finding Katy Hart just at the door. “I’ve got it,” he promised, and she smiled and went back to bed. “Hey, little brother,” Lucas hushed when he walked into the nursery to find the boy sitting up in his crib, red faced. “You alright?” he asked, picking him up. “That’s a lot of noise, huh? It’s okay,” he rubbed at his back, hoping he might be able to calm him down some before taking him to his sisters.

The boy’s cries diminished in chunks, like hiccups, until he was only just making small noises and batting at his face. Lucas cleaned his face up some before bringing him to the other room. There, he found the pile up on Gracie’s bed was still in full effect, with the twins going on excitedly about the night’s events. They could sort of remember that night a year ago. Mostly, they remembered the fireworks. Nellie had been amazed by them, while Gracie had been… less than enthused. She’d suffered those colorful explosions with her ears covered and barely looking. She had done slightly better the previous summer over the fourth of July, but even as she insisted that she’d be ready for tonight, she was still too small to be any good at hiding the fear in the back of her mind. That was alright though, because they’d come prepared this time.

“Here,” Lucas handed MJ into Maya’s waiting arms, and she smiled, holding him close, whispering reassuring words to the boy even as his twin sisters crowded around him, too. “Hey, Gracie?” Lucas crouched and knelt next to the bed. The girl turned to him. “I’ve got something for you, for tonight,” he reached inside the bag slung over his shoulder and pulled out a pair of headphones. They looked massive next to the small girl, but she stared at them with curiosity.

“Music?” she asked.

“Not exactly,” he chuckled. “Let’s just,” he carefully pushed her hair behind her ears before fitting the object on her head. He adjusted it to her size before letting go. She looked confused, reaching to touch the bulky things clamped over her ears. “Can you hear me?” he asked, and he watched her face change, surprised, confused.

“I don’t hear anything!” she declared, a little louder than needed. At this, Nellie turned to her twin and started saying ‘hello,’ again, and again, and again… Gracie still looked confused, but sort of amused, too. She shook her head, holding to the headphones for fear that they might fall off. Finally, Lucas pulled them off her head.

“Tonight, you put those on, and the fireworks won’t be too loud,” he revealed, and she smiled, satisfied at this development.

“Can I try, too?” Nellie asked at once, and Lucas obliged. Gracie would speak at her, and Nellie would shake her head to indicate she couldn’t hear a thing. They went back and forth like this for a good ten minutes and would have likely kept on going if their parents hadn’t come along to say breakfast would be ready soon.

After they’d all eaten, with the twins insisting on showing their parents about the headphones that made them not hear the fireworks, or much of anything at all, they all started to get ready to head over to the Friars’ house. Both Maya and Lucas went back there to do that, as everything they’d need was still there, and then Maya’s family would come and join them after lunch.

“Oh, good, you’re back,” Rosa greeted them as they arrived.

“Should we leave again?” Maya asked in mock apprehension.

“Don’t you leave me alone here,” Rosa shook her head.

It would be a surprise to absolutely no one at all that the period from Thanksgiving through to New Year’s was the time where Melinda Friar’s hostess tendencies would be on overdrive, so of course this was to be the grand finale. Adding to that the fact that her son was home, and would be so for only another full day before he and Maya and Rosa and the others all went back to Houston, well…

“I’ll go see what she’s up to,” Lucas told the girls before going off in search of his mother.

Maya and Rosa went up the stairs. Maya figured she might as well go and get ready now, while Rosa had already changed.

“She thinks I should put on a dress because it’s a ‘special day.’ I wanted to tell her I don’t really wear those, except that one time when it was a costume at Halloween, but I’m not sure she understood, and she doesn’t get that I _did_ change,” she motioned to herself. “I look okay, don’t I?”

“Better than okay,” Maya assured her. “Don’t worry yourself about her. Sometimes it’s like… she’ll understand, it’s just that you’ll have to explain yourself… a few times. You’ll be alright.”

“Right…” Rosa breathed.

Maya had just finished getting herself ready, with Rosa assisting on her hair, when Lucas finally rejoined them. He had a plate in one hand, and a canapé in the other, halfway eaten by the way he held up his finger to indicate he couldn’t speak until he’d finished his bite.

“Samples?” he offered.

“I’ve been helping make those all morning, they better be good,” Rosa came and snatched one up from the plate.

Lucas was last to get ready, so Maya took her bandmate downstairs and out into the yard where Dash and Gideon had been sniffing about. They came barking up to the girls as soon as they came through the door. Rosa scooped up a ball from the ground and tossed it for them to chase.

“Sorry for leaving you out here on your own this morning,” Maya told her with a half-smile.

“It’s alright,” Rosa laughed. “It wasn’t all crazy, overwhelming chaos and _so – many – canapés_ ,” she intoned dramatically, making Maya chuckle. “Lucas’ grandfather had me teaching him some words in Italian… I could barely say the words clearly because I was laughing.”

“I can imagine,” Maya nodded, picturing Pappy Joe speaking Italian. “Your mom’s on her way?”

“Yeah, she texted before she left,” Rosa confirmed with a giddy smile. She and her mother had not seen each other in almost two weeks, missed Christmas together, but it seemed as though the time they’d spent apart had made Rosa appreciate how much she’d missed her mother.

Before Tracy Coleman arrived, more of the day’s guests came along, diverting Mrs. Friar’s attention on to them. The Matthews family, the Zhus, the Orlandos, the Garcias, the Babineaux, the Fitz, and for the first time, Franny and Kayla came along and ushered the Santos and Banks families into the many other families brought together by their children’s friendships. And then, of course, there were the Hunter Harts. Riley spotted them through the window and, when she looked for herself, Maya just spotted her father setting Gracie down on the ground. She was wearing the heavy headphones around her neck. They obscured half her face.

“Told her I’d hang on to them for her until tonight, but she won’t let them out of her sight,” Shawn informed Maya, as she came out to greet them and scooped up her sister and pointed out the headphones.

“You’re not going to carry those all the time, are you?” she asked Gracie, as Nellie came to them and locked her arms around her sister’s leg. Maya reached down one hand to sit on top of her sunny sister’s head. “You’re gonna tip over,” she mimed, making Gracie laugh.

Heading into the house, the twins were soon off together, getting a look at all the people, as they would so often do. Katy handed MJ over to Maya now, a knowing smile passed between mother and daughter, as Katy knew her eldest would more than anything want to spend as much time with her baby brother as she could before she went back to Houston after the turn of the year.

“Rosa, your mom’s here!” Lucas called out fifteen minutes later, and the girl cut through like a speedster. Lucas watched through the window as his boss barely had time to get out of her car before she was nearly bowled over by her daughter leaping into her arms. She looked startled for all of a moment before she grinned and hugged her back, pressing kisses to the side of her head. Lucas smiled and let them be before going in search of his girlfriend.

“Tracy’s here?” she guessed as he found her.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“So that’s about everyone now… The party’s officially on then,” she declared, looking to MJ, perched in her arm and balanced on her hip. The boy looked at her, his face mirroring hers so much that there was simply no doubt of their being brother and sister. “We really need to get some music in here. You can show him some of your wild dance moves,” she turned a mischievous smile to her boyfriend.

“You know I can’t say no to you,” he smiled back. She played it coy, as though he couldn’t see right through that.

“Yes, I _do_ know…”

TO BE CONTINUED


	133. Their Comfort With Time

“Hey,” Lucas whispered, popping up behind her. Maya startled and turned to him. “Follow?” he tipped his head. She nodded, and so he led her off, through his house and out into the yard once they’d grabbed their jackets. The sun was setting on this last day of the year. The party was still in full swing, and midnight was only a few hours away.

“Getting colder,” Maya remarked as they stepped out. She zipped her jacket to the top, adopting the hunch of someone trying to deal with the chill in the air. He may have taken her outside, but she took him over to the shed, where they could still have a moment to themselves and also not shiver so much. As they sat on the bench, she started to smile all of a sudden. He stared at her, curious. “Just remembering the last time we sat out here.” He frowned, sitting there for a beat, thinking back.

“That was the day I found you out here, crying your eyes out, because you thought your parents were moving you guys back to New York.” He said this in a way that seemed to say ‘why are you smiling about it?’ She shrugged, smiling on.

“Well, we’re still here, aren’t we?”

“True,” he smiled back now.

“And it also reminded me of my parents’ wedding, when I found out we were never actually going.”

“ _That_ was the day you told me you loved me for the first time,” he remembered, slipping his arm around her shoulders.

“And the day you said it back to me, too,” she leaned to him.

“Still true. Truer.”

“They’ve been married almost five years now,” Maya breathed, realizing.

“They have,” Lucas nodded, and in his voice, she found something to suggest he was having the same idea as she was. They needed to celebrate that day in style, when it would come around. For now, it was just him and her, sitting in the shed together, lit in the darkness by the moon and the stars and two phone screens. “It’s been a strange year,” he finally said.

“Definitely,” she agreed, breathing out. “Good, mostly.”

“Definitely,” he echoed.

“And then… all that,” she trailed off, and he knew what she meant, of course. The maybe baby, on Halloween, and everything that followed in the weeks after that…

They had gotten through it in the end, as he’d known they would… hoped they would… It was a thing of the past now, on the whole. Still, it wasn’t the kind of thing they could just forget entirely. The experience would stay with them, as it had to. Neither of them could say what things would have really been like if, on that day, the tests had been positive rather than negative. They could turn it over in their heads as much as they wanted to, but all it would do would be to leave them wondering on a question that was never to be answered.

If nothing else, it had taught them to reconsider a few things. As much as they had both revealed how their issues stemmed from the knowledge that they would have actually been happy to have this child, consequences or none, now that they knew it wasn’t happening… They had both agreed between them that it needed to keep not happening, not until after college, the way they’d intended it all along. They needed to be more careful, and on this Maya had been vigilant, while Lucas followed her lead.

In a way, some good had still come from Halloween night. For as long as they’d both gone around knowing, deep down, that they saw marriage, and children, and a life together in their future, coming this close to the child part, having to own up to it… It was as though they’d established a bridge with the future. It wasn’t just an eventuality anymore, it was a plan, for this first child and who knew how many would follow it. One day, they would get to tell their son or daughter all about how they had been wanted, wholeheartedly, for years before they’d been born.

“So, now… brand new year… What’s the plan?” he asked.

“Uh…” she pondered for a few seconds. “Well, more of this, always,” she took his hand in hers.

“Done,” he nodded, smiling.

“Good,” she laughed. “After that… I don’t know. School’s been great, so if it keeps being like that, if I get to keep working with Professor Robinson, then we’re all good. After _that_ , maybe I’d like to pick up on a few new things in the kitchen. I watch Isabel and the others in there, at the restaurant, and it just looks so easy to them. I want to make more music with TXNY, but it’d be good to try and help Weaver Kings get off the ground, too…”

“You’ll find a way,” Lucas agreed. As of yet, Lily and the others remained unknown outside their circle of friends. They hadn’t gotten to work with them so much once Maya had handed them their songs, but at this point it really wouldn’t take much to pull them from the shadows and into the spotlight. Their voices, Maya’s words… It was really something, and the world had no idea.

“I’d like having Sam and the others over the summer again, if it’s possible,” Maya went on.

“Definitely,” Lucas nodded.

“And then Sophie’s starting at the academy in the fall,” she added, like she was just remembering. It had always been the plan, for her to be at school with them for two years before starting as she’d intended, on her way to becoming a cop. But after all this time, it had never hit them that this transition was fast approaching. “I hope it’s everything she wanted it to be.” Lucas passed his agreement in the form of a kiss pressed to her forehead. She looked up at him. “What about you? What’s the plan for this year?”

“So much more of this,” he looked back at her, smiling as he echoed her own wish.

“Yes, sir, Dockleberry,” she promised, and he made a squinting sort of face before chuckling.

“I spoke to Aunt Tanya the other day. I asked if I could maybe help in some way around her clinic.” Her eyes widened in surprise.

“You did?” she asked, pleased. He’d been thinking about it, she knew, ever since he’d found out his new aunt was a vet, even though he’d never gotten around to asking her. “What’d she say?”

“I start next week,” he revealed, and Maya sat up.

“Wow, soon,” she smiled. “What about the bookstore?”

“Right, well I had to talk to Tracy before I could say anything, to Aunt Tanya or you. We worked it out before dinner,” he motioned back to the house and the party going on. “I’ll be doing two days a week at the clinic, I have Wednesdays this semester with that massive gap in my schedule, and then I’ll cut back Sundays at the bookstore so I can be out there on those days.”

“First day, hug a puppy,” she demanded, recalling their first college day. He laughed. “Anything else?”

He might have expressed a desire to see what would become of Dylan and Riley, if his old friend held up his vow to finally tell her the truth once they went back to Houston, but then Maya didn’t know about the decision Dylan had made, and he still intended for it to be a surprise to her, so he didn’t bring it up. Without speaking it out though, he did genuinely look forward to his friends making a start together, after all this time.

“Well…” he started, thinking on, “I guess I’m curious to see where this thing with my grandfather and your professor goes.” Maya snorted. “What,” he laughed, “You saw how they were after you two came back from the museum, and then the morning after that...”

“I did, yeah,” she nodded on, laughing.

“And ever since then, he’s just been… happy… It’s like there’s a part of him that never came back right, after his accident, but then Professor Robinson came along and… it’s there… If she just became his friend that’d be something already.”

“But it could be more than that,” Maya agreed.

“It could.”

“So, more of us, and the clinic, and Pappy Joe’s blossoming new something,” she counted off. “What else?” He thought for a moment.

“I guess more of what school’s been for me, too,” he replied. “And… maybe another project, like the pup fund, and the haircuts,” he went on.

“Yeah,” she sat up, interested at once. “Any ideas?”

“Not exactly, but maybe… something for the community center. Dylan’s mentioned a few times how they need more equipment, how there’s things that need replacing or fixing and just… sprucing up.”

“Sounds good,” Maya smiled. “And we _are_ supposed to get together with the old teams over Spring Break,” she reminded him. “Maybe we can sort of… combine the two.” He considered this for a moment, then looked back down to her like she’d just filled him with new inspiration. “You’re welcome,” she whispered, and he reciprocated by pulling her into a kiss which made both of them forget about the winter chill for a few minutes.

“Found ‘em!” a voice startled them both into pulling apart. When they looked up, they spotted Dylan’s face through the shed’s window, waving back at them.

“Did we catch you at a bad time?” Nadine appeared behind him with a smirk.

“Might have been if they’d come a minute later,” Lucas whispered, and Maya bit back a giggle.

“Sorry,” she whispered back. “To be continued.”

Stepping out of the shed, they found a great chunk of their friends standing outside now, bundled up in their jackets. Lucas and Maya were quick to deviate from any suggestions on what they’d been up to by sharing their combined idea for the community center project. They were all on board at once, especially Dylan. It may have been their idea, but they very much saw this as potentially _his_ project to lead on.

They returned to the party just in time to get pulled in by Mrs. Friar’s game, which turned out to be trivia on the year which was fast coming to an end. Once all questions had been asked and answered, the sheets were collected, and it was left in Rosa’s hands to correct them. She’d volunteered, so she disappeared into a corner for several minutes before finally emerging to announce who among them had performed best. The top five were to receive prizes.

“Right, here we are, thank you again, Rosa,” Mrs. Friar called her guests to attention with a wide smile. “In fifth position, we have…” she looked to the list before extending her hand to number five. “Miss Franny Santos!” There were great cheers from the Santos family, and the Banks as well, and of course the group out of Houston. Franny went up to receive her prize with a grin and a mock bow. It was a gift certificate to a local restaurant, which soon established a plan for Franny and Kayla’s families to get together before the two of them went back to school.

“In fourth position,” Rosa spoke up when she was handed the papers again. She bit back a smile. “Cornelius Matthews?” There was a burst of laughter across the room as the man in question sat up.

“Hey, who wrote that?” he pointed. “Cory, I wrote Cory,” he insisted.

“You sure?” Shawn stared back at him, with an amused look barely disguised as curiosity. Cory looked back at him from across Topanga and Katy, sitting between them and looking like they could only keep from laughing for so long. “You want your prize or not?” Shawn pointed over to Rosa, who held up another certificate, this one for a spa day for two. Cory stood, walking over to get his prize and pointing to his quiz sheet. Rosa showed it to him. Someone had filled in the other half of his name.

“Here,” he handed the certificate to Topanga as he sat again. “The two of you go, you deserve it,” he spared a smile to his wife and Katy before turning squinting suspicion to his best friend.

“In third position,” Melinda Friar got back on track. “Ah,” she smiled proudly. “Mr. Thomas Friar,” she turned to her husband, who was cheered on by his father and his son the loudest, though likely only because his wife would never go so far as to raise her voice that way.

“In second position, off by one point,” Rosa announced after Mr. Friar had received his prize. This caused noises of curiosity across the room. “Nadine Zhu!” she held up the page with a smile.

“What?” she stood up, surprised. “One point? Who got first?” Zay put a hand to her arm. Maya turned to Lucas, whispering at his ear and making him smirk. After all those years, she was still determined to lead the class. She went up to get her prize, and Rosa had to hold the sheets to her chest to keep Nadine from sneaking a look.

“Here we are, the final winner, the top score!” Mrs. Friar took these back once Nadine had gone back to her spot, though they could swear they heard Number Two grumble at this announcement. “Well, look at that… Michaela Zhu!” Nadine gasped, looking to her little sister as the girl beamed with pride. After a moment, she just laughed and hugged her. If she was going to lose, then she couldn’t think of a better way.

Before long, it was time to go up and wake the twins, as they’d done the year before. MJ was left to sleep on, hopefully not to get startled by the fireworks. It took them a little while to blink away sleep from their eyes as they were carried down in Maya and Lucas’ arms. Gracie had her big headphones safe around her neck, and her thumb caught in her teeth, while Nellie’s head was buried in the crook of her big sister’s neck. Soon enough though, as the minutes were ticking away, they were ready for the countdown, the fireworks… The headphones were secured on to Gracie’s head, and when they stood outside and the countdown started, Lucas led her into counting down with her fingers, as she couldn’t hear the rest.

The count hit zero, and soon the sky lit up with colors and sound. Nellie was just as giddy as she’d been the year before and over the summer, too, while Gracie seemed for the first time to actually appreciate the sight. She smiled so bright, all they could think was that this was the best way the new year could begin.

TO BE CONTINUED


	134. Their Space For Home

Leaving Austin and their families after an extended stay never got any easier the more that they did it. Their parents still saw them off as though it was the first time their babies were heading far away from them to live on their own, and those of them with young siblings still had to endure the tears and the sad looks and the feelings of abandonment… The only thing that repeated separations brought them was the knowledge that, in time, everyone would get back into the rhythm they had established in being apart for the past year and a half. And, at some point in the long drive, they would remember they were headed to Houston, the place they now called home, and they would start to feel better.

As they’d done on the drive down to Austin, the group – humans and dogs alike – had been split between Lucas and Sophie’s cars. On the return trip, Maya volunteered herself to drive, as Lucas had ‘donned the chauffeur cap’ on the last drive. This was more than fine by him, and not even because it would mean he didn’t have to drive for two hours. In truth, he was more concerned with the possibility that he’d be distracted while at the wheel.

The nature of his distraction, whether or not he could admit it while he’d been sworn to secrecy, was curiosity. Specifically, curiosity with regards to the Dylan/Riley situation and to the vow Dylan had made about finally telling Riley how he felt about her. He didn’t know for sure _when_ Dylan would do it, if he would be doing it today, but at the same time he had good reason to think he might. One good reason, which was that he’d known Dylan long enough to understand that, when he said that he’d tell her ‘when they got back to Houston,’ he could very well mean his words precisely. They would get home, and then he’d tell her.

He didn’t have proof, no, but he got something close enough to it, when he overheard the two of them talking in the back seat and Dylan offered to take Riley’s bags up the stairs for her.

“You don’t have to do that,” Riley insisted, though she smiled.

“No, but I want to… I mean, if you…”

“Okay, sure,” Riley told him, and that was that.

“You’re being weird,” Maya spoke up, and Lucas turned to look back at her.

“What?” he asked. They were nearly to the house now, and, as they pulled to a red light, she was able to look back at him proper.

“What’s going on in your head?” she asked, imitating what his face must have looked like, caught up in his own thoughts.

“Just… spaced out,” he shrugged.

“Yeah, okay,” she smirked, focusing back on the road. Her voice sounded much more like ‘I don’t believe you’ than anything else. That was alright though, she’d understand soon enough, if he had this figured out right…

They’d been gone all of two weeks, and still it felt at once as though they’d been gone for two _years_ and no time at all, too. That was always the way it was, wasn’t it? Coming home… Coming home _from_ home, whether it was still theirs or not. None of them showed this quite as enthusiastically as the dogs did. Riley and Dylan both had to grab hold of one of the pair as they pulled up to the house. Trix and Lou knew they were home, and they could not sit still or quietly.

“Here, I’ll take her,” he told Dylan, nodding to Lou in his arms.

“It’s fine, I’ve got her,” Dylan promised. Lucas let out a breath before approaching his old friend.

“You can either carry the dog or Riley’s bags, you can’t do both,” he whispered. Dylan blinked, then he handed Lou over.

“Thanks,” he breathed.

“Go,” Lucas gave the smallest smile he could, soon to find it taken as an invitation from Lou to give him doggy kisses to her heart’s content. “Easy, easy,” Lucas laughed.

“Sophie’s off to take Rosa and her mom home,” Maya told him, and he looked around just in time to spot the other car. They would have needed pull a fifth passenger into his car if not for the fact that Franny and Kayla had ended up staying an extra day in Austin. Instead, they had four to each car. “We should call her, then she can go and grab dinner on the way back. Maybe Chinese…”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Lucas replied at once. “Not like any of us will feel like cooking,” he added, hoping he hadn’t sounded too eager. Really, what he was thinking was that the longer they could keep it that there weren’t too many people in the house…

Maya just stared back at him with that suspicious air of hers, shaking her head. _Weird,_ it said. He just smiled at her and passed her Lou.

“I’ll get the bags,” he pointed to the car.

“He’s up to something and he thinks we haven’t noticed,” Maya told the dog in that sweet voice she used with her and Trix, although here it felt like she was exaggerating it, seeing as he could definitely hear her from this close by.

“Hey,” he protested. Maya turned back to him.

“What’s that?” she asked expectantly.

“Suppose there _was_ something I was thinking about and not telling you…”

“No, there definitely is,” she cut in with a nod.

“You know there’s a reason for that, yeah?”

“Sure, I do. Doesn’t mean I don’t like messing around with you. It’s just so easy…” On that, he couldn’t disagree. “Come on,” she laughed, moving to grab one bag with the small dog tucked in her other arm. He grabbed the rest, closed the car trunk, and they headed toward the house. Once inside, Maya set Lou on the ground and the dog took off like an arrow, off in search of Trix. “The usual?” Maya asked, turning to him as she got out her phone to call Sophie.

“Extra rice?” he requested with a nod, and he got a tip of the head before she disappeared into the kitchen when Sophie picked up the call.

He didn’t need to see too much to guess he’d been right. If he wasn’t right, then it would only be that Dylan chickened out. All he knew was that Lou’s nose took her up the stairs and off to Riley’s room, where she’d find Trix. Lucas didn’t want to get too close, didn’t want to look like he was spying. He could hear his friends’ voices nearby, not enough that he could make out what they were saying, but enough to believe that Dylan might not have chickened out after all, and he could really have been in the process of telling Riley what he’d been keeping from her for so long. And, because _he_ knew that those feelings went both ways, Lucas guessed there would also be the part where Riley had to confess how she felt the same for him…

So, he only got so far as to drop off his and Maya’s things in their room, before hurrying back downstairs as quietly as he could, and doing his best to come off as casual as possible when Maya would spot him. He couldn’t hear her anymore, so she must have finished with her call, so where was she… He spotted her feet, dangling over the back of the couch, kicking lazily about.

“What are you doing?” he asked, smiling, as he went up to the couch. Now that he could see the rest of her, he could see she was sprawled out there with her arms stretched over her head, along the cushions. Her eyes were closed, at peace.

“I will fight for this couch whenever we split off and leave this house,” she breathed.

“Or, we can just get one just like it,” he pointed out, but she shook her head. “Won’t be _this_ couch, right?” he guessed.

“Exactly,” she pointed over at him without opening her eyes.

It wasn’t as though he would have intended otherwise if it wasn’t for the situation above, but in that moment, it became his mission to make sure she stayed right here, laid out on the couch, with no intention of going up the stairs to go see what the others were up to. There was one easy way of achieving that.

“Foot?” he asked, sitting across from her. She opened one eye and looked at him as he motioned to her feet. She smirked, scooting about until she could set her feet in his lap. He peeled back one sock and then the other before setting to massaging at her right foot.

“Ah, driving, such hard work,” she intoned dramatically.

“I’m sure,” he nodded, and she laughed, dropping the charade. She sat up a bit, propping herself up on her elbows.

“So, I got an e-mail from Professor Robinson to discuss my schedule with her this semester,” Maya told him as he worked along.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“I just have to check with Chef Isabel about my hours, with my new classes… Anyway, she may have mentioned a certain someone in there… An older gentleman she met recently…” she grinned, seeing the way he looked up to her at once.

“What’d she say?” he asked.

“Not a lot, I mean she didn’t actually mention him by name, but she mentioned she was going to be passing through Austin again next week.” He looked at her, unsure what this had to do with his grandfather.

“Her son lives out there, yeah? Her granddaughter went to camp when I…”

“If that was what she meant, why wouldn’t she just say that? Actually, why would she feel the need to tell me at all?” Maya told him, pausing to make a noise that seemed to indicate he’d found a spot on her foot that pained her specifically, so he focused on that. “I mean, remember back before Shawn and my mom started dating? He was still living out in Philadelphia but then he’d always be dropping in because he had an _assignment_ ,” she created her air-quotes with the tone of her voice and a casual roll of the eyes.

“So… ‘passing through’ is code for ‘going to see Pappy Joe’ then?” he stared at her.

“I don’t think _she_ will call him ‘Pappy’ Joe, but yeah, that’s what I’m saying.” He was alright with the idea of the two of them spending time together, he was. Somehow, he just hadn’t expected that it would happen this fast.

“Hey, dinner’s on the way!” Maya shouted out toward the stairs all of a sudden, startling him into grabbing hold of both her feet like she was about to go. He didn’t even realize he’d shushed her until she turned back to look at him. Now she wasn’t just looking at him, she was giving him that look she had, the one that made him believe time and again that she might actually have mind reading abilities.

“Why are you…” she started to ask, then stopped, then looked back to the stairs, then back to him. “Lucas, what’s going on?” she asked, prying her feet away and pulling herself up to sit on her knees, before coming up to him across the cushions of the couch.

“What happened to just liking to mess with me?” he responded with a question of his own, which might not have been the right way to go about this, as it only sent her instincts into high gear. He knew that, when she made to get up, she was only doing it to see what he’d do, and he fell right into that trap, pulling her back down to stay with him. He sighed. “He’s telling her now, okay?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	135. Their Space For Peace

He wasn’t sure what her reaction to this news would be but, maybe just to be on the safe side, he locked his arms around her. He didn’t think she’d actually go and spy on them, but… who knew? Maya took in this sudden hold like she knew exactly what it was about, which might have actually been the thing that kept her from reacting too strongly. Without a doubt, the realization of what might be happening upstairs at that very moment, her friends’ lives being forever altered no matter how this conversation turned out… It made her anxious, the kind of feeling where you didn’t know how to sit still, had to do something.

“We should go and unpack,” she told Lucas. He looked hesitant at this. “No, really,” she assured him. “It’ll be worse if I’m not doing anything.”

“Right, okay,” he agreed, releasing her and leading them both up the stairs and toward their room. As before, the closer they got to the door into Riley’s room, he felt like he needed to be quiet to the point of invisibility, and now there were the two of them doing as much. They could still hear voices from inside the room, quiet voices, private voices. Lucas nodded to their room, and Maya nodded, following him inside. She shut the door, leaning against it with a deep breath.

Once upon a time, she would have been much more apprehensive about what was going on in Riley’s room, but now… Now she trusted the things she knew would add up to the conclusion her friends both deserved. She had hope for Riley and for Dylan, hope for their future together. Still, while she stood so close to that moment, that turn, it hadn’t happened yet, which only left her that much more antsy, fidgety.

“We still have clothes in here that’ll need washing,” Lucas told her, pulling one of their suitcases on to the bed. She looked at him and she smiled like she knew something and he didn’t and, in a moment, she’d be laughing. “What?” he asked, but then he opened the suitcase and found a stack of neatly folded clean clothes, the items he could have sworn had been in their laundry bag when they’d packed that suitcase. After a beat, he breathed out, knowing exactly how _that_ had happened. “I _thought_ I heard the machine last night.”

“Your mother is getting stealthier by the day,” Maya laughed. “She should be a spy.”

“Melinda Friar, fading into the background?” he pointed out, and she only laughed harder, before stifling the sound when she remembered her friends in the other room. “So, no laundry then.”

They set themselves to unpacking, which was mostly putting clothes back in drawers or in the closet, and with the suitcase fairy repacking everything, it really didn’t take very long. Soon, they had the suitcases emptied and ready to be stored back in the closet.

“How long does it take to say ‘I like you’ and ‘I like you, too,’” Maya sighed, sitting on the bed.

“Took us months,” Lucas pointed out, and she gave him a look. Maya’s phone gave a small sound and she took it out to find that…

“Sophie says there’s a bit of a lineup at the restaurant so they’ll be a while longer,” she informed Lucas. “Probably a good thing, gives _them_ more time,” she gestured to the wall leading into the hall. “What if Sophie and Chiara show up and they’re still in there?”

“We should go back downstairs then,” he suggested. Maya replied with a sound as though to say ‘do we have to?’ After a moment of watching her put on her very best pitiful face, he went and sat next to her. “Happy to be back?” he asked her, and she nodded, smiling. “This place was always going to be temporary, but it’s still going to be four years of our lives,” he spoke, looking around the room.

He still had a vague notion of when it had all been empty, and when they had first set everything up to make it their space, both of them together. It had all been so new back then, and now… now, they couldn’t picture themselves living any other way. The room had grown with them, it showed how it had been lived in for a year and a half already. He was strangely fond of a mark in the wall from when they’d installed the curtain rod…

“Maybe… we should paint the walls again?” she suggested, so out of the blue that he turned to her. “A different color,” she smiled.

“What’s wrong with the color now?” he wondered.

“Nothing’s _wrong_ , it’s more like… changing, evolving…”

“Like a new haircut?” he asked, poking at her short ponytail.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “It’s just exploring what else the space – or the hair – has to offer.”

“Well…” he looked around the room again. “We really should have thought of this earlier, we could have done it over the holidays. We’re starting the new semester in a couple days, and this would definitely take a while…”

“We could do it over the summer,” Maya told him. “Halfway mark, new room.”

“Halfway…” he repeated, like he still couldn’t quite believe it.

He was distracted enough, thinking about this halfway point that he didn’t notice Maya getting up from the bed and walking silently toward the door.

“Hey…” he whispered. “Wait…” She turned back to him, holding a finger to her lips.

“I’m just checking to see if they’re still talking,” she promised. When she opened the door, cautious not to make any sound, she stretched her neck out, waited, listened…

“What do you hear?” Lucas whispered, standing just behind her all of a sudden. She reached one hand back and clamped it on his arm. _Quiet._ For a few seconds they couldn’t hear anything… Was it over? Had they said all they had to…

They heard a laugh. Riley’s laugh, and then Dylan’s, and then the talking resumed, not so close that they could hear much more than the drone of familiar voices, but enough that they knew it wasn’t over after all. So, Maya motioned for Lucas to back away so she could shut the door again. Before she could do that, there was a familiar shuffle and she spotted the dogs trotting out of Riley’s room and toward her.

“Downstairs, come on,” Maya whispered to Lucas, and they headed down, the dogs at their heels. Trix and Lou looked at the two of them and started in the direction of the kitchen before looking back at them. The message was clear enough. Maya filled their water bowls, Lucas took care of their food, and the dogs moved contentedly to have at it. “They’re waiting for our order now,” Maya reported after having pulled out her phone again, finding a new message from Sophie. Lucas let out a sigh, and she was with him on that. It was like the wait was making their hunger grow.

“How are your feet?” he turned to her, like he was remembering what they’d been up to, before he’d told her about Dylan and Riley. It would be as good a thing to do to pass the time as any, right?

“We’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel, aren’t we?” she asked with a sympathetic smile. She wasn’t exactly bursting with ideas at this point. She was tired from the drive, and they were stuck in this holding pattern of waiting for dinner to arrive and trying to leave their friends in peace to say what they had to say. “Come here,” she motioned for him to follow her toward the couch, where she prompted him to sit and then lie down, before lying down at his side. He resettled himself to give her more space, putting his arm around her to keep her from rolling off. “There, we’re good here,” she breathed.

“You’re going to fall asleep,” he pointed out, kissing the side of her head.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she shrugged but smiled all the same. Now that they were here like this, a nap kind of sounded really good. She could almost forget her stomach growling for dinner. “Tell me a story?” she asked, borrowing the inflection Nellie used when she’d make that same request, like she might as well have been tugging on your arm until you gave in.

“A story?” he smiled.

“Yeah, go on,” she nodded. “Like… Once upon a time, there was… a horse…”

“Right, of course there was,” he tried not to laugh. “Fine,” he breathed. It didn’t take much to get him to humor her. “Once upon a time, there was a horse,” he repeated. He paused, unsure where to take this. “You’re the creator here, not me,” he looked back down at her.

“Why so defeatist? I believe in you,” she promised. “What was the horse’s name?” He thought about this for a moment.

“Doc… His name was Doc,” he decided. Maya nodded approvingly. “And, well, Doc lived on a farm.”

“But…” Maya provided.

“But what?”

“Something needs to happen, you know?”

“Am I telling the story or you?” he asked, gently prodding at her temple.

“Sorry, sorry,” she huffed, laughing. “Go on.”

“ _But…_ ” he carried on, and she raised her hand in a thumbs up. “But one day he decided he wanted to go to a city, a big one, with lights everywhere, and lots of people, maybe a Broadway show or two…”

“Wait a minute,” Maya cut in with dramatic curiosity.

“So, Doc went to New York City,” Lucas smiled.

“How’d he get there?”

“Took a train.”

“Sure.”

“He took a train to New York, and at first he was lost, overwhelmed. He missed his farm.”

“Then, one day…”

“Maya…”

“Last time, I swear.”

“Then… one day… he ran into a fox.” She didn’t interrupt, but she made a noise he could only interpret as ‘and what was its name?’ “She was called… Tiny.” Now she made a noise like an incensed ‘wait a minute.’ “She was wild, and she knew the city, and when she saw Doc, she knew he was new to the city. So Tiny said ‘You’re going to get eaten alive in a place like this. Stick with me, you’ll be alright.’” Maya gave a noise of approval. “So, Doc got to see the city, with the lights, and the people, and the musicals, all thanks to his new friend.” He paused. “The end?”

“Bit short,” she turned around in his arms until they could face one another.

“So’s Tiny,” he shrugged.

“You’re hilarious… Doc,” she narrowed her eyes at him before moving up enough to kiss him.

“So much for the nap, huh?” he asked, leaning his forehead to hers.

“This is just fine,” she promised, breathing peacefully. Lying like this, warm, snug… It gave her all she could want, and all the while she was wide awake and aware.

They didn’t move for a while. Then, when curiosity came rising again, she turned her head toward the ceiling, straining to see if she might hear voices, steps… All she heard were the dogs, both curled up near the back door in the kitchen, sleeping off the ride home and their food, and… a car door.

“That’ll be Sophie and Chiara, what do we do about…?” she pointed her index up to the second floor. Much as they would have preferred not disturb their friends upstairs… or themselves here on the couch for that matter, they moved to stand. Lucas pulled out his phone and quickly sent a text to Dylan. _SC back. Dinner’s here._

A few seconds later, he got a reply. _Down in a minute._ He showed this to Maya, and she blinked. Whatever they’d had to say to each other, it must have been done by now. They were just hanging out up there… So what did it mean?

TO BE CONTINUED


	136. Their Space For Plans

When Sophie and Chiara walked in, both carrying a large bag from their usual Chinese take-out restaurant, they looked about as harried as they’d be expected to look after following the long drive home from Austin with the long wait for their order. They looked like they needed a nap much more than Maya and Lucas did as they got up from the couch.

“Thank you,” Maya chuckled sympathetically as Lucas relieved both girls of their loads. “So, it was crowded?”

“It’s like everyone coming back into town for the start of semester decided to go in there at the same time,” Sophie sighed with an exaggerated miserable look.

“Welcome home,” Maya patted her shoulder. Chiara looked around for a moment before turning back to her.

“Where are the others?” she asked.

“Uh… they’ll be right down,” Maya told her, maintaining a face she hoped gave nothing away.

When Riley and Dylan did come down, not a minute later, Maya found she wasn’t the only one playing it cool in that moment. The two of them came bounding down the stairs and, to look at them, you would probably guess they’d just been unpacking, settling back in bit by bit as they waited for their roommates to show up with dinner. Revelations of feelings of any kind outside the bounds of friendship looked in no way to have occurred. This could mean one of a few things. Maybe they didn’t want to get into it with the rest of them in that moment, which would have been more than understandable, but then maybe… What if Dylan had actually chickened out at the last second and they’d just been talking the way the two friends and roommates so often did?

“Food…” Dylan hummed as he and Riley both made a beeline for the kitchen, followed by Sophie, Chiara, and Maya. Lucas had started to unpack the containers from the bags, at the center of the table, where a stack of plates and various utensils already sat in wait.

The next couple minutes consisted of plates being filled, containers passed from one to another, dogs circling their heels at the scent of all the new food, before the six roommates were finally able to take their seats and dig in. As hungry as they’d all professed themselves to be, the words paled in comparison to the quiet devotion they gave to their plates for the several minutes to follow. The silence was finally broken by Riley, who looked around to the rest of them and asked if they wanted to go to the university bookstore in the morning.

“Now, when you say morning, does it have to be… in the morning?” Sophie hummed, as Chiara handed her one of the containers. “I only have so many days left to be as lazy as I want before I have to go back to being Responsible Sophie Who Gets Things Done.”

“You’ve changed, Zvolensky,” Maya gave her a look. “Where’s our shy little flower gone?”

“Italy,” Sophie raised her glass, and the others started to laugh, as Chiara leaned over and kissed her girlfriend’s cheek.

“If you want, you could just give us your list and we’ll pick up your books for you,” Lucas told her.

“No, it’s alright, thanks,” Sophie sighed. “It’s my last semester there, I want to go,” she shrugged.

“Okay, but I can’t go in the afternoon, I have to be at the community center,” Dylan declared. The others looked at him. “I know, I’m not a student or anything, I just… I wanted to go with you guys,” he shrugged. Maya looked to Lucas, and he seemed to have the same notion going through his mind, that somewhere in their conversation upstairs, Dylan had agreed to accompany Riley to the bookstore whenever she’d go for her books.

“It does get busier in the afternoon,” Lucas pointed out, applying to Sophie and Chiara without looking at them in particular. “We have a better chance of not being stuck in a lineup for two hours if we go in the morning.” There was a beat, followed by a brief whispered exchange in what they identified as Italian right before the girls looked back to him.

“Alright, fine, we’ll go in the morning,” Sophie agreed. “But I’m not breaking out the stickers and everything before the day after tomorrow,” she pointed at the others.

“Yes, you are,” Chiara laughed.

“I…” Sophie tried to argue on that, but there was no point pretending. There was no amount of end of summer ‘rebellion’ that would keep her from looking at a stack of pristine new school books and wanting to break out her labels and other supplies. “Pass the rice?”

As they went on eating and talking, it was easy for both Lucas and Maya to sort of forget about the Dylan/Riley situation and the question of what they’d discussed upstairs for so long and what it would mean for the two of them in the long run. But then, every now and again, Riley and Dylan would address one another, and it would be like someone had come up and said ‘hey, remember this? It’s still going on,’ and they’d be thinking about it again. Much as they knew they needed to look to their old friends to know how to behave, it was getting harder to act like this was a normal day.

“Woah, check out Willow,” Riley gasped, smiling, after checking her phone in search of her new class schedule. They all looked as she turned the screen toward them to show the new picture she’d just put up. In the two weeks they’d been away, it was like her belly had hit a growth spurt. She was rounding up on six months along now, her baby due in April as she was. That was the other news, they found, as Riley read out the message accompanying the image. “Whatever else this new year is remembered for, it will be the year where you came into our lives. We can’t wait to meet you, Zola Aileen Obi.”

“Aileen, that’s Willow’s grandmother,” Dylan recalled with a smile. They all knew this by now, knew Aileen Regan and her husband, William, had raised Willow from the age of five, after their son and his wife had died in a crash. She had been named for her grandfather herself, and now she was following this by passing her grandmother’s name on to her daughter.

“And Zola was Lion’s,” Maya revealed, recalling how he’d told her and Leona about her, one day at the restaurant. _She_ had raised Lion and his siblings since he was seven. They’d already been living with her, them and their father, after their mother had died giving birth to the last of them. But then their father had fallen ill, and he’d been carried off to his grave before long, and Zola Obi – the first – had taken up her grandchildren’s care with a just and loving hand.

That had been the thing to bind them, Willow and Lion, when they’d first gotten to meet, still children the pair of them. Some kids had found out about how Willow had no parents, and this had somehow given them license to make fun of her. Lion had been nearby and, when he’d heard them, heard why they were laughing at her, he’d lost it. He’d gotten in their faces, told them _he_ had no parents either, asked them if they had anything to say to _him_. Already then, he was taller than any of them, and they didn’t challenge him, never questioning whether this Lion had teeth or not. And from that day, it had been the two of them, as friends, best friends, then more than that, and then for a short while none of that, when he’d gone off to Japan. Zola the first had just died at the time, and it had been his way to cope. Willow had never faulted him on that. But now he was back, and there’d be no going away again.

“You got that look in your eyes like you’re already reaching for a pencil or a paintbrush,” Lucas turned to Maya when they went on with eating.

“Are you surprised?” she asked, smiling.

“More curious about what you have in mind.”

“That’s still in progress… might not even need a pencil or a paintbrush as you say,” she informed him with a nod. “We’re in a band together, her mom and me… I think I’ll write her a lullaby.”

The rest of dinner devolved into the six of them recounting their departures from Austin, the goodbyes with their parents and families. It would be hard for any of them to say they’d had a better holiday that year than Chiara had done. Their newest roommate had been reunited with her family, flown over from Italy by Sophie’s mother, for the first time in months, and if any of them missed their families being out here in Houston, where the only thing that kept them from going to see them was availability, it could only compare so far when there was Chiara, with so much distance and money standing in the way.

Sophie would never have hesitated to call in ‘Air Zvolensky’ whenever her girlfriend missed her people. But for the same reason as she supported herself through her work at the bakery and the combined input of the rest of their household, it couldn’t be that way. None of them doubted that, if it really became unbearable for Chiara, or if there was some emergency that required a prompt flight, she would do it without question.

“You guys go on ahead,” Lucas told the two of them when everyone was getting up from their seats to clear the table and deal with the dishes. “This one’s on us.”

“Are you sure?” Sophie asked.

“Let the man be nice, come,” Chiara just led her out of the kitchen. “Thank you, Lucas!” she called back as they went toward the stairs.

“Anytime!” he called back.

“We’ll do the dishes,” Dylan tapped his arm as he addressed Maya and Riley. Lucas would have said this was simply Dylan being Dylan, always happy to do something for his friends, but now that it was just the four of them in the kitchen, it was hard not to wonder if maybe there was a secondary purpose to his taking on the task. Maybe he wanted to talk to him, just the two of them. Maybe he was opening the door for Riley to pull Maya aside for a chat of their own.

“Yeah, we’ve got this,” Lucas motioned to the table, the sticky plates, the empty containers and the ones headed for the fridge, the spilled bits over the table’s surface. There were no such bits on the floor, the dogs had beaten them to those.

“Yeah?” Maya asked him.

“Go and relax your feet,” he told her, the underlying reference to their earlier wait not lost on her, going by the smirk growing over her features.

“Yeah, come on, I’ll help you unpack,” Riley turned to her then, and Maya turned, too, needing not a single word of explanation to decode what this actually meant. She wasn’t supposed to know, technically, but of course she knew, and so did Lucas. She stole a glance toward him before looking back to her best friend of old.

“Well, we actually unpacked already,” she revealed, pointing over to Lucas and then to herself. “What about you, did you unpack?” she turned that index toward Riley, wondering.

“Yeah, I started, but then I stopped, so…” Riley shrugged, and Maya cut her off.

“Upstairs, now.”

“Okay,” Riley replied just as quick, and they hurried off together.

Lucas and Dylan watched them go for a moment before looking to one another and starting their way clearing the table. Dishes and utensils went to the sink to soak, trash to the trash, leftovers to the fridge. The table was cleaned, and then they went to the sink, sleeves rolled up as they started their way through the soapy mess. Finally, Lucas could see his friend stealing glances toward him, so he smiled.

“How’d it go?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	137. Their Space For Relief

He’d never known Dylan to be shy. He’d known the guy for most of his life, and he’d always been the one who’d jump headlong into a situation, sometimes without thinking it through ahead of time. That trait accounted for the vast majority of the various marks and scars on his body. He could never be told ‘you’re not game to do such and such thing’ because he’d usually be doing it before you even finished saying the words. Sometimes it felt like a miracle that he hadn’t broken his neck by now.

But this… this was different. His feelings for Riley Matthews had gone and instilled caution in him. He wasn’t out to make her one more scar on him. Lucas had seen that, understood that, a long time ago, and it was for that reason he’d backed up that caution, keeping the secret, letting things happen as they needed to happen. Dylan was one of the best guys he knew, and he deserved his love story to happen on its own time… and the same went for Riley, who had been so much of the joy in Maya’s life before any of them had known either of the New York girls.

When he asked Dylan how his conversation with Riley had gone, there was a pause, as they continued to clean dishes, and for a moment Lucas worried that it might not have gone the way any of them had hoped or predicted. Was that even possible? Dylan liked Riley and she liked him back, he knew that. But what if they started telling each other about it, and everything was going great, until it wasn’t. They could have ended up deciding to stay friends, or… oh, what if they couldn’t even be that anymore, what if…

“We’re going out on Friday,” Dylan finally spoke, and Lucas felt like he’d been holding his breath as he dropped his sponge.

“Oh, good,” he gave his friend a jostling side hug and grinned, seeing the smile on his face.

“I know,” Dylan nodded. After a beat, he looked back to Lucas. “I… I’ve never actually taken a girl out before, what do I do now?”

“Hang on, we’re not there yet, tell me what happened up there,” Lucas nodded up to indicate upstairs.

“I mean, I… I carried her bags up there, and I asked if she needed help to unpack. I didn’t know where to start, right? Like, I knew what I wanted her to know, but I didn’t know _how_ … I thought I did, but then she was looking at me and I forgot everything. Maybe I should have written it down.”

“By the looks of it, you got it sorted out in the end,” Lucas reminded him.

“Oh… Yeah, I guess I did. So, okay, she opened her suitcase, and I hadn’t seen inside it before, and all I could see were clothes, and they were all just sort of thrown in there, or they looked like that, except then she pulled the… I guess, the top layer… off, tossed them on her bed, and then I saw… She had the box in there, like her clothes were bubble wrap.”

“The box…” Lucas frowned, trying to figure out what he was talking about, but then he had a flash back to Christmas, and he smiled. “The box.” His present to her, with all the things he’d had sent over from New York for her.

“When I saw it, it’s like the words just came back,” Dylan smiled back. “She had it in her hands, and she looked so happy, said she knew just the place to put it, and then I told her… I said ‘Riley, you’re one of my best friends, and I will be your friend forever, but if we could I’d like us to be more than that.’” Lucas looked at him, his head slowly nodding to show how impressed he was. That was a pretty good place to start.

“What’d she say?” he asked.

“She looked… I don’t know, confused? Not confused like ‘why would I do that?’ but more like ‘did you say what I think you said?’ So, I went over to her, and I took the box from her to put it down on her desk, and I… I took her hands, and I said ‘I wanted to tell you for a long while, but it was never the right time. I never stopped feeling the way I feel about you now though. And I just…’”

He stopped there, and Lucas might have thought he was holding for dramatic effect, except that was more… well, Riley. No, he stopped, and he seemed to be off in his own thoughts, his memories of the moment he was recounting.

“And you just what?” Lucas tapped his arm so he’d keep going. Dylan looked back up to him. “What’d you say after that?”

“Oh, nothing for a while, that was where she kissed me,” he revealed as casually as though he’d asked him to pass the dish soap.

“For a wh…” Lucas started to repeat before thinking better of it. “Okay, well, good,” he chuckled after a beat.

“Yeah…” Dylan trailed off, like he had gone back to the memory again.

“Then what?”

“She said that… she’d liked me, too, and she’d been trying to say something for a while, too. So, right then, that’s when I asked her to go out with me, and she said yes. A few minutes later, you texted me to come down and…”

“Wait, all that conversation took that long?” Lucas asked, counting back in his head like there was no way this all added up. It had been at least an hour between when they’d gone up to her room and when they’d come back down, and all the talking and the aborted unpacking couldn’t have been more than ten, fifteen minutes tops.

“It really didn’t, but we weren’t really looking at the time,” Dylan smiled back at him. It was a wonder none of them had picked up anything from either of their faces when they’d come down the stairs, if they’d been making out most of that time.

“So, you’re all caught up for the last few years then?” Lucas shook his head, getting back to the dishes.

“How would I even count that?” Dylan joined him.

“I’m really happy for you, man,” Lucas looked over at him. “Both of you.”

“I still don’t know what I should do on Friday, like… how big do I go? Casual? Formal? Where should I take her? I want it to be good, you know? It’s the first date, I don’t want it to be the one and only, more like the first of many.”

“I’m not the one you need to ask this,” Lucas insisted. Dylan stared at him for a moment, thinking.

“Asher?”

“No,” Lucas shook his head.

“Zay?”

“Dylan, no one’s going to know except you. This isn’t my date, or Asher’s, or Zay’s, it’s yours and Riley’s. You’ve known this girl, _liked_ this girl, for all those years. You’re going to tell me you don’t know what would make her happy on that date so much that there’ll be a second, and a third, and so on? It’s all on you to be… you. You’re going to tell me you’ve never thought about things you wanted to do with her, places you wanted to go with her?”

“Oh, well…” Dylan started, then paused, then smiled and started again. “I need to…”

“Go, I’ve got this,” Lucas told him, so Dylan wiped his hands down and went to grab a sheet and pen. He sat at the kitchen table, hunched over that page the way Lucas had seen him go since they were little, all through school. He scribbled and scribbled away in that totally unexpectedly neat handwriting of his. “So, are you guys going to tell Sophie and Chiara now or…”

“Riley said she wanted to do it, so I don’t know, maybe she already did,” he pointed overhead with his pen before going back to his writing. He paused again almost just as soon. “Am I supposed to talk to her parents or something?”

“You’re going on a date, you’re not proposing,” Lucas reminded him, then, after a beat, “You’re not, are you?”

“What, no, no, we’re just starting,” Dylan promised him.

“Then no, you don’t need to talk to her parents.” He didn’t bring up the notion of how Mr. Matthews might react to the news. From their experience of Riley being with Scott Shelby back in high school, he knew their former teacher could be a bit intense when it came to his daughter and boys, and somehow not even the two-hour buffer between Austin and Houston would stop the man from driving in at some point, like an animal on the prowl.

He finished cleaning the dishes, dried them and put them away. All the while, Dylan was writing and writing. When Lucas finally came over and sat across from him, he looked up.

“Are you planning one date or all of them?” Lucas asked. It reminded him so much of a list _he_ had made, five years ago, when he’d been looking forward to his own first date with the girl that he’d just been waiting so long to take out like that… The ideas came very easily, if he just gave them the chance, and it looked like Dylan was experiencing the same thing now, only with over four years of build up.

“I think I should get my hair cut,” he declared after setting his pen down. Lucas blinked.

“Like… an inch like last time?”

“You guys are really weird about my hair sometimes, you know that?” Dylan chuckled.

“We’ve never seen you with short hair before, I don’t know,” Lucas shrugged. “Don’t think I can even picture it.” Dylan considered this for a moment, then pointed at him.

“My cousin, Wally.” Lucas thought back to the last time he’d seen the guy. The two of them did look alike, if he really focused on calling up the guy’s face. He guessed that was really what he might look like if he got his hair cut that much. “I don’t know, I just think it’s time to…”

“Grow up?” Lucas guessed.

“Oh, no, never that,” Dylan shook his head with a barely contained smirk. “But I can fool the world into thinking it. You guys will know better.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” Lucas nodded. “Well, hey, it’s your hair, so it’s up to you.” Dylan thought for a few seconds, then looked down at his sheet of paper, now filled to the point where he’d covered both sides and would need another page if he kept going. Then, he smiled to himself and drew a thick arrow next to one of his entries. “Hey,” Lucas told him, and he looked up. “I’m really happy this is happening for you two. I know I’ve said it before, but I mean it.”

“What if it doesn’t work out?” Dylan asked after a while, quietly, like he’d needed to make himself say it, just once.

“No, come on, none of that,” Lucas told him. “It’s not the time for that, not after you two finally said what you had to say. You’ve got a _date_ , Dylan,” he smiled at him, and soon his friend was smiling again.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“Okay, _one_ suggestion,” Lucas told him after a moment. Dylan sat up, ready to hear. “Once they’re done up there, go back to her,” he stretched his arm over to the small bag of fortune cookies they’d put back on the table after cleaning it. They hadn’t gotten to them just yet, and he was confident in the chance that the others would happily sacrifice their own cookies to let Dylan and Riley have them. “That’s for you.”

“Yeah!” Dylan smiled, taking the bag. “What if the fortunes are bad?”

“Today, not a chance. You’re going to remember today, and it’ll be one of your favorite memories.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	138. Their Space For Joy

“Upstairs, now.”

“Okay.”

As the two old friends went bounding up the stairs, they could just hear the familiar jingling of the dogs following after them, all the way into Riley’s room, where they tried to climb on to the bed and into the discarded pile of clothing which seemed to have been vacated from the open suitcase nearby. The girls couldn’t blame them, the pile did look comfy, but seeing as part of their goal in being up here was to help Riley unpack and put her things away, they had no choice but to coax Trix and Lou to stay on the ground.

“I see you didn’t have the services of a laundry fairy like I did,” Maya gave her friend a look at the sight of the crumpled mess.

“And if my mother ever asks?” Riley turned to her, waiting for an answer.

“I saw nothing,” Maya promised with a smile.

“Exactly,” Riley smiled back, grabbing her laundry bag. Maya held it open and the brunette went about tossing in everything she needed to wash, setting aside the things she’d be putting away now. For a couple minutes they carried on this way, neither of them saying anything. Maya didn’t want to pry, but it was easier said than done when she just knew something had happened and she wasn’t being told. Finally, she couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Riley Matthews, you tell me what happened up here right now,” she demanded. Her friend turned to her and in a moment they’d abandoned the clothes in order to sit on the ground, where the dogs were all too happy to climb in their laps for scratches and petting.

“Maya, I… I-I have a date… on Friday… Dylan asked me,” Riley slowly revealed, the look on her face brightening and widening like she still couldn’t quite believe it.

“Did he?” she asked, and much as she tried to sound like she’d had no idea, she realized she might have overshot right into exaggerated ignorance when Riley blinked.

“Wait, you knew?”

“Well, no, not exactly,” Maya told her. “Only Dylan told Lucas he was going to do it, and you know Lucas, he gets all weird with stuff like that. So, when I busted him, he told me what was up.”

“Oh…” Riley chuckled and Maya nodded and smiled. There was no point going into the whole ‘I knew you liked Dylan before _you_ knew you liked Dylan’ thing, or the one where she knew Dylan liked Riley before any of that.

“So, come on, tell me everything, spare no details,” Maya told her, scratching at Trix’ head.

“I don’t know about _all_ the details…” Riley had a private sort of smile there, which only made Maya even more curious and maybe a tiny bit startled. Just what _had_ happened up here after they’d arrived home?

“Just start at the beginning,” she waved to Riley, who nodded for a moment before pausing as she seemed to think of something.

“Hang on,” she got up again, Lou still nestled in one arm as she walked out of her room and into the hall. Maya was about to call after her and ask where she was going, until she heard a knock on what she quickly guessed to be Sophie and Chiara’s room door. After a few seconds, she could just recognize the muffled sound of Sophie’s voice with an inflection that suggested ‘who is it?’ “Riley!” Riley replied. More muffled sounds followed, maybe ‘what is it?’ “Dylan asked me out,” she heard Riley say, and then a second later a very distinct and totally not muffled ‘What?’ A moment later, Maya heard the door open. Soon, Riley and Lou were returning with Sophie and Chiara in tow.

“Did we interrupt nap time?” Maya asked the pair with a grin.

“It was going to be such a lovely road and food coma,” Sophie breathed as she and Chiara sat on the edge of the bed while Riley went back to the ground with Maya.

“You’re just going to fall asleep there, aren’t you?” Maya nodded to the bed.

“We can’t sleep now, we need to know what’s happened,” Chiara insisted, pointing to Riley before turning to her. “Did you tell him yes?”

“Hold on, we’re not to that part,” Sophie told her girlfriend, like she was trying to shush her for talking in the middle of a movie.

“Go on, Riley, floor’s all yours,” Maya smiled at her.

“Right, okay, well, when the four of us got here, me and Maya and the guys, Dylan helped me carry my things up here, and he offered to help me unpack, so that’s what we did. I could tell he was a bit distracted at first, thinking about something… maybe dinner…”

“Could have been,” Maya agreed with a nod, and the girls chuckled.

“First thing I wanted to do when I started with my bags was to get the box out of there,” Riley carried on, pointing to the box in question, the one which was both present and container of present.

It presently sat on top of her desk, looking more like it had been set down temporarily instead of being placed in its intended location. The other girls were all wholly familiar about how much Riley appreciated the Christmas gift Dylan had given her. All through the rest of the party night, she hadn’t managed to let it out of her hands for very long, always ended up back to fidget with the contents.

“After I got it out of my suitcase, Dylan started off telling me how I was one of his best friends, and how he would always be my friend, and for like two seconds I just stood there kind of… panicking on the inside, I guess, thinking he was maybe moving away, or he was about to say something else that completely wrecked me, like maybe he’d found a girlfriend…”

Sophie and Chiara both went a bit wide-eyed at this, and Maya suspected it wasn’t so much with regards to the misunderstanding as it was about the unexpected revelation that Riley had been harboring feelings for their friend and roommate in secret.

“But then he said that… he wanted us to be more than that, more than friends.” The memory left a smile on her face, and Maya couldn’t help but burst with happiness for her, though she kept her face as collected as possible, the better to let Riley continue. “I swear, I must have looked so odd, I couldn’t believe he’d actually said that, but then at the same time… It’s Dylan, and it’s not his style to joke around about something like that.” Her trio of listeners all agreed to this quietly. “He came and he took my hands,” she went on, and they listened, enthralled almost. “He told me that he’d had feelings for me for a long time and he’d wanted to tell me, but he couldn’t… I guess, back when I was with Scott, and after we broke up, and then here…” she shrugged.

“He didn’t want to make it weird if you said no,” Sophie guessed, and Riley nodded.

“What did you tell him?” Chiara asked. At this, Riley’s face turned the slightest shade of red, as she either couldn’t find the words, or she just drifted off into a memory. Now, Maya was thinking back to how her best friend of old had stipulated she wouldn’t share _all_ the details, and she sat up straight at that, staring at Riley, wondering.

“Did you… You and him?” she asked, voice low. Riley looked at her, at once defensive.

“What, no, no, come on, we just kissed…” she told her. Sophie and Chiara spoke at once when they heard this, like this was an even bigger thing than the fact that Dylan had asked her out.

“That bit of unintelligible mess here,” Maya indicated the two girls sat on the bed, “That should tell you how ‘just kissed’ is not a thing.” She was smiling so hard though. After having gone from the protective friend who would ensure any guy vying for her Honey’s affections was worthy of her, to protective friend of two who could see the pieces slowly but surely aligning for a pair of the best people she knew… They had finally arrived to this point, to the moment where her friends finally got their shot, and it sent her heart trilling as she awaited the next bit of the story.

“How was it?” Chiara asked. Sophie turned to her like she couldn’t believe she’d asked. “What? I’ve never kissed a boy before, and I don’t plan to,” Chiara told her. “It doesn’t mean I can’t be curious,” she shrugged, smiling and pressing a kiss to her girlfriend’s cheek, amused at her baffled expression.

“It was… wonderful…” Riley hummed. “He was so surprised at first when I kissed him, but then he was kissing me back. I could tell he was trying to figure out what was okay. It was the first time _we_ kissed, of course, but I think it might have been _his_ first ever. So, I sort of… helped him figure a few things out,” she declared with a smile both sheepish and bold.

“Woah,” Sophie nodded approvingly.

“It’s like… He kisses like he behaves. He’s goofy, and caring, and curious, and bright, and daring, and attentive… We were still catching our breaths when Lucas texted Dylan to say dinner was here.” Maya stared at her, and much as Lucas would do downstairs as _he_ got the story, it took her a moment to add things up and realize just how long this kiss had actually lasted. It was so hard sometimes not to look at Riley as something small and innocent, but here they were, the two of them, living out here, grown… They were neither of them kids anymore.

“So, the date?” Maya asked her.

“Friday,” Riley smiled. “I don’t know where we’re going, what I’m supposed to wear, but…” She didn’t even need to ask.

“I’ll help you, _we’ll_ help you,” she looked to Sophie and Chiara, and they nodded at once.

They left soon after this, returning to their room and looking very much like they’d be drifting off to sleep in a matter of minutes. Maya and Riley got back up from the ground, the dogs leaving them, too, for some snoozing of their own. The two old friends went back to the unpacking of Riley’s things, discussing her options for outfits, both casual and formal, to be held as ‘maybes’ for Friday. There was no barrier whatsoever as far as what was available to her. It wasn’t just her own clothes she could pick from but also Maya’s, and Sophie’s, and Chiara’s. She could probably have called on a few others in their circle of friends if these four closets had nothing to offer that matched the vision for this first date of hers.

“Maya?” Riley spoke when they’d finished putting her things away and collapsed back on to her cleared bed.

“Yeah?” she turned her head to look at her.

“It’s going to go well, isn’t it?” Riley asked, and there were those small eyes back on her again. Maya shifted on to her side, propping her head up in her hand.

“Has he told you how long he’s had feelings for you?” she asked. Riley nodded. “You’ve known each other all this time, and knowing what you know now… That guy is like a human puppy, and you’ve been his best girl all this time. And I’m going to tell you something, because I’m your best friend and I know you’ll get what I’m saying, but you’ve been waiting for him to say something for longer than you’ve probably even known you were waiting. I can’t tell the future, but I have my gut, and it’s never let me down before. You’ve earned the right to hope. So… hope.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	139. Their Space For Starts

Waking up on their first morning back home in Houston, after being away this long, always felt different… special… Maya would tease Lucas and suggest that those first mornings back got some assistance in being made that way from their first nights back, which tended to involve the two of them ‘taking liberties’ they hadn’t been so at ease to take while under their parents’ roofs. Whatever was really the cause of it, they would wake up in the morning, feeling like this bed of theirs had not felt this comfortable in a long time.

When Maya opened her eyes, the morning chill at her shoulders, she tugged the covers higher, bringing their warmth along. She breathed deep, enjoying this feeling in her of being so rested, and comfy, and… home… It wasn’t like she didn’t feel at home back at her parents’ house, or _his_ parents’ house, but it was different here.

Turning herself around, she found Lucas still slept and she smiled, reaching up to gently brush hair from his face. She didn’t want to wake him. She liked getting to look at him like that, to imagine what he might be dreaming about. It never lasted very long, with him so light a sleeper. It was like he could sense when she was awake, and then he’d wake up, too.

“Hey…” he mumbled, eyes just half open.

“Your hair’s getting a bit… tall,” she remarked, running her fingers through it and pulling it to its length.

“I know, getting it cut on Friday with Dylan,” he revealed as he tugged her closer. She laughed for a moment as he kissed her slowly, until his words connected and she blinked.

“Wait,” she pulled her face back to look at him. “Dylan’s getting…”

“You know, he’s right, we’re way too invested in his hair,” Lucas pointed out, looking a bit more awake now, but still very much interested in kissing her again. She could see it in his eyes, too, so she smiled and gave a nod to say ‘alright, fine, I’ll leave it alone.’ She was half leaned in before she had another thought.

“We’re supposed to go to the bookstore this morning,” she recalled.

“And we will,” he promised, nodding. “But not now, because the store isn’t open yet, and the others are probably still asleep.” She considered this for a moment before turning a grin up to him.

“As you were,” she tipped her head, and his chuckle disappeared into his kiss.

Heading down the stairs later, they discovered the kitchen already in full activity. Riley and Dylan were in there, putting together what felt like enough breakfast to feed an army. It was just a bit chaotic, which could have been worrisome if this had been a couple years ago. By now the two of them had largely improved in their cooking and baking abilities, and they had been doing much of that, enough to suggest that Lucas’ previous claim of everyone else being asleep could not possibly have been true.

“Were you guys up all night?” Maya asked, stunned, as she and Lucas stepped into the kitchen and looked around. Riley and Dylan both looked up, their faces carrying that sort of exhausted wakefulness which came of pulling an all-nighter.

“Well, I…” Riley looked out the window to the morning light, and the clock on the microwave… “I guess we were.” She laughed, looking back to Dylan, who was all smiles, too, before reaching for a plate stacked with baked goods. “Muffin?”

Sophie and Chiara came down to join them somewhere in the middle of the newly dating pair’s tale of their sleepless night. Quite unintentionally, they’d ended up in a way having their first date right then and there, while the rest of the house had slept.

What it had started as, the night before, had been Dylan, coming up to Riley’s doorway to wish her good night with the fortune cookies. Only, when he did, he found her reading one of the comics she’d bought on his recommendation, and he asked what she thought of it so far. When she revealed that she was already finishing up the third volume, they started talking about it all. He came into her room and sat with her, and the conversation drew on for some time. Then, when Dylan expressed his wanting of a snack, the two of them made their way downstairs, where they could find nothing satisfactory at the ready.

So, this turned into using raw materials to _make_ that snack. After they put the tray in the oven, they started a movie as they waited for the baking time to be over. They sat at the kitchen table with her laptop and a pair of earbuds shared between them. Once their treats were done and cooled down a bit, they continued watching their movie, now with something to munch on as they watched and tried to keep comments and laughter to a low volume. And by the time they finished the movie, well, neither of them wanted this moment to end yet, so there was another movie, and after that the breakfast plans started.

“You are going to be a mess later,” Maya smirked, looking to the smile still on her best friend’s face. “Doesn’t matter how old you get, you still sound the same when you’re dead tired, Matthews.”

“I’ll sleep after we go to the bookstore,” she shrugged, like she was armored in the memories of the night she’d spent hanging out with Dylan.

“So, that’ll make Friday your second date then,” Sophie commented, and both Riley and Dylan nodded, looking at each other with that unbreakably happy smile the other four remembered so very well from their own early days with their significant other. It suddenly dawned on them that their household now consisted of three couples.

After breakfast was through, they all got ready and headed out to the university bookstore. Sitting in the front of his car, Lucas looked to Maya. Neither of them was surprised in the slightest that their four roommates packed in the back were all at various degrees of grumpiness. One half lamented their lost lazy morning, while the other was really starting to feel that sleeplessness digging into them.

“Ah, there it is…” Maya hummed as they drove on.

“What?” Lucas asked, looking around for whatever ‘it’ was.

“You, me, and our unruly kids, out for a ride,” she smirked, nodding to the backseat. He bit back a laugh. “Roll down your window, maybe the air will do them some good.”

“Okay, but we’re not stopping for ice cream on the way home,” he told her, leaving her to be the one stifling laughter now.

As they parked and got out of the car, it didn’t take them long to realize they were not alone in trying to bypass the long lineups, which naturally left every one of them with exactly what they were hoping to avoid.

“Well, we’re here now…” Sophie sighed. Chiara took her hand and they disappeared off to go and get their books.

“Dylan, you want to start in the line while we…” Lucas started to ask, only to turn and find that his old friend was gone, and so was Riley.

“Yeah, he tagged along,” Maya told him, pointing to the two of them even as they disappeared in the mass of students walking through the store. “Quick, let’s leave them here and run away somewhere. I’m thinking somewhere sunny, the beach, the ocean…”

“Okay, but what about school?”

“They have schools near the beach. If you ask me, we might even do better there.”

“Because we’ll be so relaxed from having gone to the beach?” he guessed.

“You’re so smart,” she grinned.

“Yeah, but it’s going to be so complicated, having to transfer now…” he told her as they started off in search of their books.

“Why do you have to kill my dream, Huckleberry?”

The actual book searching made the bookstore feel like one of those big mazes. They’d all be walking through, trying to find the correct path, and every once in a while, they would run into their friends, as _they_ were looking for their own path, too.

“Is she crying?” Maya pointed to Sophie as she and Lucas crossed her and Chiara.

“Nostalgia,” the Italian girl told them as she led her girlfriend onward.

“We might have to rethink the ice cream thing,” Maya looked to Lucas, who nodded in agreement.

“Or we could just take her to the stationery store after.”

“Good plan, yeah,” she smiled.

All six of them managed to meet up at the line toward the registers somewhere about the same time. By some miracle, it happened that they arrived there just as things seemed to be moving faster, which likely reduced their waiting time by a good half hour. By the time they finally left the store, and after they’d stopped at the stationery store, they were all hungry again, so they stopped in to pick up lunch before heading home. As was expected, by the time they finished eating, the backseat quartet drifted off upstairs for much needed sleep and much wanted lying in. This left Maya and Lucas to head out again and take care of restocking the fridge and pantry.

“You know, it used to be that this was the only part of the school year I really liked, outside of holidays and the summer.”

“The back to school part?” he guessed.

“Everything was new, and for a little while it almost didn’t matter that I didn’t like going. I’d get new notebooks, and pens, and all that… I think my mother liked taking me to get those, too, as much as she could, so they’d be good days for us. They got even better after we moved out here, with the house, and her new job…”

“And you’ll be a teacher, so you get to have back to school every year,” he pointed out with a smirk.

“I swear that wasn’t why I chose it,” she laughed.

When they returned to the house with the groceries, quiet reigned. If the other four weren’t all asleep upstairs, then they were staying silent enough to appear as though they were.

“Hey, come on, there’ll be plenty of time for that,” Lucas told Maya as he tried to get her to put down the book she’d started leafing through, sitting on the couch. It looked more like she was gearing to start reading already. Her bag from the university bookstore sat next to her.

“Fine, fine,” she gave an exaggerated sigh before slipping the book back in the bag. “I can’t help it. Professor Robinson’s been telling all of us about this class since our first semester, and now that it’s here, I just know it’s going to be fascinating.”

She went on to tell him about this class, and he could only feel her excitement echoing out to him. In what seemed like no time at all, not only had she pulled the book out again, but it had been his suggestion. Now it was the two of them looking through the pages together, the art major and the former museum guide lost in conversation.

“I think… They’re awake up there,” Lucas said after a while. Maya looked at the time.

“It’s after seven,” she blinked. They’d been so caught up in their conversation, they had lost all track of time. “What do we do about dinner?”

“We’ve got leftovers,” he shrugged, then, nodding to the book and her with a smile, “This was good.”

“Yeah, it was,” she smiled back. He leaned in and kissed her, maintaining that smile on her. “Alright, time to go feed the sleepy kids.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	140. Their Space For Life

It was their last day off before the new semester. Come morning, they’d be off to their first day with their brand-new set of classes, books, professors, schedules… So, naturally, as always, they had to have a get together, all of their friends bound for the house. How much or how little they paced themselves on that day would be entirely up to them.

The first to arrive were Willow, Lion, and Bishop. The guys had put themselves in charge of the food, and it had all been something of a mystery up until they showed up. They both made a few trips back and forth to bring in the bags full of boxes from the car.

“What’s all this?” Maya asked, confused. Lion just smiled like she’d have to wait and see. Meanwhile, Willow emerged from the car and came toward her, beaming and oh so very pregnant by now. “Geez, when did all that happen?” Maya laughed as they hugged and she pulled back to look at her friend. “Can I?” she motioned, and Willow nodded, so she set her hand to that round belly… It was so strange how much it could still amaze her this way to feel there and know there was a child growing right inside. How many times had she done this with her mother when she was pregnant with the twins, with MJ… And it was still blowing her mind. “Hey, Zola,” she smiled, and Willow smiled back.

“Give her a bit and she might say hi,” she told her.

As she stood there, her hand to her friend and bandmate’s pregnant belly, waiting for the growing girl inside to grace them with motion, Maya couldn’t help thinking about the situation that almost was. It didn’t affect her the way it used to, thinking about Halloween and their maybe baby that had turned out to be nothing at all. But it didn’t change that the whole night had stirred up a lot of things, and in time she had realized she would always remember it, carry the memory, and that was alright, it was good, truly.

She would have been… oh, somewhere around four months along by now, she would have had a belly of her own, not so far along but still enough that it would be out there for all to see. Sometimes, it seemed like the reason she couldn’t stop thinking about it, or keeping track of a timeline that never existed, was something sort of like when she would get an idea for a drawing, a painting, anything like that… Rosa’s song, even… where the idea would not be denied, would not lay down quietly and be forgotten until it had been allowed to emerge from her mind into reality. That was sort of the way it felt now.

Actually, what she felt now was a flutter underneath her hand, as Willow had directed her to move it. There she was… Zola Aileen Obi… Zola the second… It made Maya smile, with laughter joined to a release of breath.

“Hey, Zola…” she tipped her head, feeling a swell of happy tears rising.

“Lion’s got his little brother to be her godfather,” Willow told her. “I was thinking… hoping… maybe you’d be her godmother?” Maya looked up at her, stunned.

“Wh… Me? Really?”

“Yeah,” Willow smiled. “Well, I mean, if you want to, I don’t want you to feel in any way obligated. I don’t have any sisters, or cousins, or… much of any family outside of my grandparents, the others are in Florida… Anyway… Out of everyone in my life, when I had to think about it…”

“Yes, okay,” Maya nodded, and Willow squealed, hugging her again.

“Thank you…”

“Thank _you_ ,” Maya hugged her back, even as she thought of something. “Hey, mind if we keep this quiet for today?”

“Sure, why?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough,” Maya gave her a knowing smirk.

She’d been right about that, as hardly anyone made it too far into the house before either Riley or Dylan informed them of the fact that the two of them were now dating. Some of their friends received this with total surprise, others took it with the distinctive impression that they’d seen it coming.

It had taken creativity and a couple loaners, but soon they had lunch laid out over a winding set of tables, stretching from the kitchen and into the living room, the better to seat all twenty-two of them in attendance. They could have easily made this something where everyone filled their plate and walked around as they pleased, but they’d gone for a sitting dinner instead, and as soon as this had been decided Lion had instigated his ‘mystery,’ which was finally a mystery no longer. Maya and Leona both took one look at the plates lining the table and they knew exactly where their lunch had come from.

“You got this from Isabel?” Leona asked.

“Remember she was telling us about the catering line she wanted to start through the restaurant a few weeks ago?” Lion asked her and Maya. They nodded. “Right, so I went and mentioned we would be having this party and said we could be a sort of… test run.”

“Nice,” Maya smiled, looking down the table as everyone sat and looked from plate to plate.

“Feel free to swap out, guys,” Lion called around. “Those of you who are vegetarian or vegan or otherwise restrained to a certain diet, you know who you are, keep your plates, those were made especially for you.”

Much as they tried not to go there, this being their last day of vacation, most of them ended up talking about school, about how they’d done on the previous semester, what they were starting on this semester… Not all of them were in college yet, of course.

Rosa was midway through her senior year, so the conversation around her _was_ drawing her attention, knowing that would be where she was headed, too, in the coming fall. They would have thought for sure she’d be asking them all loads of questions as she set herself to filling out some applications, but she’d been absolutely silent on that front. Wherever she was aiming to go, she hadn’t said.

Then there was Joseph, who had been invited to the gathering by both his cousin and his new best friend, Rosa. He was midway through sophomore year, and he looked mildly annoyed at their age difference, which now meant that his days of going to school with the girl who’d become so important to him, in ways he hadn’t predicted, would soon be behind them. By the time he’d be starting his first year of college, she’d be in her third, and who knew where she’d end up in the fall…

There was Dylan, of course, though he was still entirely satisfied with his choices. And then there was Willow, who, after finally starting on her path to becoming a nurse, now had to readjust all over again. She _could_ have started another semester with the rest of her class, but she’d hardly get through half of it before she’d have to pull back, in anticipation of her daughter’s arrival. She _would_ go back, to continue and in time graduate. So far, the best they could say was ‘maybe in September,’ though it could just as well be ‘next January.’

“Okay, hey, guys, hey, listen!” Lion stood up as they’d all finished eating and were looking ready to leave the table. “Isabel asked if we’d fill out these cards,” he held up the stack for them to see. “It’ll only take a minute.”

Once the cards were filled, they all got up, working to make the clean up as easy and quick as possible. There wasn’t much way around it, they needed to remove the extra tables if they wanted to clear the way for all of them to hang out, and if they wanted the performance. With now not one but two musical acts among them, it only seemed obvious to have them do something here. Technically speaking, it was TXNY alone they had expected to hear at first. Much as they’d been hearing talk of this other group the girls had been working with, it wasn’t until Maya talked them into it that Weaver Kings stepped up to give what would essentially be their unveiling performance. Hardly any of them here had even heard the songs Maya had prepared for them and with them.

“Careful, watch your step,” Maya told Rosa as the two of them worked together to carry the keyboard up the basement stairs. Behind them, Franny and Kayla were bringing up bits of the drum set.

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to just bring everyone downstairs instead?” Rosa huffed.

“Oh, sure, but then where would they go? Can’t fit that many people in that room,” Maya pointed out. Rosa paused.

“Right… that…”

They had plenty of offers from the others to bring up the instruments for them, but they had it covered. They had always handled everything on their own, and they intended to keep it that way. Willow had done her part, too, carrying the smaller things. Once everything was set up, it wasn’t long that the living room was packed with their friends and guests and non-musical roommates, as TXNY gave their ‘VIP show’ to the great cheering approval of their audience of seventeen.

After playing a few songs, ending with Rosa’s, which continued to be a highlight whenever they did it, they revealed the surprise of Weaver Kings. They had ensured that Lily, Cat, and Vic were all willing and ready for this, before the roommates’ return from Austin, and now here they came. They were nervous, the others could tell, but then that was to be expected. To Maya and Riley, it brought up memories of their first television interview and performance, and to the newer three of their band it was the same, only here in Houston, a little over a year ago. The new group had nothing to lack for encouragement. The room was eager to hear them.

It wouldn’t be until later that night, after all their guests had gone home and the six roommates were all going through their own versions of pre-bed routines that Maya would really get to see the performance from an outside perspective. She had still been up there, acting along with the rest of TXNY as instrumental back up for the Aussie trio, but Lucas had been among their audience, and he had filmed the whole thing with his phone.

“Look at them,” she smiled, holding the phone in both hands in front of her as she sat cross-legged on the bed. Lucas came and sat with her, looping his arms around her waist to pull her against him. She was more than happy to use him as back support.

“The songs really came together,” he told her, planting his chin on her shoulder.

“They did, didn’t they?” she beamed.

“You should post this on the site,” he suggested.

“I was just thinking the same thing. I’ll check with them first.”

“Of course,” Lucas nodded, the short hairs on his chin tickling at her shoulder.

“Hey, hey,” she reached back to make him stop even as she laughed. This only made him do it again, the better to keep her squirming and squealing. “You want to play this game, Friar?” he could barely understand through her giggles, though he got the gist of it when, out of nowhere, she wriggled free and tackled him back. “Ha, I win,” she grinned, staring down at him.

“You sure about that?” he smiled up at her.

“Hey, I know where _you’re_ ticklish, too,” she pointed out as she leaned in to kiss him.

It was well past midnight by the time of the last of their guests had bowed out, the rest of the night following the two performances having been everything they could ask for, in anticipation of their return to school in the morning. By the time Lucas and Maya were good and settled into bed, eyes closed and awaiting sleep, the morning felt a lot closer than it had any right to be, but as they kept telling themselves, they were fully in charge of their own decisions. The worst they’d have to deal with would be a bit of sleepiness, which was hardly anything new since they’d started college, and that was much better than if they’d had a hangover to contend with. The worst they could claim to be at this point was ‘pleasantly tipsy.’

Lucas was excited about the days to come. A good part of it had to do with his new classes, sure, but right about now he was thinking more about his start, working at the clinic with his Aunt Tanya, Dr. Hillard as he’d have to call her when they were on the clock. It wasn’t as though all of a sudden he’d be at the top, far from that, but he’d be in the middle of everything, he’d get to see firsthand some of the things he’d been studying about, the things he’d wanted to be a part of for as long as he could remember. Even in the more unpleasant times of his life, right around the time he’d been suspended from school back in the seventh grade, he had never lost sight of that vision, and this week he’d be taking another step forward, closer.

Maya looked to this new semester about to start with so much hope that she might not have recognized herself, once upon a time. Going back to her classes, her professors, going back to carry on with Professor Robinson and the project she’d been helping her with all of the previous semester… She thought about the week before, when she’d come over to Austin and the two of them had gone to the museum. There were only so many people in the world, she felt, who could really understand the way she felt around art sometimes, and Patty Robinson was one of this select number, possibly right there at the top and far ahead of the others.

“Still awake?” she whispered after a few minutes.

“Yeah?” Lucas whispered back, and she turned about in his arms until she could see his face.

“I’m having a crazy idea,” she declared. He made a face as though to ask if he should be concerned. “The crazy is that it hinges on something that hasn’t happened yet.”

“Okay?” he asked, curious.

“I know they’ve only gone on one date here… literally, _here_ , in this house, but there’s a strong chance it will only be the first of many, and sooner or later, those few steps from her room to his room and vice versa will go and become a thing.”

“Probably,” he slowly agreed.

“And when that does, one of them is bound to relocate and ‘move in’ with the other, yeah?” He nodded. “Which will leave a vacancy…”

“Oh…”

“I know it seems almost pointless, with how close they already are, but, well… Rosa’s starting college in the fall…”

TO BE CONTINUED


	141. Her Family in His Family

The new semester was into its third day when Lucas was to have his first shift at his aunt’s clinic. He’d been looking forward to it ever since Tanya Hillard had agreed to take him on, and now the time had come. Maya had just loved to mess with him, asking him if he’d be wearing scrubs, if he’d take pictures… He didn’t mind this at all and she knew it. Far as he was concerned, anything that made her smile was a good thing.

What Maya didn’t discover until that first Wednesday was that the professor who gave her last morning class on that day, who was new to her that semester, never kept his students the whole period as it was shown on their schedules, and the class lasted twenty minutes less than expected. Those minutes combined with the gap she had before her next class added up to a possibility, one she intended to exploit every week for the remainder of the semester if she was able.

She caught the bus outside the university, and ten minutes later she was getting off half a block away from the clinic. As she walked toward the building, she pulled out her phone and dialled Lucas up. After a few seconds and three rings, he picked up.

“Hey, did you just get out of class?” he asked, sounding like he was just stepping out of a room.

“I’m headed to lunch,” she told him. “What about you, have you eaten yet?”

“Uh, no,” he sighed. “It’s been swamped here since I showed up. Apparently, Wednesdays are a big day here, so that explains why Doctor Hillard was so glad that was my free day to come here.”

“Lucas, you have to eat sometime.”

“Yeah, I’m actually about to go now.”

“Are you,” she smiled, stopping at the sidewalk. “At the clinic?”

“No, there’s this diner across the street, I’m heading out there now.” She turned around where she stood, spotting the building in question.

“Alright, then, have a good lunch, I’ll see you.”

“You, too,” he told her. “Love you.”

“Love you, too,” she replied before they hung up. She put her phone away, and then she waited, standing on the spot, watching the clinic door. A minute later, he was stepping out, pulling the zipper on his jacket. When he looked up toward the sidewalk and finally saw her, she raised her hand in a half wave with a grin. He came jogging up toward her. “Told you I’d see you,” she declared victoriously before he leaned in to kiss her.

“Did you skip out of class early?” he asked, not sounding the slightest bit disappointed at her potential ‘rebellion.’

“Uh, no, the professor did,” she raised her shoulders, let them drop. “So, I think you said something about a diner?” she asked. “Care for company?”

“Only if it’s yours.”

They crossed the street, her arm twined with his, before heading into the diner, where they were directed to a booth near the front, which afforded them a view back to the clinic as they sat across from one another.

“I can’t help but notice… those are not the pants you were wearing the last time I saw you,” Maya slowly declared as she took off her jacket and set it next to her, over her school bag. “And the same goes for your shoes, so now I’m wondering…” He just smirked, unzipping his jacket and pulling it off, showing he also had a different shirt, completing the ensemble. She sat back in her seat as though she had just gone faint, only to lean forward and look him in the eye. “I must draw you…” she whispered dramatically.

“Alright, deep breath, yeah?” he could only keep smiling.

“No, no, no, do you honestly think I’m going to be able to sit here and act like a normal, reasonably minded human being when _this_ is happening?” she gestured at him.

“Oh, no, I know you can’t,” Lucas sat back with a knowing look. “That’s half the fun.”

Whether or not she had it in her to act ‘normal,’ they were drawn to focus again by the fact that she could only stay so long before she’d have to head back to school, on a bus she could not miss. So, they opened their menus. When the waitress came over to take their orders, she saw Lucas’ clothes and asked if he worked at the clinic. He confirmed that he did, that it was his first day and he was working with his aunt, Doctor Hillard. This led to the woman saying how Tanya was a saint and she’d saved her dog’s life after he’d been hit by a car, all before insisting that both he and Maya were eating on the house that day.

“To recap, your new gear’s gotten you, first, deep… deep gratitude,” she pressed a hand to her heart, “And now, free food. If Dylan were here right now, he’d be tossing that ‘great power’ quote again.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lucas nodded. “Now, how was your morning?”

“Oh, it was pretty straightforward. Classes, lectures, notes, you know how it goes, now tell me about the clinic.”

“Well,” he smiled, “It’s been pretty good so far.”

“And busy,” she recalled.

“Yeah, for sure. Remember that time we took Trix and Lou in for an appointment and there were these two guys with bird cages sitting across the room from one another?”

“Oh, yeah, and the birds kept squawking at each other, which got all the dogs going,” she laughed.

“So, imagine that, but… more,” he extended his hands for emphasis.

“Oh, no,” she tried and failed not to keep on laughing. “What does Tanya have you doing anyway?”

“Well…” he started to say, just as the waitress arrived with their plates. After she left, they started to eat while he went on telling her about his morning at the clinic. “There were a few new patients in today, so I had to get the information from their owners. She let me sit in on those examinations, and I took notes for her. Oh, but then there was an emergency,” he sat up, like remembering it as he told her only brought back the energy he’d felt before. “This woman was at the park with her son, and they found a puppy, abandoned. Little guy looked like he hadn’t eaten in days…”

“Is he going to be okay?” Maya asked, forgetting her plate for a moment.

“I don’t know. Doctor Hillard was still with him when you called. I just keep thinking about the last few nights, it’s been colder, and he’s been out there.” The thought left them both sobered for a few moments. “If there’s anything to be done for him, as far-fetched as it might be, I think she’ll find a way.”

“And you’re going to be there to see it,” Maya nodded, the thought making her feel better. “I think you’ll learn a lot from her.”

“I think so, too,” Lucas breathed as they slowly went on eating.

“I don’t know if I should say it out loud, like I might be jinxing things, but so far, this year has been working overtime on the good side, and we’re not even a third of the way into the first month,” Maya stated. It brought the smiles slowly back on to their faces. “Riley and Dylan get together, you start working out there,” she waved her fry in the general direction of the clinic across the street.

“And then next week…” his smile took on a twist like it was meant to be innocent but also tinged with mischief. Her own face soon mirrored his.

“Yeah, next week…”

“Twenty-one,” he went on, the way he’d had to hear it, over and over, from one family member after another, when _he’d_ had his twenty-first birthday, the ‘wow, look at you, you’re a grown person now, I remember when you used to be just this tall’ tone. She cringed as much as she laughed when she heard him use _the tone_.

“Stop it, you’re losing all the effect the clothes gave you,” she ‘threatened.’

“We wouldn’t want that.”

“Me most of all.”

“Fine, won’t do it again,” he held up a hand in surrender. “But we _have_ to do something.”

“Not disagreeing on that,” she tipped her head at him. “If I ask ‘what do you have in mind,’ are you just going to play like you have no idea when really you have a bunch of stuff already coming together, or do I get to know stuff?”

“I don’t know, guess you’ll have to try,” he sat back, and she did the same.

“Alright… What do you have in mind?” she asked. He stared back at her for a beat, then gave a shrug. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she shook her head.

“Only good things, I promise, and that’s all I’ll say,” he told her.

“Fair enough,” she smiled.

“You’re working with Professor Robinson this afternoon, yeah?” he asked.

“This afternoon, maybe into the evening, too. There’s been a small setback with the project and we’re on damage control, so I might have to call in sick at the restaurant. It’s not ideal, having to bail out on one job because of the other, but Isabel can find someone to cover for me over there, Professor Robinson can’t. It’s a one-time thing.”

“Do you think you’ll get in trouble with the restaurant for it?” Lucas asked her, that turn in his voice showing he could read right through her, as he often did.

“No… Probably not… I don’t know,” she admitted. “I mean, I shouldn’t. Isabel knows I wouldn’t cancel last minute like that if I didn’t have a reason, I just worry if it happens again, and again…” she shook her head.

“How many small setbacks can you expect to get?”

“No way of really knowing, is there?” She didn’t want to disappoint either of them. Patty, Isabel, they’d been her pillars out in Houston, and she didn’t want to send either of them crashing.

When they were done with their lunch, they left the diner and went on walking. Lucas insisted on walking her to her bus stop, which didn’t surprise her in the slightest. They sat on the bench together as they waited.

“You’ll let me know how it goes with the puppy they brought in, yeah?” she asked him.

“I will,” he promised. “We’ve been calling him Peanut.”

“Good name,” she smiled.

“And _you_ let me know how it goes with the professor, if I’m picking you up from the university or the restaurant tonight.”

“I swear,” she told him. “Hey, can you go check the schedule over there? Can’t remember if it’s in three minutes or five,” she pointed to the sign on the post. He got up and went to look, and she had to bite back a laugh when she saw him realize what she was doing even as she’d already done it. When he turned back around, she still had her phone out, held up as it had been two seconds before, when she’d snapped a photo of him in his ‘clinic chic.’ “What?” she asked in a mock defensive tone. “In case I forget,” she shrugged.

“Would you really?” She considered this for a moment, smiling to herself before adjusting her response.

“In case I miss you a lot?”

“Alright, fine,” he nodded, unzipping his jacket again before giving her a good pose.

“Yeah, that’s more like it,” she snapped another shot. “Happy early birthday to me…” He zipped up his jacket again and quietly came back to sit next to her when he caught an old woman walking by and giving him curious looks. Both he and Maya sat in silence as she passed them by, and by the time the bus arrived Maya was still giggling at the awkward look on her boyfriend’s face. “See you tonight, fancy pants.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	142. Her Family in New York

After she climbed on the bus headed back to school, it took all of a minute before Maya reached into her bag and pulled out her notebook, set it on top and opened it to the first blank page at the back. She had a pen clipped to the cover, and it was set to work. Several minutes later, she stuck her notebook and pen back in her bag with haste as she saw they were pulling up to her stop.

“Maya!” she heard someone call as she was jogging up toward the building. It wasn’t hard to spot Bishop Nicholas waving back at her. She walked over to him, stopping face to face with him as she looked up.

“You know what I’m thinking right now?” she asked.

“Next Halloween, you and I should be Jack and the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk?” he suggested with a smirk. Maya chuckled.

“That’s actually… pretty close, yeah.” She told him where she’d been over lunch as they walked together.

“I’ve got a couple other classes throughout the day or else I might have asked if he could get me in there, too,” Bishop nodded.

“Oh, I would have loved to see you rocking… this look,” she held her phone up for him to see the picture she’d taken at the bus stop. As soon as he saw it, he burst out laughing.

“I would pay good money for you to send me that one…”

“Consider it a belated Christmas present from me, free of charge.”

The tale of Lucas in his clinic gear soon reached new followers. Upon reaching her first afternoon class, she pulled out her notebook, the better to continue the sketch she’d started on the bus. Ever the sneaky one, Franny appeared, giggling at her shoulder, before Maya ever knew she was there. Kayla and Lily both crowded around to see what was so funny.

“He looks like he belongs in a soap opera,” Franny decided.

“Oh, he’s always looked like that,” Maya informed her with something like pride. “Look… See?” She had changed phones a few times since they’d met, but the pictures always carried over. She showed them what was easily the oldest image she had of the two of them, still new friends, not yet much more than that, just a boy from Texas and a girl from New York. But that boy from Texas was exactly as she’d said. The two of them had those pre/early-teens faces going on strong, but you could tell, looking at him back then, exactly who he’d grow up to be.

“No siblings, huh?” Franny asked with a smirk, “What about cousins?”

“Older and spoken for… or underage. Sorry,” Maya whispered apologetically, tossing her a smile.

She kept on working on her sketch, here and there between classes. When she finished the first one, she just started another. She didn’t know why it amused her so much, this look of his, but then she wasn’t the type to abandon bouts of inspiration. By the time she left school that day and made her way home, she had this idea brewing in her about what she might do with those sketches… Oh, she would have to do so many more… It would be too fun not to.

Climbing up to hers and Lucas’ room, she came upon a box left on her desk, a package, with a note from Sophie, who brought it up when it arrived, earlier, while she’d been home. Maya knew what it was even before she saw the note, before she read the address labels stuck on top, and she smiled at once. The big square box was covered with small drawings, made by several different hands. Here was the scribbled work of little Wyatt, who had drawn a big sun with a smiling face. There were Eliza’s flowers… she loved drawing flowers because there were so many different kinds, some of them of her own invention. Here was Cara’s flying superhero with her cape and a multitude of stars around her. And then Sam… He was getting so much better, the more he drew. He had drawn himself in the corner, as though peeking around the corner, his smiling face accompanied by a speech bubble. _Happy birthday!_

If she’d been having a bad day, if she’d been having some truly crappy day, the sight of that box would have made her world all sunny and breezy again. As it was, she’d been having a pretty great day, so to come home to this waiting present… Her cheeks hurt from smiling, even before she’d cut through the tape and pulled back the folds of the cardboard box.

For a second, she wondered if she was supposed to wait until her birthday before she opened it, but by the time she got to that thought, she was already starting to open the box. Then, she saw that, inside that box, there were a number of items, each of them wrapped in a variety of papers, with equally varied skill levels. Everyone had done their own wrapping, except maybe Wyatt.

It filled her with a shudder of happy breath, happy tears. She loved those kids, loved them to bits and missed them just as much. She had known them for so little of all their lives, but on the whole it really didn’t matter. They were her siblings and, distance or no, they were all thinking about her with this box of gifts.

“What do I do now?” she whispered, like she was a kid who’d just snuck a peak at her Christmas presents in her parents’ closet. She had two options, really. Here she was, days away from twenty-one. She could shut that box and wait until the day came, her actual birthday, to be a mature adult and all that… She could also decide that, as she’d already opened the box, she might as well carry on and see what they’d sent her. She really wanted to… and why should she have to be mature all the time, right? “Well, I know what _you guys_ would want me to do,” she smiled, looking at those drawings on the box.

She brought the box to the bed and sat down eagerly. Inside one of the box flaps, someone – Sam, definitely Sam – had drawn the presents, with their shapes and their paper designs, noting beneath each parcel the name of the person it came from. _Sam. Cara. Sam & Cara. Eliza. Wyatt. Eliza & Wyatt. Mom. Mom._ – their mother, Abigail. And then, at the end of the line… _Dad._ On that, there was no need for distinction. This was the man who made siblings of them all. The one who’d left her, the one who’d been in their lives all along.

Her hand stalled when she saw those three letters on the end, beneath a box-shaped drawing covered in flowery wrapping paper. She could see the actual box, on top of the others, like it had been set there last, same as it had been added last to the manifest on the box flap. She picked it up, stared at it. It had weight to it… She didn’t know what to do with it, hadn’t expected something from him, which… was sort of unfortunate when you thought about it, but it didn’t change the facts. She couldn’t think of the last time her father had given her an actual present, not since before he’d left her mother and her, not even in the time since she’d met Sam and the others. Yet here it was now.

She set it down on the bed next to her. She picked it up again, stared at it, then set it down again, behind herself, out of sight. She took a breath, let it out with a sigh. She shook her head, looked back into the big box. Whatever she chose to do about the thing she’d set aside, for now, she had everything else to deal with.

She picked out the two items from Abigail first. The first was revealed to be a shawl. It was so nice and soft, beautiful… Maya wrapped it around her shoulders with a smile before starting at the other present. This one was a movie trilogy on DVD, and when she saw the cover she had to laugh. Three years ago, the summer she’d spent in Philadelphia, she had spent a week in New York, where she’d gotten to spend several days with Abigail and the kids. Abigail had told her about these movies once, said that one of these days she had to see them. She _had_ mentioned she still hadn’t seen them a few weeks ago.

“Message received, Abby,” Maya smiled, setting the DVDs aside.

She dug out Wyatt’s present next. Her youngest New York sibling was still so little, and she could just imagine his criteria for picking out a gift for her. As expected, it was something he’d simply seen and found fun. It was a small purple stuffed bunny with sunglasses and a guitar. Maya held it close for a moment, thinking of the little guy who’d clung to her so many nights over the previous summer. The gift marked as coming from both Wyatt and Eliza was a squishy ball. When she squeezed it, the thing changed colors. It made her laugh.

“Thanks, guys.”

Eliza had sent her a set of colored pencils, and colored markers, and a couple of small notebooks. Maya half-suspected this had been motivated by previous mentions of how fast she tended to go through her materials. _Maybe I can use these for Operation Sexy Clinic Boyfriend._

Cara’s present was two-fold. Her sister was notorious for liking boxes. This one was shaped like a book, made of tin. The paper ‘edges’ were golden, the ‘cover’ showing it to be a History of New York. When she pulled back the cover, Maya found the inside had been stuffed with paper. Stuck in the middle of all this was a thumb drive. And traced in marker on the front, it said ‘MAYA 21’, surrounded by hearts and music notes. On the flipside, it said ‘A SONG FOR YOU.’ For now, she could only put the drive in her pocket, but her curiosity was piqued.

Sam and Cara together had sent her a photo album. They’d filled it with page after page of pictures of the four of them, from when they’d been babies up to now. In many of the last few years’ images, she was there with the four of them, with their mother. There were many pictures from last summer when they’d stayed in Houston. There were no pictures of their father, something she had a feeling Sam had taken care to ensure himself. Maya looked to the wrapped object she’d set aside. Her father’s gift. No… She still couldn’t do it.

The last item in the box was Sam’s present to her. At first, she thought it was a magazine, going by the size. Once she’d removed the paper though, she discovered it was a comic book. It had not been bought. Sam had made it, had drawn every bit of it… except the letters in the bubbles. These she suspected he’d gotten Cara to do in that neat hand of hers. Maya recognized the heroine of this story; it was the one Cara had drawn on the box.

“So, this was your secret project, huh?” she smiled, pulling the post-it note from the cover. _I could never have done this without you._ In Sam’s more detailed hand, Maya picked up a noted resemblance between the comic’s heroine and her siblings’ mother. He had turned her into a super powered alien force for good. One of these days, this thin little volume might stand as an example of his early work, when he was known all around. She could see it.

Looking at the time, she went and grabbed her laptop before returning to the bed. With the time difference, they should just be coming back from school at this point. She had to talk to them, to thank them. But then… What was she going to do with her father’s gift?

TO BE CONTINUED


	143. Her Family in the Distance

Before she went ahead and called her brothers and sisters in New York, there was one thing she really needed to do, and it did not involve the wrapped thing on the mattress behind her. She pulled the thumb drive from her pocket, held it up, turned it over, smiled at the inscription left by her elder New York sister, Cara. _MAYA 21. A SONG FOR YOU._ She didn’t know what to expect, but she was absolutely curious to discover what this song was. Sticking the drive into the side of her laptop, the window popped up on the screen to show the sole content to be one video file, also identified _MAYA 21._ She opened it.

Over a black screen, the words came up again, in changing colors. Pink, and yellow, and purple, and green, and back again… The words were replaced by the appearance of the girl who shared a birth father and many facial attributes with her big sister. She’d gotten her hair cut at the same time Maya had done, but it was definitely growing back in a lot faster. Cara had gotten her hair up in a ponytail which swished left and right as she came to stand in frame. Maya smiled, seeing her there in her sundress like it wasn’t the middle of January.

The first surprise came in the form of an acoustic guitar, which Cara now held and began to play. Maya hadn’t even known she was learning, but by the way she went it was clear she’d been at it long enough to hold her own. Between this and Sam’s comic book, it left her with an immediate sort of conflicting feeling, like on the one hand she was so amazed by her brother and sister’s talents, but on the other, all she could think was… _The only reason they were able to keep this a surprise was because we live so far from one another and hardly get to see each other except across a screen._ It was a sadness she was all too familiar with by now.

This was a fleeting feeling though, chased away as her little sister’s voice was heard. Maya remembered so well the first time she’d heard her. Cara had been so shy about it, but she’d let her hear her voice in the end. It had been beautiful then, and it was beautiful now, more than ever. Their voices had always been so distinct from one another, as opposed to their looks, and the more time went on, Cara only grew more and more into her own.

The song was in fact one of the songs from TXNY, as she’d recognized from the first notes on the guitar, except Cara had replaced the lyrics with what Maya had to guess was her own composition. It went about telling her of some of the things Cara loved about her big sister, and if she had to guess, Maya would say the song counted 21 reasons… She didn’t stop smiling the whole time, and by the end of it she was pretty sure she’d shed a few tears.

“Okay… okay…” she breathed, quickly drying her face without making a bigger mess. “Okay,” she sniffed, breathed again, before pulling up Skype and putting in a call to Sam’s account. The call connected and before the image could follow, and she could already hear Eliza laughing from very nearby as Sam called after her to ‘give it back.’ She soon figured out what happened when the video came along. The call had been taken on Sam’s phone, which Eliza now had in hand as she ran to keep away from her brother.

“Eliza, stop, you’re going to make me dizzy!” Maya called after her. That wasn’t exactly true, but it was all she needed to do to get her little sister to stop.

“I can talk to her, too!” she protested, holding the phone to her chest, going by the way the screen went dark.

“She called _me_ , El, give me my phone!” Sam insisted.

“She called all of us!” Eliza shot back. “I want to hold it!”

“Fine,” Sam sighed.

“Promise?”

“He promises,” Cara’s voice could be heard then. “If not, I will sit on him until he gives it back.” Maya bit back a laugh as the phone was turned again, letting her see Sam’s frustrated face as he was cornered by his sisters. Cara had little Wyatt hanging from her back, and when the boy saw her face on the screen, he climbed down and came over to stand with Eliza.

“Hi, Maya!” he waved.

“Hey, bud,” she smiled. Sam and Cara came to stand between the two littler ones, bringing them all into frame at last. “So, I got your package,” she informed them, and they looked happy to hear this. “I hope you don’t mind, I opened it already. I know my birthday isn’t for another few days, but…”

“Did you like my present?” Wyatt cut in at once.

“I did,” she laughed, looking around before spotting the purple rock bunny and holding it up for him to see. “But what are we going to call it?”

“Maya!” he declared.

“You want me to name it after me?” she asked, and he nodded. “Alright then,” she laughed. “Maya thanks you for Maya…” This made her little brother laugh, too.

She thanked him, along with Eliza, for the squishy ball, which she promised would come in handy whenever she had too many things to do. They were still very young to understand why that would be, but all they seemed to care about was that they had gotten her something, and she loved it and she would use it. The same went when she thanked Eliza for the art supplies, though she wasn’t about to explain how she intended to draw comical versions of her boyfriend in his work clothes.

“Mom sent you that, didn’t she?” Cara pointed to the shawl around her shoulders.

“She did, yeah, will you thank her for me? And for these, too,” she held up the movies.

“Told you that was what it was,” Cara pointed to Sam. “Pay up!” The eldest of the four groaned, digging in his pocket before passing a five-dollar bill to his sister.

“Thank you both so much for that album,” Maya told them, and they smiled back at her.

“Took us months to get it done,” Sam told her.

“We had to get all the pictures, get copies for them,” Cara added.

“Next time we see each other, you have to tell me about all of them, yeah?” Maya asked. They both nodded at once.

Eliza and Wyatt were soon summoned to go upstairs, one to clean her room, the other to get his bath. Abigail appeared on screen for a moment, where Maya was able to thank her personally for the gifts, and then the littler siblings went on their way, the phone put back in the custody of its owner.

“Cara, I listened to your song before calling you guys. You play guitar now?” Maya asked her sister with noted amazement. The girl grew pink at the cheeks as she nodded. “That was so good,” she went on. “Did you write the words?”

“Yeah!” she nodded. “Sam helped in some places, and he helped with the video, too.”

“Well, thank you, Sam,” Maya told him, and much as he’d been vaguely annoyed by his little sisters’ antics from the moment they’d picked up the call, his smile to his big sister was genuine as ever. “And this, I mean…” she picked up the comic. “I haven’t gotten to read it yet, obviously, but I love it already. Are you going to do more? Is there a cliffhanger?”

“I started the next one,” Sam promised her with a nod. “It takes a while though.”

“Okay, can I be in that one and can I be a villain?” Maya requested at once, feeding them her best villain glare.

“Sure,” Sam laughed even as Cara did. “You can be her archnemesis.”

“Yeah,” Maya nodded with a pleased smirk.

Cara had to get ready for soccer practice, so she said her goodbyes and disappeared off to her room. Sam watched her go, then after a moment he went up the stairs to his own room. After he’d shut the door, he looked back to his phone and his faraway sister’s face.

“About the other present…” he started, hesitated. Maya reached back and showed him that she had it and that she hadn’t opened it yet. “He asked me to add it. I’d already taped the box shut and I was going to take it to the post office, and he stopped me. I thought about sending it to you separately, I didn’t want to put you on the spot,” he insisted.

“I know you didn’t, it’s fine,” Maya assured him.

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I… I don’t know,” she admitted. “I keep telling myself not to bother, to not even see what it is, but it’s like I can’t stop myself from wondering what’s in there. Do you know?”

“No,” Sam shook his head. “It was already wrapped when he gave it to me.” He had a look about his face that came off a lot like an unspoken ‘but.’

“Sam?” she asked.

“Well… It’s just, he looked kind of… I don’t know… hopeful?”

It was just one word, but it packed a punch with all it carried. What could she make of this idea that her birth father had placed something like hope in that small package she now held in her hand? Was it supposed to make her feel good about it?

“What do _you_ think I should do about it?” she asked, looking back to Sam. He had that look on his face again. “What?” she asked. He hesitated.

“He said he wanted to talk to you… when you got it… He wants to talk to you.”

Of all four of her siblings out there, she only really ever spoke with Sam about her past with their father and the feeling it had left her with. He had been the first of them to know of her, the only to really grasp the implications of their situation. He didn’t see their father the way his younger siblings did. So, when he told her about their father’s wish to speak with her, he had a very good idea of how the revelation settled in the pit of her stomach, twisted up in her guts.

She had just gotten to this point where she was tired of being left to pick up the pieces after trying with him, and trying again simply felt like handing him the hammer herself.

Ever since she’d been in contact with Sam and the others, it had been like this thread existed between them, created by her bond to her siblings. That might have enabled some kind of reconnect between Maya and her father, but really, she could count on one hand the number of times she’d spoken to him in that time and have fingers left.

Now he was sending her a birthday present, now he wanted to talk to her, and she didn’t know what to do with it. Was she supposed to submit to this request just because, all of a sudden, he was ready?

“Is he there now?” she slowly asked.

“Yeah,” Sam replied. “Do you want me to…”

“No,” she told him at once, sighed. “No. Look, I… I need to think about this. There’s probably no chance he won’t find out that I got the presents, but if he asks, can you just…”

“I’ll think of something,” he assured her.

“Thanks,” Maya breathed. “For everything,” she managed a smile now, holding up his comic again.

“I’ll send you designs for your villain costume when I have some,” Sam told her, and it got her chuckling, laughing outright.

TO BE CONTINUED


	144. Her Family in Bonds

A new semester made for a lot of reorganization in their schedules outside of school. For many of them, it meant their work schedules as much as their band practice schedules. Maya and Kayla had figured out, on their first day in class with Lily, that they might actually be able to make it so both TXNY and Weaver Kings could have their practices together, back at the house Maya shared with her roommates. It was sort of mutually beneficial. The Aussie trio needed a band to back them up, and the Texan quintet always found a different kind of motivation in them whenever they performed to actual people instead of a wall… So here they were, on that same Wednesday, the eight girls gathering in the basement.

Maya the human had taken Maya the stuffed bunny down there with her, planting her on one of the shelves they had there. She would see her whenever they were practicing, and she liked it that way.

“It’s so cute!” Catriona King laughed when she saw it.

“Where’d you get it?” Willow asked.

“My little brother sent it for my birthday,” Maya told them. “Had a big box with presents from all of them waiting when I got here earlier.”

“Isn’t your birthday in a few days?” Rosa pointed out, like she was the Present Police all of a sudden. Maya pointed to the purple stuffed toy.

“I freed a rabbit, leave me alone.” Rosa stuck her tongue out at her, Maya reciprocated, and they laughed. “Alright, come on, let’s get started. You three want to go first or second?” Lily and the King twins shared a look, deciding.

“We’ll start,” Lily spoke for the group, and so everyone moved into place.

It had only been days since the party they’d had to mark the end of the holidays and the start of the new semester, days since Weaver Kings had given their first – private – performance. But since then, the video of that performance, recorded by Lucas, had hit the internet, making the rounds of the worldwide TXNY fanbase, and the verdict was in… They loved the new group, they wanted more.

Lily, Cat, and Vic all had that look to them like they still couldn’t believe this was happening. It reminded Maya and Riley of those early days of the band, the first time they had really hit their stride… That had been so exhilarating. Some days, even now, it still felt that way, and they never wanted it to stop feeling that way once in a while.

They wanted to improve on their performance skills, that much they’d confessed as they stood up that afternoon. It would never be the same for Weaver Kings as it was for TXNY. They didn’t have instruments, so they could move differently. Still, the girls of the band were able to give the group pointers as they went.

“Anyone need anything to drink down there?” Dylan’s voice hollered from the top of the stairs a minute after the trio had finished out their part of things. This gave way to a confused mash up of several voices talking at once. “Right, got it!” Dylan called again, and then the door was shut again. The girls sat looking to one another for a few seconds.

“Did he really?” Victoria King asked, blinking.

“Call me crazy, but I think so,” Maya shrugged, stealing a look to Riley, who’d had a smile stuck on her face from the moment she’d heard his voice.

“Hey, so what else did you get from your siblings out there?” Rosa asked, not looking entirely over the fact that she’d gone and opened her presents early.

“Oh, lots of things, uh… movies, a shawl, art things, a ball… photo album, music… a comic book,” she smiled, running through the list. Much as she tried to stop at that, to stay in that happy place and not get into that weird place in her head, it seemed impossible to do anything else as she recalled that last, unopened gift, the one that felt like a brick whenever she held it…

If her face had changed however, no one had actually seen it, as this was the moment when Dylan came bounding down the stairs with water, sodas, juice… He handed them out, stopped to kiss Riley, and then he was off up the stairs, leaving the brunette to sit there with a grin locked on her face.

“My father sent me something, too,” Maya heard herself say, as the eight of them were opening their various drinks. The others looked at her. “My birth father, in New York,” she clarified.

“He did?” Riley asked, Dylan’s passage now set aside.

None of them in that room had ever met Maya’s first father, and even though she had told them about him, she’d mostly given them the bare minimum. They knew he had walked out on her and her mother when Maya was still little, that he’d been out of her life for years, until the day when she’d met Sam, quite by chance, which had led to her getting to know her half-siblings living out in New York over the past few years. She hadn’t gone into the details of what his departure had really meant for her, how it had shaped her for so long. Still, just that small interaction between the two old friends, and the looks on their faces… it was enough to suggest some of that.

“Yeah,” Maya nodded slowly. “I haven’t opened it yet,” she admitted. “Not sure if I want to. And… apparently, he wants to talk to me,” she added, a chuckle in her voice which felt just a bit angry, confused. _He sounded hopeful_.

Kayla reached out her arm, touched Maya’s foot so she would look up. When she did, she watched her friend sign back at her. _You don’t have to if you don’t want to._

“I know,” she replied, signing along. “Except that’s the thing. I don’t know if I want to or not.”

She didn’t want to unpack this whole thing, her father and her, all the years of misplaced blame, the chances she’d given and what she’d gotten in exchange. She thought about the time he’d come down to Austin, how she’d trusted that he’d just come to see her, only to realize he’d only been in town for a friend’s wedding and stopped in to see her in passing. Sure, to him it had probably sounded like a good, sound idea. He was going to be there, why shouldn’t he go and see his daughter? Except what _she_ really saw was that, if not for that friend’s wedding happening to be in the city where she lived… she would never have seen him. He’d gone to the trouble of making the trip for someone else, but he hadn’t come for _her_. She’d just been conveniently close.

That gift up in her room, that request for a conversation, all it felt like to her was more deception waiting to happen. As much as she tried to tell herself that it could be something different this time, as much as she wanted to trust for once, the past was too hard to ignore. And yet… there were her siblings, back out in New York. His other kids, the ones he was raising, the ones he’d kept on raising. On the whole, they were a happy bunch, weren’t they? And they lived with him every day. If things were bad for them because of him, wouldn’t she see it?

_He can be that for them. He’s never been that for me._

_Hopeful… He was hopeful…_

Here she was, thinking of that time he hadn’t been there _for her_ , the time she’d been a convenience. The gift wasn’t a convenience, was it? It was an intention. And he wanted to talk to her. He’d gone so far as to go through Sam, to ask her, to make sure she would even want to talk to him. Was she just holding on to a grudge that was holding her back, or was she protecting herself?

“Okay, you know what?” she sighed, getting up and picking her guitar back up. “Right now, what I really want to do is sing some songs, so can we do that?”

She could absolutely count on her friends to back her up on that. Riley, Kayla, Rosa, and Willow all went to their own instruments, and practice resumed with the TXNY session.

The girls stayed for dinner, which was pizza at Weaver Kings’ treat. After they left, Maya went back up to her room. Lucas was working at the bookstore that night and, as she picked up the wrapped present once again, she really wished he wasn’t. She wished he’d be here, with her, as she considered this gift, this… brick, weighing on her mind.

“Are you going to do it?” She startled, the gift nearly slipping out of her hands and leaving her scrambling to stop it falling. When she had it, she looked over to find Riley stood at the door. “Sorry, didn’t mean to sneak up on you, I…”

“Come here,” Maya told her. She sat on the bed, and Riley came to join her.

“Can I see…” she asked. Maya handed her the gift. She watched as Riley inspected it, weighed it in her hand. It didn’t actually weigh like a brick, though it wasn’t feather light either. When Riley gave it a shake, Maya startled.

“Easy, don’t break it,” she scolded. Riley looked at her, smiled. “Oh, you’re good,” Maya squinted.

“It’s up to you,” Riley reminded her as she handed the gift back to her. Maya turned the thing around in her hands. One of the corners of the wrapping paper had come undone, possibly when she’d almost dropped it. What was it supposed to be, a small temptation, a sign? When she started tugging at that corner, widening the gap bit by bit, she knew the choice had been made, and Riley knew it, too. “Do you want me to stay or go?” she asked.

“I…” Maya hesitated. “Maybe… Maybe I should…” Riley nodded at this, giving her a side hug.

“I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

“Thanks,” Maya told her before she went and closed the door as she left the room.

Left alone now with her gift, Maya stood from where she sat, started walking slowly from one end of the room to the other as she looked at the gift, as she continued teasing the paper open, tearing the tape that held it in place. She seemed determined to keep whatever it held completely unseen, until after she’d be finished undoing the wrapping. _Rip, rip, rip…_

Finally, there was nothing left to do but to let the paper fall open. Maya went to sit on her bed again, same as she’d been earlier, when she’d opened the other presents, which had all been placed neatly back in the box they’d been shipped in, save for Maya the rabbit down in the basement. She set the gift on the mattress, in front of her.

“No, don’t…” she whispered to herself, feeling a familiar sting at her eyes. She squeezed them shut, breathed, refused to let herself break. If that was what she was going to do, then she might as well leave this thing covered, tape it shut all over again, toss it away… No, she could do this. She wouldn’t call Riley back here, she’d just look and see what her father had sent her for her twenty-first birthday, and after that… After that, maybe she’d know whether or not she’d take him up on this conversation he seemed so intent on having all of a sudden. So, she let the paper fall open.

TO BE CONTINUED


	145. Her Family in Heart

She’d asked Dylan if he could go ahead and pick Lucas up from the bookstore after his shift that night. Truth be told, she didn’t trust herself to stay focused at the wheel right about now. Dylan had agreed, and she’d thanked him before moving back to hers and Lucas’ room, where she could flop back on their bed. In no time, she’d been joined by a couple of pups. Trix and Lou had come sniffing along like they knew their good friend was having a strange day. She could just imagine what Lucas would look like when he’d be told that she couldn’t come and pick him up. He’d want to know the reason, and Dylan wouldn’t have one to give him.

There was no need to check when he’d arrive. At some point, Lou raised her head, stood there for a beat, and then she took off at a run, out of the room. Not long after, Maya heard steps on the stairs, and finally there was his face, looking down at her even as the rest of him came to sit and lie back at her side. Maya turned at once, holding him close as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“Heard you got some presents today,” he said.

“I did,” she nodded.

“From your dad?” he quietly asked. She nodded again. “Did you open it?” Again, a nod. He said nothing here, an opening for her to elaborate or not. With a sigh, she sat up, running a hand through her hair before reaching over to her nightstand. From the drawer, she retrieved a small box. It looked as though it might have belonged among Cara’s collection, if it hadn’t been old and worn. Maya placed it in Lucas’ hand. He hesitated, but she nodded. Open it.

There were a few things inside the box. The one on top was a piece of paper, folded over a few times. Lucas unfolded it, and she watched him read the words in his head. _I know I've given you plenty of reasons to want to forget the past, and I have plenty of my own to want to do the same. But there are also the parts I would hold on to forever._ He looked back at her, even as she reached past him for the next thing in the box. It was another thumb drive, not unlike the one she’d gotten from her sister.

“What’s on here?” he asked.

“I haven’t looked,” she admitted. “Not yet. I wanted to wait until you got here.”

She hadn’t looked, but it hadn’t stopped her from wondering over and over about what she might find on there. For a while, all she could think about was whether or not she’d unwrap her father’s gift, and she’d tell herself that, once she’d done that, the worst would be over.

Except now here she was, with more mysteries. She’d unwrapped the box and found another object that forced her to choose. She didn’t have to look at what was on there, she could just forget about it. Except, if she did that, what would have been the point of her unwrapping the box? So, she had decided that she _would_ look, but she didn’t want to be alone when she did it, and as much as she could have asked Riley to be the one there with her at the time, in the end she’d wanted it to be Lucas.

She’d left her laptop on the bed earlier, when she’d been watching Cara’s video. She pulled it on to her lap now, trying not to feel like there was dread in her as she prepared to insert the drive. Finally, she pushed the thing into the side of her computer, once again leaving her with a window popping up to show the drive’s contents. Unlike Cara’s, this one held several files, though they were also videos. They were all labelled with a series of numbers, and it didn’t take very long for them to understand these were dates, especially as Maya pointed to the very earliest one.

She didn’t have to tell him what that date was. They were about to celebrate its twenty-first anniversary in a matter of days. It was the day Maya Penelope Hart had come into the world. And the latest… the latest was marked with a date all of six years later. Suddenly they could imagine exactly what these videos were, exactly or near enough to it.

“Are you sure about this?” Lucas asked, looking at her as she sat there, eyes fixed on the screen.

“No,” she declared plainly, even as she double-clicked the oldest video, from the day she was born. _I’m never going to be any readier than I am now._

In the long years where she didn’t see or hear from her father, she had never forgotten his voice. It was something that existed in her head, unshakeable. When she’d first heard him again, when she had seen him for the first time since he’d left, it was like it all came rushing back to her. This felt a lot like that, too, except not quite. The voice she heard coming from somewhere off camera on the screen felt… younger, so much younger, but also _right_ , the way hearing someone on the phone and in person wasn’t the same. This was the exact voice she’d carried with her in the years he’d been gone. She didn’t think it would affect her like this, but within seconds it settled in her throat and she blindly reached for Lucas’ hand, finding it at once.

“Alright, she should be in here,” the whispered voice of the young Kermit declared. He was walking down a hallway as he filmed, and when his camera turned, they ended up facing a window into a room lined with small cots, all of them occupied by babies. “Where is she?” he asked in a sing-song voice, “Where’s my girl?” His searching shot zeroed in on one cot, with a tiny babe inside, wrapped in blankets and crying her fresh new lungs out. “There she is,” the young Kermit announced, his voice so… so happy.

Maya had never seen this before. She remembered once asking her mother if she had videos from those days, but she’d always been vague, evasive. Back then, Maya had believed the lie her mother had perpetrated, that she was the reason Kermit had left, and it had been just one more thing for which to blame Katy. But now she knew… Her father had those videos, he had taken them with him… And Maya didn’t know what to make of that revelation.

The video cut and jumped to another moment, the same day, from what they could tell. This time they could see Kermit. He sat in a rocking chair as a nurse came forward and handed him the wrapped, squalling bundle that was his newborn daughter.

“You were tiny,” Lucas couldn’t keep from smiling, seeing her there on the screen.

“Some things never change,” Maya replied, sniffling. It was impossible for her not to be enthralled by what she saw, her father, holding her, all of hours after she was born… Lucas may have been looking at her younger self, but she only had eyes for the young man, for his face, like it would unlock the secrets of the universe. Lucas must have taken a moment to look at him, too, as he went on to remark…

“He looks so young.”

“He was. They were… Eighteen, both of them,” she told him, though it hit her even as she said it. _Eighteen…_ She was older than they’d been. When she’d been younger, twelve, thirteen, it had been so easy to miss the big picture, to just be angry at one or the other of her parents, but now…

Just months ago, she and Lucas had come so close to becoming parents themselves, or they’d believed they would be, for one night. It had been terrifying, and confusing, and they knew it would have meant difficulties and sacrifices. But she was twenty, Lucas a year older than her… Katy and Kermit had been on their way out of high school and then she’d come along. She looked at that young man… that _boy_ on the screen, and he became something else.

He was looking at his newborn child, and he looked scared, and that was okay. Someday, the fear would win out, _something_ would win out, and he would walk away… He’d walk away from the girl he’d loved, and he’d walk away from the daughter he was looking at now, with such a smile on him it was hard not to want to smile, too.

And then they could just hear him… He was singing to her, a soft lullaby. When Maya heard it, the sound was like another memory waking up in her. She’d forgotten, or pushed it away… That voice, that _voice_ … The little Maya in the video was looking up at her father with round eyes slowly blinking, and blinking, until they shut into sleep.

She hit the spacebar and the video froze. She set the laptop aside and turned away from it, toward Lucas, who reached up at once to sweep tears from her face. Enough… it was enough for now.

“Maya…” he spoke, as she looked back to the box. There’d been the note, and the drive, but there was one more thing inside, a flat sort of velvety box, the kind for jewelry. She didn’t know how she knew, but as soon as she saw it, she felt like one more memory had shaken free. She took the box and she slowly opened it.

It hadn’t been like this, the thing she remembered, or at least… she hadn’t realized what it had been when she’d been so little. Someone – her father, obviously – had gotten a hole made at one of the three corners, the top one, so that the little object could be mounted on a silver chain. The flat, metallic thing was a guitar pick, and she remembered it had been her father’s. She remembered it because of the peculiar design engraved in the front, the swirling sort of lines, packed close. When she’d been a kid, she’d just thought it was pretty, but now she looked at it and recognized those grooves for what they were…

A fingerprint. Copied, engraved… small… Her heart gave a lurch as she touched it with one thumb, and she turned her other hand palm up, staring at the whirls on her own thumb. She didn’t need fancy equipment to understand this was _her_ thumbprint, her tiny, baby-sized thumbprint, possibly enlarged just a bit. She looked at it and she remembered, like flashes, her father with a guitar, her father smiling at her, singing to her…

“I can’t, I can’t,” she shook her head, shutting the little box, putting it in the other, with the note, with the drive. “It’s too much, I…” she spoke, her breath shaky.

“Stop,” Lucas pressed his hands over hers. “Breathe.”

She didn’t want this, she didn’t want to be breaking down over this all over again, but there was nothing to be done for it, not now. Out came the tears, the sobs, and here were the arms coming to wrap themselves around her. It wasn’t like the other times, but it wasn’t new either. That small box had come into her life to raise questions and force her to stand at a crossroads once again, to force her to decide whether or not fate should be tempted.

She couldn’t do this, not now. It was all too big and her brain couldn’t contain it. All she could do now was to let that wave of emotion wash out, as Lucas held on to her, kept her from being washed out right along with it.

TO BE CONTINUED


	146. Her Family in Mind

She had no classes until late the next morning, and if not for the fact that she was due in Professor Robinson’s office for her work with the woman herself, she might have just laid in bed a little while longer, sleeping, if she was lucky. The past night had not been the most restful.

It had been the sort of night where you would just lay there for what felt like an eternity, unable to fall asleep regardless of how tired you were, and then… then you’d see the time and realize surely you must have slept, for a little while, but it really only felt like you’d been awake the whole time, still exhausted. Somehow, she’d managed what could have been about a solid two-hour block around four in the morning, for what good it did. All along, she’d tried to stay as still as possible, so not to wake Lucas. He’d only worry over her, and she didn’t think it’d be fair for him to be kept awake when he didn’t have to.

Of course, when he _had_ woken up, he’d taken one look at her face and he’d gotten a pretty solid idea of the kind of night she’d had. He’d kissed her quietly, like all he wanted was for her to remember how, no matter what, he was here for her, he loved her, and she could hold on to that. She told him how she kept thinking about the video they’d watched… part of the video, at least, and how she kept seeing her young father there, holding her newborn self, how she kept hearing his voice as he sang.

She _would_ have stayed here and tried to go back to sleep, but there was work, and it was good work, motivating work, and she was determined not to abandon it because of all this, so they got up, and they went through the motions of getting ready before heading out to the university.

Maya arrived to the office to find it as yet unoccupied. The professor hadn’t arrived, which left Maya with something like a conflict.

She didn’t know why she’d grabbed the drive from her father’s box before they left, but she had it, tucked in her pocket. Actually, she’d taken the drive and put the box in her school bag, too. And right now, with no one else around, the temptation was there to just plug the drive in and see what else might have been in those videos. That was crazy, wasn’t it? She knew how the first video had affected her the night before, so why would she do that to herself, and here of all places? No, she couldn’t… could she? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad this time. The first one had left her sort of shocked, which was understandable. She hadn’t known what to expect, couldn’t prepare, but now…

She never got the chance to decide. She was still turning the drive over and over in her hand when she heard the sound of a key in the door, which announced the professor’s arrival. As smoothly as she could, Maya stuck the drive back in her pocket and sat up to appear as though she’d been getting ready to start whatever it was that she had to do.

“Ah, good morning, Miss Hart!” the woman smiled when she saw her. She had a small pink box in one hand, a tray with two paper cups balanced on top from when she’d had to open the door. She separated tray and box now, on her desk, before presenting Maya with one of the cups and the open box, which contained four cupcakes.

“Morning, Professor,” she smiled, inspecting the four distinct treats before picking out the one that looked like a constellation made of frosting and sprinkles. “Thank you,” she hummed, moving papers at a safe distance before she could pry the lining from the base of the cupcake.

“Consider it your very appreciative professor’s way of wishing you a happy birthday in advance,” Professor Robinson winked. Of course, back in ‘Patty mode,’ there would be a dinner in a few days, but that didn’t stop her from finding another reason to make the day feel as special as it should.

Diving into the morning’s work was all that Maya could ask for. She needed something to concentrate on, and she doubted she could have pulled it off if the task at hand wasn’t as interesting as it was. She could almost forget about how tired she was, and the reason behind that feeling.

Then, not two hours after the professor had joined her in the office, there was a knock at the door. Professor Robinson called for whoever was on the other side to come in, and when the door opened, Maya looked up and startled when she saw…

“Mom?” she blinked, feeling a sudden influx of questions, of possibilities. “What are you doing here?” she asked, getting up from her desk to go up to her. “Did something happen, is everyone…” What could possibly motivate her mother to drive in from Austin like this if not…

“Sorry to barge in like this, Professor, mind if I borrow my daughter for a few minutes?” Katy Hart looked to the woman, who’d also gotten up from where she sat.

“By all means,” Patty nodded. “I actually need to check in with a colleague, please, have the office.” She left the room, shutting the door behind her.

“Mom…” Maya looked to her mother, still wondering if she was about to receive bad news. Of all the times…

“Everyone is fine, baby girl, I’m not here for them. I’m here for you,” Katy took her hands in hers.

“What?” Maya asked, at once breathing with relief and frowning in confusion.

“Got a call early this morning, Lucas said you’d want to talk to me, that screens wouldn’t be enough?” her mother revealed, and Maya sighed. She couldn’t even have been mad at him, which she wasn’t, because now that she stood here, feeling her mother’s hands holding hers, she imagined talking to her on the phone and she knew she would have spent the whole time wishing they weren’t so far from one another.

“Did he say why?” she had to ask.

“Only that it had to do with Kermit,” Katy replied, and whatever feelings she had toward her ex, she showed none of them here, instead focusing on her daughter.

“The kids and Abigail sent presents for my birthday; I got the box yesterday. There was one from him, too,” she explained, looking up at her mother’s face. She saw the surprise in it, somewhere beneath the understanding nod.

“What… what did he send you?” her mother asked. Maya’s head turned, as the thought of the box sitting in her bag came to mind.

“There was… a note, and uh… a guitar pick…” Just at the mention of the object, her mother’s face melted into recognition, a memory turned bittersweet long ago.

“With your fingerprint,” she nodded. “He had it made when you were, oh… about six months old,” she recalled. Maya took this additional piece of information about as evenly as she could manage, swallowing down the rest as she reached into her pocket and pulled out the thumb drive.

“And there was this,” she told her mother, who stared at the thing with understandable curiosity. “I only watched one… part of one… but I’m pretty sure they’re all videos from when I was little, the first one… the first one came from the day I was born.” Her mother took this last revelation with an expected level of surprise. “You never wanted to tell me about these when I was little.”

“I didn’t have them,” Katy shook her head, and Maya reached in her desk drawer, pulling out a tissue to hand her mother when she saw tears in her eyes. “I had plenty of reasons to be upset with your father when he left, but his taking those videos with him when he did, that, oh…” she shook her head, the words unnecessary for Maya to understand. After a moment, she reached for her mother’s hand and placed the drive in her palm.

“Take it,” she told her.

“Maya,” Katy shook her head. “You should…”

“ _You_ should have these,” she insisted. “I…” She sighed. “I’m not ready to watch those. I thought I was, but…” she shook her head. “I might be, someday, but not now, and… these are your memories. Really, take it. Hold on to it for me?” Katy looked at her for a moment before finally nodding.

“Alright, I will.” She put the drive in her pocket before pulling her daughter into a hug. Maya held on to her, feeling that flood of relief she could never have gotten from a screen.

“He wants to talk to me,” she spoke after they pulled back from one another.

“And you don’t know if you want to?” Katy guessed.

“If I say yes, I risk getting disappointed again, but if I say no… I risk missing the possibility that I won’t. No matter which one I try and lean to, it always feels like the other side won’t let me forget.”

“Look, I can’t make the choice for you, we both know that. All I can say is, whatever you decide to do, you don’t need to think about me, or him. All that matters is you, Maya, _your_ need, _your_ choice. If you want to talk to him, hear what he has to say, then you do that. If you’re not ready to have that talk now, or ever, that’s okay, too. I’ll respect it either way, and Kermit… He’ll have to do the same.”

“I’m really glad you came, Mom,” Maya smiled, and her mother smiled back.

“Me, too, baby girl.”

“How long can you stay before you have to drive back?”

“The kids are next door, I can wander around here and whenever you’re ready for lunch, we’ll go out somewhere, you and me, yeah?”

Soon after her mother left, the professor returned, raising a suspicion in Maya that she’d been hanging around outside the office, waiting for Katy to leave to know that it was safe to return. They got back to work for the rest of the time Maya had there before she needed to head to class. As she picked up her things, she stopped, looking into her bag and seeing the box sitting on top. She stared at it for a moment before opening it up and retrieving the velvet box. Reaching inside, she pulled the silver chain from its setting, holding the engraved pick in her palm.

What would it mean for her to put it on? She couldn’t deny that the object, at face value, had its charm. It was _her_ fingerprint, preserved from two decades, and it carried something of her musical legacy. _But…_ But it came from her father, the one who’d left them, left her, the one who’d shaped her into someone who dared not hope for so long, the one who continued to have the power to tear her to pieces… _But_ … But it was a symbol of the good days. It had been brought into existence by an eighteen-year-old kid who may not have succeeded in the end but who had still tried.

For so long, she couldn’t look to the past without feeling that churning in her gut, the memories tainted and shadowed away. But then she had this, a tiny piece of metal on a chain, and it was like she could see again, just a bit. Whatever she decided in the end as far as her father was concerned, she could make _this_ choice more easily. She could take back her happy past and not feel bad for holding on to it. And she knew that, when she’d meet her mother for lunch with that chain around her neck, she wouldn’t be made to feel like it meant anything more than this.

TO BE CONTINUED


	147. Her Family in Practice

Friday morning started with an inquisitive knock at their bedroom door, and Maya knew who it was without inquiring. She’d already been awake for a few minutes, and Lucas had only just opened his eyes and looked at her a minute before the knock, and for a few seconds all she could think was ‘No, please, just let me have this for a while more before I have to get up.’ Maybe for that, when Riley’s voice called quietly from the other side of the door and asked if it was okay to come in, all she could think to say was…

“We’re busy!”

“Oh… Oh! Okay, sorry!” Riley stammered from outside, even as Lucas chuckled and hurried out of bed to go and open the door.

“Hey, all clear,” he waved Riley back over before grabbing his things to head down into the basement and shower. Maya sat up with a sigh as Riley approached, still looking confused as to what had just happened.

“What’s up?” Maya asked, watching as her friend stood there for a moment until she remembered what she’d come knocking about. Finally, she smiled, and from there she needed to say no more, as the memory found Maya as well. “Oh, it’s tonight, the previously first but now second date,” she nodded and patted the vacated space next to her. Riley came and dropped there, and Maya pulled her into a hug that made her laugh. “Sorry I’m a bit crabby this morning, it’s been a weird couple of days.”

“I get that,” Riley promised.

“But today is about you now, Matthews. All yours.”

There was a soft metallic tinkling as the chain around her neck shifted, letting the pendant emerge from beneath her collar. Riley saw this and reached out to take the object in her hand.

“What’s that?” she asked, inspecting the pick with its engraving.

Maya didn’t know how to respond. She hadn’t meant to keep the thing hidden, not exactly. After she’d put it on the day before, it had felt more like she just really wanted to keep it as something that was hers for a little while. Maybe she would decide to take it off after all, and she didn’t want to have to explain its origins to anyone who might ask, not if that would be the case. The only people who’d seen her wearing it already were her mother at lunch and then Lucas when they’d been back here last night, getting changed for bed.

The length of her silence seemed to have given the answer for her, as Riley blinked and let the pendant fall back where it would.

“Are you going to talk to him then?” she asked.

“I… maybe… I don’t know…” Maya shook her head. She pressed her fingers over the pendant for a moment, thinking about it all again, but just as quickly she let it go and looked back to her best friend of old. “It doesn’t matter, not right now. I’d rather help you for your date, the rest can keep waiting. You’ve been my family more than he ever has,” she reminded Riley, and the girl beamed. “Now come on, what’s the plan?”

There was nothing to be done for the fact that Riley would be in class all day, while Dylan would be working at the café, although as Riley told Maya that morning, the two of them had vowed not to see one another until the moment, hours from then, where Dylan would come and ‘pick her up’ for their date.

“What’s he going to do, go outside and ring the bell?” Maya joked, only to have Riley give her a very serious nod in response. “Alright, so he’s picking you up,” she bit back a smirk. “Did you pick out what you’ll wear yet?”

“I’ve narrowed it down to about a dozen now,” Riley shrugged.

“Right,” Maya moved to rise out of bed, tugging her best friend along. “Consider this task number one. Up, up, let’s go.”

By the time they all took off for school, they had painstakingly narrowed it down to a winner, with assists from Sophie, Chiara, and Rosa, who’d been called over not so much for her appreciation of dresses but rather for her aesthetic eye. Of course, their journey to school had been tricky, as even the drive counted under the rule of not seeing one another until Dylan would come and ring the bell. Maya and the others had been working to help the pair dodge one another through breakfast and overall preparations for the day, and then when they’d gone to leave, they had been left to split the group over two cars. Riley had gone with the other girls in Sophie’s car, while Dylan followed Maya and Lucas in Lucas’ car.

“You know it’s just a date, right?” Maya asked Dylan, turning to look at him in the backseat. “It’s only at weddings that it’s bad luck to see each other before, and that’s not what’s happening here… Is it?” she asked, staring him down.

“No,” Dylan laughed. “I swear,” he held up his hands.

When they reached the parking lot – with assurance from Sophie that she and Chiara and Riley had already vacated the premises – they all got out of the car, where Maya took a moment to stop Dylan and stare at him.

“What are you doing?” Lucas asked.

“I’m recording this image right here. Next time I see him, he won’t be our old Dylan anymore, he’s going to be some serious short-haired person I won’t recognize anymore. It’s the end of an era…”

“End of a _haira_ …” Dylan grinned, and Maya laughed.

“Okay, forget everything I just said.”

They split off from Dylan as he headed toward the café, after which Lucas accompanied Maya off to her first class. As they walked, she absently reached to see whether the pick was under her shirt and found that it was.

“It looks good on you,” Lucas commented, and she looked up, finding him looking back at her. He nodded to her neckline and she sighed, reaching inside and pulling the pick back into view. He wasn’t wrong, and it still felt weird to try and keep it hidden, when she was wearing it in the first place, but it was hard not to feel protective of what it represented for her.

“I have to make up my mind about all that,” she declared. There was no need to specify what she meant. She had to figure out whether or not she’d talk to her father as he’d requested through Sam. If she decided to say no, then she’d have to get the message back to him, through her brother again or perhaps through Abigail, so not to put Sam into this position with their father. And if she decided to say yes… “I know in the end it’s up to me, but… What would you do? If it was you?” He sighed, considering this.

“I wish I had something better to say than I don’t really know,” he admitted. “But, okay,” he nodded, as though he was attempting to dig deeper, past that uncertainty.

He’d had issues with his father, once, around the time of his suspension from school, but even then, it hardly compared to what she had to go from. No matter how he tried to consider this question, he could only ever do so from what he’d been told, what he’d observed.

“If I’d gone through all that, at the age you did, I mean… From being that little, and then growing up with those memories, those thoughts… But I’m not a kid anymore, I wouldn’t be _that_ kid anymore. So much has changed, I would have changed, and whether or not he would have changed, too, then… Does that make sense?” he looked at her.

“Actually, it makes a lot of sense,” she slowly nodded, giving him an eased smile as she considered what he had given her to think about. “Hey, you’re going with him for the cut, yeah?” she asked as they were nearing her class. He nodded.

“Want me to take pictures?” he asked, smirking.

“I want you to film the whole thing,” she insisted.

“Done,” Lucas vowed, kissing her quickly before they parted ways.

All through the day, she did her best to stay focused on her classes, though whenever it seemed like her brain was afforded a moment of reflection, she would end up back in that little room in her mind where she’d go to consider her Kermit dilemma.

What Lucas had told her had really hit her, opening up a new avenue for consideration. She had spent so many years trying to guard herself, strengthening herself against any new hurts that may have come and hit those old wounds she carried, but underneath all that… Underneath all that, she’d only been a kid, just a girl coping as best she could with the hand she’d been dealt. Was she even that kid anymore? She didn’t think she _had_ been that kid for a good while now.

She was now a whole three days shy of turning twenty-one. She had been living away from home for near on two years, with her boyfriend, with her friends. She was thriving at school, at work, and along with her bandmates she was not only creating music that people loved but she was following a passion from deep in her heart, one of a few, if you added her art. Her life was good, her life… her life had never been so good, and she’d done all that.

She wasn’t that kid she’d been anymore, and maybe once she would have felt that need for self-preservation overriding everything, but today… Today her strength was not a self-made shield to hide behind, it was in her very own skin.

_It still shook you up, didn’t it? One small video and you broke._

She couldn’t change the past. It was done, the paint had dried, and no matter what she did, it would never lose the power it had to come and revive long buried feelings in the most unexpected times. But she had her silver fingerprint around her neck, and already it felt to her like something she could hold on to, to draw her back. The past couldn’t be touched, but the future, _her_ future, was wide open with possibilities.

And maybe… maybe one of those possibilities included a man in New York she’d once called Dad.

She was still in her last class, minutes short of being let out, when she saw a message pop up on her phone’s screen. Riley wanted her to know that she was out of class herself and would be waiting for her at the car. She said all this in capital letters, so there was no need to wonder exactly how she felt at that moment.

“I have to go before I get hunted down,” Maya told her friends and classmates as she gathered her things. They waved her off until Monday and Maya dashed off toward the parking lot.

They arrived home, secure in the knowledge that Dylan wouldn’t be there. Lucas was to take him over to Bishop’s after their haircuts, the better to finish getting ready and, in time, return to their house and collect his date. Maya had a fair idea of what her task would be until that moment came. Riley was so eager for that evening and, if not for Maya’s wrangling, she might just spin right out of control. Slowly but surely, she went from day/school to evening/date mode, which included putting on the winning dress and all added accessories before finally sitting still as Maya did her hair and makeup.

“And just like that… you’re set,” Maya stepped back, raising her arms as though to shout ‘ta-da!’ Riley stood and went to look at herself in the mirror. “Are we there? Close? Off the mark? Help me out here…” Riley finally smiled, and Maya breathed out.

At the sound of the doorbell, Riley squeaked. Maya checked her phone to confirm it’d be the boys, and then they headed down the stairs. She couldn’t help it, she had her phone out, video rolling, like a mom sending her kid off to prom. _With Riley and me, I might as well be._ For all that, the shock was shared between them both as Riley opened the door to come face to face with a young man dressed up as one should be to take out a girl dressed like her.

And for all _that_ , it was hard to focus on his clothes when there was his hair to stare at. Having never known him to have anything less than shoulder-grazing light brown hair, to now see him stood there, neck bare, all of a quarter inch of hair along the sides and back of his head, the rest atop his head actually close to sticking upward when they’d only ever known it to hang down. The estimation that he’d look like his cousin Wally was not inaccurate, but the truly shocking thing here was just how well it suited him. Had they known this, they might not have made such a big deal of his ever thinking of getting the cut.

“Woah…” Riley breathed. Dylan looked like he might have been nervous over what she thought of his new look if he hadn’t been so occupied by taking in _her_ look for the evening. There was the sound of someone clearing their throat, out of view, and Maya smirked as she recognized Lucas as the throat clearer while Dylan blinked and held out the flowers he had gripped in his hand. Riley took them, smelled them, turned back to her best friend with a great big smile. Maya stepped forward, taking the flowers with the promise that she’d take good care of them.

“Don’t stay out too late,” she gave both her friends a matching smile before they headed off together, Dylan getting the car keys as Lucas held them out to him. “They grow up so fast, don’t they?” Maya sighed as her boyfriend came up to join her. “Looking sharp,” she touched _his_ shortened hair.

As they went back into the house, she took a breath, allowing the date prep frenzy to recede. She looked to Lucas, and it seemed she wore her decision on her face.

“I’ll go and get dinner started,” he told her, stopping to hug her briefly before heading into the kitchen.

Maya went up to their room. She shut the door before moving to sit at her desk. After opening her laptop, she must have stared at that Skype window for what felt like forever before she put in the call to her brother. When he appeared on screen, she took a breath.

“Is he there?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	148. Their Affection For Birthdays

It took everything in her power not to get up and pace after Sam had walked away from his computer to go and get their father. She sat there at her desk, the near total silence around her slowly but surely twisting her nerves until her hands were just doing some twisting of their own, trapped together in her lap. Her heart felt as though it had forgotten how to beat normally. How long did it take to go and get someone? Did they not understand how nervous she was? She might have gotten to the point where she felt she could do this, but it didn’t mean she had to be the picture of calm about it.

When she heard footsteps nearing, from the open call, from that house in New York, her heart gave one more lurch, as she willed herself to look a bit more in control than she actually was, before she could be seen. A few seconds later, Kermit came walking into view, before taking a seat at his eldest son’s desk, his face appearing there for his faraway daughter to see.

They didn’t start speaking right away. For what felt like half a minute at least, he would look at her and she would look at him. She didn’t know what it was that he saw when he looked at her, but as far as what _she_ saw when she looked at him… He looked older than she remembered. Maybe it was that she’d recently had her mind and her memories swept up by the image of the boy he’d been when she’d been born, but it just felt like he was some other person.

The way he looked at her… She could sort of see what Sam had seen, the hope… Most of all, what she saw as she looked at her birth father was… fear… Mixed with that hope, she could guess what he was afraid of. He was afraid she’d change her mind, that she’d hang up, shut that door they were both trying to open again. She’d never seen that from him before, and seeing it now… She felt the cool metal of that guitar pick under her collar.

“Were you guys about to have dinner?” she finally broke the silence, because someone had to, with the first thing that came to mind. He looked thankful for the assist. “I don’t want to hold things up, I can call again later,” she shrugged.

“No, it’s fine,” Kermit promised. “We just finished.”

“Oh, good,” she slowly nodded. _Oh, no…_ Silence was going to set in again. She didn’t know what to say after that, what she was supposed to…

“I’m really glad you called, Maya,” her father spoke now. She let out a breath, nodding again.

“Yeah, well, I… I…” She stopped, sighed, then decided to cut to the chase. It wasn’t like she’d be catching him by surprise. “Look, this is all a bit complicated for me… and awkward… so awkward,” she admitted in a rush of words, choosing at the very least to talk to the guy like a human being who would, hopefully, get that this was not easy for her. It was like she’d been telling herself, wasn’t it? She wasn’t about to forget the past, but she _could_ allow herself to turn on to a new page, to see what they’d come up with as they filled this one.

“When Sam came downstairs to tell me you’d called, I don’t know what my face looked like, but Wyatt, he just reached out and patted my arm like he was about to give me a pep talk.” This made her laugh, couldn’t _not_ make her laugh. Not unlike Dylan, her little brother just had that quality about him where he could boost your happiness so smoothly and without really trying all that much. It was just who he was.

“You know, when he was here over the summer, he’d sleep in here with Lucas and me, and he’d just cling on to me like a little monkey or something,” she smiled on, recalling all those mornings she’d awakened to the tune of her brother’s soft breathing and his grip on to her sleeve.

“Yes, I’m familiar,” her father nodded with a chuckle, and Maya would have given anything for that little voice in her head not to pipe in and disrupt what might have been the start of the most natural conversation she’d had with her father in about fifteen years, but there was nothing to be done for it. As soon as her father went and put the image in her head of Wyatt climbing into his parents’ bed and clinging on to their father the way he did with her, that nagging voice had to remind her that he’d been out there, being their father for all _their_ lives.

_Stop that… Stop it… This isn’t about the past. You’re never going to change that._

“Maya, I…” her father was shaking his head, and she imagined he’d caught the flicker in her eyes a moment ago. She shook her head, too, only to tell him to forget it.

“Why now?” she found herself asking. “You sent me a gift, you wanted to talk… Why now?” He bowed his head, considering his answer for a moment, though she suspected he’d waited for this question long before she finally asked it.

“I’ve wanted to, for years I’ve wanted to, and there’s no right answer for it, I just… I messed up. I’ve been messing up when it comes to you… for a long time. I never meant to, but I did. I’ve been kidding myself for so long, telling myself you were better off without me, that I was sparing you…” He paused, and his face showed just how much he hated himself for it. “I should… I should have done better by you. You deserved so much more than me. And you got it,” he nodded to himself, and she knew that he was trying to stop himself from crying. “You got your father in the end.”

It was just as well that he was stuck in his own headspace for that moment. She needed to take a breath, too, needed to collect herself, to speak the truth she was slowly but surely accepting. Her childhood had been infested with dark clouds for so long, but now they had started to clear, just enough to show her the bits of light she’d kept herself from remembering.

“Hey…” she spoke, reaching underneath her collar to scoop out the silver chain. When he looked up and saw she was wearing it, he let out a small sob caught in a laugh, and right in that moment she could really see him, see that eighteen-year-old kid singing to his baby daughter in that video… This was a brand-new time in their lives. Whatever happened next, if it kept going forward, if it stalled, at least they’d try.

She could not have asked for a better feeling to carry her into the start of her twenty-second year of life. The morning of her birthday came around with her waking to the peace of good dreams and restful sleep, and to sweet kisses from her boyfriend, who wisely knew he had best make the most of these before he’d have to duck out of the way, as Hurricane Riley came rushing in to pounce on her with hugs and birthday wishes.

“I feel it’s my duty to give you the heads up about the… overwhelming number of times you’ll see the number twenty-one pop up throughout the day,” Lucas told her while she remained in his arms.

“About as many times as the twenties from last year?” Maya guessed with a laugh.

“Something like that, yeah.”

He was right, of course. She could always count on Riley to go into overload when anyone’s birthday would roll around, but when it came to hers it had always been on a different level. But then this year, oh, this year she had backup in the shape of her newly minted boyfriend. She almost had to wonder if they’d spent the majority of their first date plotting ways to spring the number twenty-one into her day.

“I don’t think there’s anyone left at school who _doesn’t_ know it’s my birthday,” Maya told Lucas when he came to meet her at the café, as they both found themselves with a concurrent break between classes.

“Pretty sure the whole city knows by now,” he agreed. “And then some.”

It had gotten on to the band’s followers, too, of course. They could always be counted on for birthday wishes, to the five of them in the band now and to those who’d been with them from TXNY’s inception, too. As to those faraway friends, they had been showering her with loud greetings all day and it had been putting more and more smiles on her face.

None of it prepared her for the gift she received, courtesy of Air Zvolensky, as she returned home to a heart-thumping surprise, finding her roommates, her Houston friends, co-workers and classmates, her family and the Matthews and Friar families, Zay and Nadine out of Boston, and Farkle and Isadora, Asher and Ray, Joey and Rebecca… and her brothers and sisters and their parents out of New York.

The magnitude of finding all of those faces there before her was enough to send any control she might have had over her emotions out the window as she went around and saw each one of them in turn. It easily took over an hour for her to get through them all. Her little siblings came first, and no one got in the way of that, even as they came back for seconds and thirds.

By the time she got to her parents, she was as emotionally spent as she was emotionally wired, and she melted into that double hug from the two of them like it was all she’d ever wanted. After a beat, Shawn detached himself from that hold, allowing Katy a solo embrace with her firstborn. They shared hushed words between the two of them.

“How are you doing?” her mother asked, once they pulled apart. She didn’t have to elaborate on what she was referring to. Maya looked across the room, to where Kermit stood observing her painting, in conversation with Tom Friar.

“I never thought he’d be here, in this house, talking to my boyfriend’s father, and it would actually feel… good, normal. Well, maybe not normal, but unexpected in a good way?” Basically, the fact that the word ‘good’ could so easily be associated to him, that was its own miracle.

When Melinda Friar called her husband over, leaving Kermit on his own, Maya took the opportunity to walk up and stand next to him. He turned to look at her, and he smiled. He pointed to the painting, eyebrows raised, and she nodded.

“That’s really amazing, Maya.”

“Thanks,” she bowed her head.

“Still awkward?” he asked.

“Uh, I think we’ve moved on to something like… teetering?” she offered, looking back to him. He considered this for a moment before giving a nod of agreement. That _was_ what it felt like now, like they were just learning to walk, the two of them. They weren’t so solid on their feet yet, and there was every chance they’d fall along the way, but they were both determined to get back up again, to keep working at it until they could stand steady. She could see it in him, she could really see it now, and she couldn’t have asked for more.

“I’m happy I got to be here for this,” he told her. She smiled.

“Me, too,” she admitted. He turned to face her now, hesitant for a beat.

“Can I…” he opened his arms out just a little, tentatively. How many times had she shed tears of sadness, of anger, of frustration over her father… Tonight, for the first time, they were the happy kind, as she nodded and allowed him to wrap his arms around her, even as she wrapped her own around him.

TO BE CONTINUED


	149. Their Affection For Progress

The year was now diving into its second month, and after how well January had treated them, the start of February seemed to settle in everyone in one of two ways. Either they looked to the new month as the possibility for even more good things, or they started to feel this dread that surely something was bound to go wrong and break the streak.

January really had been something of a wonder though, so was it so surprising to be apprehensive? They had started out with a return to Houston which saw the unification of Riley and Dylan, truly the long-awaited ‘well it’s about time’ unification of Riley and Dylan, the elevation from friends to lovers. To look at them, as their relationship evolved through its first month, there was so much giddiness and happiness to them already in their day to day, but now, with the added feeling of this new romance between them, it was to wonder if they’d ever stopped smiling.

On the one side, there was Riley, who’d had only the one steady relationship before this, in the form of Scott Shelby, but then that had been over for a couple years by now, and it had never reached any sort of height. Back then, when the breakup had happened, she’d been heartbroken, but now, looking back on it from this perspective, Maya could just hear her best friend of old declare that things had happened as they were meant to, because Scott had not been the one that she was meant to be with. Whether or not Dylan was this mythical ‘one’ remained to be seen, but oh, she was anxious to explore it. Between that first and second boyfriend, there had been a few odd dates here and there, but none of them had ever gone anywhere, never so far as to be called boyfriends.

“I used to think I wanted something just like my parents, remember?” Riley asked Maya one evening, as the two of them sat in a heap on the couch, after Maya had come home from a shift at the restaurant.

“I remember,” Maya confirmed with a smile. “The deep love, the young love, the first and only love…” she intoned dramatically, making the both of them laugh.

“Guess you’re the one who got that in the end,” Riley smiled at her, and Maya felt her heart happily agree in her chest. “But now, as far as I’m concerned, I think I’m better off like this, making my own story, not repeating theirs.”

“Yeah,” Maya nodded at her. “Although… technically, you could say Dylan did get that.” Riley considered this, and the thought settled over her with a smile.

It was true, wasn’t it? In all the time they had known him, there had been no one to come and claim Dylan’s heart, and with how open he was about most everything, they knew they would have known if there had ever been anyone. Well, there _had_ been someone. There’d been Riley, for so much longer than they’d realized, up until very recently. The only one who’d really known was Lucas, and that had been unintentional. As open as he’d been, his feelings for Riley had been the only thing he felt he needed to guard, to protect, for her sake as much as his own.

His heart had been claimed, and whether or not it would ever be reciprocated, he could not make it love another.

He confessed as much to Maya one day. He called on her for assistance with fixing up his hair, as he claimed he still hadn’t gotten the hang of tending the short style, and she gladly stepped in. As they stood there, they started to talk about his and Riley’s latest outing on that coming night. She didn’t remember what she’d said to make him think as much, but it really got to feel like he was under the impression she was giving him some best friend version of the ‘what are your intentions with my daughter?’ speech. His answer came with no need of reflection, of seeking words. They were all just there.

And when he said them, when he told her that he loved Riley, that he could only ever love her and no other, Maya could only see the truth of his words in his face. It made her a tiny bit misty eyed, much as she tried not to show it. Still, she hugged Dylan, as though welcoming him to the family. If Riley had always been like a sister to her, then what did that make him if not halfway a brother himself?

Beyond that nascent love story, January had been a month not only for new things but renewed ones, too. It had given Maya something she would never have thought possible for so long. It wasn’t as though, all of a sudden, she and her birth father were besties, but they were taking steps toward bridging the gap between them, the deep chasm caused by his departure from her life all those years ago.

It used to be that whenever she’d call to her New York siblings, or whenever she’d be called by them, she would never so much as think about her father out there, except in the capacity where she made sure she never had to see or hear from him. But now… Now, once she was done chatting with her four siblings in turn, and with Abigail, too, whenever she was around, she would conclude the calls with her father sitting on the other side of that screen.

Their conversations were still finding their rhythm in a way, although it hadn’t taken long for Maya to see how they both appeared committed to talking mostly of the present. He would ask her how things were going at school, and she’d tell him, and he’d be so focused, listening intently. He’d ask about her work, at the restaurant as much as with Professor Robinson. And he’d ask about the band.

Now that the two of them were actually talking, her little sister Cara seemed to have decided it was safe to tell her a few stories she hadn’t shared before, knowing how Maya saw their father as a sore subject. She told Maya about the first time he’d heard one of their songs, heard it and realized it was her in there, singing, playing the guitar… He’d just stood there, sort of transfixed, and Cara swore he’d looked like he might have cried. After that, she couldn’t count the times she’d found him just sort of standing around, listening, whenever she’d have the music playing in her room. He’d seen loads of the videos by now, too, and Cara had found the band as a whole to be something that had bonded her to their father like nothing before. He’d been the one to get her the guitar she had in her ‘Maya 21’ birthday video, and he’d been teaching her to play it.

So, as much as they would talk about the band, him and her, they would inevitably just talk about music. Without their knowing it for so long, it really was the one thing that bound them together, the thing they had shared all along, and they were both all too happy to delve in as far as they could take it.

On the whole, the past remained something they didn’t touch. It existed, it was there, but they stayed away from it. Over time, maybe, once they had built this foundation together, they would go through it rather than around it, but for now they were good with what they had and they wanted to keep it that way. He would send her recommendations, videos on YouTube, albums to check out… A week ago, she’d received a package, a stack of old records.

_I remember these… I remember these covers…_ If there was any doubt that these had been in the house when she’d been little, in the corner of one of these she found a clumsy scrawl of four faded letters, her name marked down as she was learning to write. They didn’t have a record player, but Willow did, and she let her borrow it. As she lay up in her room, listening to the music, Maya felt a small twinge, recognizing the song she’d watched her young father play for her as a newborn. It really got to feel as though the two of them had been making progress, because the first thought she had as she remembered this was ‘Next time I see him, maybe we could sing it together.’

Her mother still had the thumb drive with the videos. She’d told Kermit as much, and he understood that she wasn’t ready to watch them, not yet.

The start of the year had been romance, and renewal… For Lucas, it had been about inspiration, about confirmation that he was headed exactly where he wanted to be going in his life, and this came thanks to his time working at the clinic with his aunt Tanya.

Twice a week he would get to go out there, helping around the clinic wherever he’d be needed. Sometimes it would mean paperwork, and certain tasks with their patients and their owners, and all this was wonderful, truly. But he also got to stand by and observe as Doctor Hillard examined and treated her patients, whenever he wasn’t needed elsewhere, and this was the part he cherished the most, the part where he got to learn more, to see it all unfold as more than lectures and readings.

He’d been essential in the care and nursing of Peanut, the puppy brought in from the park on his first day, and when he was finally out of trouble, showing all signs that he’d live a good, long life if he went on receiving the love and attention he needed, Lucas found there really was one way to ensure that, though he had to consult with the rest of the household before he could consider it any further.

“You know, you won’t be able to bring all the abandoned puppies back home, yeah?” Maya asked with a teasing smile, when he advanced the idea of bringing Peanut to live with them.

“I realize that,” he assured her. “It’s just that he came in on my first day, and I got him this far, and he feels like he belongs with us.”

It took absolutely no effort to convince the others about bringing a new dog into the house. And so, in the end, after getting much the same thing pointed out to him by his aunt as he’d gotten from Maya, Peanut came to join Trix and Lou in their Houston house.

Trix, ever the caretaker she’d been since they’d had her, adopted the little guy about as soon as Lucas brought him home. As for Lou, she was fretful in a way Sophie dubbed ‘middle pup syndrome.’ It took longer for her to accept the shift in dynamics, but Peanut was part of the family now, and she would adjust to his presence.

If all he got to do at the clinic, and the arrival of Peanut, wasn’t enough to make his start at the clinic really own the start of the new year for him, Lucas also had to contend with Maya’s fascination/amusement with his clinic clothes. She had been drawing him, somewhere between a dramatic caricature and semi-inappropriate cartoon, over and over, and hiding said drawings in any number of places, from his textbooks, to drawers, the refrigerator, and – with some assist from friends all too willing to get a laugh – at the bookstore, and in his locker over at the clinic.

“What, I can’t help it if you look like that,” she innocently shrugged when he went and showed her the latest one, which he’d found, folded and tucked in his wallet, when he’d been out to pick up lunch. He could only chuckle, seeing right through that angelic act.

“Interesting pose,” he nodded, inspecting the sketch as she came to stand and look at the page with him. She nodded along, barely biting back a smirk. “You know, if you’re going to keep doing these, you might consider giving him a girlfriend,” he looked back to her. Now the smirk came right on, paired to a raised eyebrow.

“Well, Valentine’s Day is coming up, who knows, he might get lucky…”

TO BE CONTINUED


	150. Their Affection For the Morning

Of the many things they may separately have had reason to be thankful for, in their having gotten to the point in their lives where they could be living together this way, sharing a bed, a room, a house, both Maya and Lucas could claim in all confidence to love that first one especially. What they loved most of all was that they got to be the first thing they saw in the morning and the last thing they saw at night. It was the kind of thing you really couldn’t suspect would matter so much until you actually got to experience it. And they _had_ experienced it, for going on two years now. It had yet to lose its power over them.

More often than not, they would fall asleep at night only once she’d curved herself into his arms. If she was the first one into the bed, she would sit there and wait, and soon as he’d come and lie down at her side, he would catch her up even as she was turning. If _he_ went first, she’d just roll right in like it was the coldest day and she couldn’t wait to get warm under the covers, and he would have his arms open and ready to receive her. She would drift off to sleep in next to no time, she claimed, thanks to the steady rhythm of his chest rising and falling as he breathed, holding her.

Then, morning would come, and again, most mornings, they would wake up much as they’d gone to sleep, with him holding her close. It wasn’t as though neither of them had experienced a bad night’s sleep since they’d started sharing a bed, but even those didn’t feel nearly so bad as they might once have done. For sure, they wouldn’t be sleeping nearly so well if they found themselves split for the night.

The morning of February 14th, Lucas woke up to find his arms empty. He forced one eye open only to find that Maya was next to him, awake and sitting up with her sketchbook laid in her lap and a pencil working away. He yawned, pulling himself up into a semi-seated position, too, the better to spy in on what she was doing. When he recognized his infamous clinic pants, with the stripes down the sides, he got a good idea of what she was up to. He sat up properly now, staring over at her.

“Were you… drawing my face while I was asleep?” he asked, leaning in to press a kiss to the side of her face. She just smiled and drew on. “How long have you been awake?” he set his chin to her shoulder.

“This long,” she gestured to her drawing, which was already fairly detailed and featured not only his likeness but hers as well. Their counterparts, for no better way to put it, appeared to be enjoying one another’s company.

“Please don’t hide this one at my job? I’d like to keep working there,” he blinked. She made a noise that sounded a whole lot like a wordless ‘I’ll consider it.’ He chose to implore upon her by way of distraction, kissing his way up from her shoulder and into her neck.

“Okay, that’s cheating,” she protested. The noise _he_ made sounded like ‘would you like me to stop?’ “But I’ll allow it, because it’s Valentine’s Day,” she hummed, and he happily carried on, eventually hearing the familiar sound of the sketchbook being deposited on the nightstand.

At this, he caught her up and drowned in her laughter as he maneuvered them into a spin which finally landed them lying side by side and facing one another, which was just as well, as she leaned in to kiss him. The next several minutes disappeared in that soft hold, all thoughts of inappropriate drawings and the eventual need to get ready for class pushed out of their minds in favor of him and her.

“Mmm, we have to…” someone finally had to say it, in a very short parting before the kiss resumed. In this case, it had been him.

“Five more minutes?” she pleaded, and he smiled, finding zero motivation to deny her, except when five had turned into ten and, somewhere in the middle of all that, they’d taken a decisive turn that threatened to make all of this into something much more than a whole lot of kissing if they didn’t stop soon. “Okay, okay…” Maya finally breathed, and he nodded, equally breathless. She smiled. “I’d say good morning, but I think we covered that, yeah?” she nodded.

“Went way past that,” he agreed.

“You know me, I don’t leave anything half done,” she shrugged with a humble smile. He chuckled, reaching a hand up to brush his fingers at her cheek. This, right here, if this could be his whole day, just lying here, looking into her eyes, it would be all he needed. “Now, on this day…”

“Tuesday?” he teased, and she gave his leg a very weak kick of protest for the interruption. “Sorry, on this day…” he repeated, nodding for her to continue.

“Well, it’s not like we’re any less vocal as to our feelings for one another the rest of the year,” she pointed out, and he agreed with a tip of the head. “So, really, what this day calls for isn’t so much more of the same, it needs something special, yeah?”

“I thought we were doing pretty well in that department up until a minute ago,” he smirked.

“That’s tonight,” she quietly informed him, holding his gaze, “There’s a whole day to get through first.” He shrugged. _If we must_.

“So, today…”

“Today demands more than flowers, and chocolate, and candy hearts, it demands… cheese,” she slowly nodded. He blinked.

“Cheese?” he repeated, like he wasn’t sure he’d heard her right.

“I’m not talking cheddar or mozzarella here, more like…” She paused for a moment, thinking, then sat up, turning to look back at him with a much-exaggerated face full of emotion. “The moment I first saw your face, my heart skipped a beat…” she intoned, pressing a hand over her heart, the other reaching to grasp one of his hands and bring it to rest it over hers.

“Oh, that cheese,” he sat up with her as she nodded. “Works for me.” She motioned for him to go on. “Oh, and…” he gripped her hand in his, brought it within an inch of his lips before looking her in the eye, “I will miss you every second of every minute until I see you again.” He kissed her hand before looking back up to her. “How’d I do?”

“A good, aged cheese,” she declared with an approving tip of the head.

“Wish I wasn’t working tonight,” he sighed as they finally got out of bed. “It’s kind of dead on Valentine’s Day anyway.”

“Yeah, because they’re all lined up at the restaurant,” she pointed out. “Last year, it didn’t ease up all night, and Fidelio says it’s like that every year. There’s a pool going about how many break-ups and proposals we’ll get before closing.”

“Are you in on it?” he asked, curious.

“Four break-ups, six proposals,” she replied with confidence.

“Six?” Lucas stared back at her like he thought she must have overshot.

“We already have three people who’ve called to set some things in motion,” Maya started counting off on her fingers. “And one of the sous-chefs is planning to propose to his girlfriend, who’s another of the waitresses,” she tapped another finger. “And there are always others who come in without plans, so… six,” she concluded. “There’s a bonus pool for any proposals that end in break-ups, but that’s just sad…” she shook her head. “I wouldn’t even have put anything in for the plain break-ups, but they’re going to happen anyway.”

All this talk of proposals had him thinking about the day when it would finally be his turn, _their_ turn. It had stopped being a matter of ‘if’ a long time ago, turning into a ‘when.’ It was sort of a weird feeling, to walk around from day to day, playing this waiting game like he didn’t already know his girlfriend would one day be his wife. Sometimes he really couldn’t say why he was waiting to do the actual asking. Nothing would come of it until after they finished college, but did that have to mean they couldn’t just be engaged for a couple of years?

The simple answer was that he didn’t want to do it just ‘because.’ He was going to ask her, that wasn’t even a question, it was an eventuality. And when he did ask Maya to be his wife, he was going to do it in the right way, the way he would have done it in whatever alternate timeline where he _didn’t_ know years ahead of time. One day, he would come up with the perfect way, the perfect time and place. Maybe it would involve weeks upon weeks of planning, maybe it would happen in the spur of the moment, but it would happen when it was meant to happen. He trusted that.

Then again, he couldn’t lie, the fact that today was Valentine’s Day, and her going on about these proposals happening at the restaurant, briefly made him want to throw caution to the wind and do it, ‘pop the question’ that very night. He could be one of those without the plans, could leave the bookstore in the middle of his shift and march right into that dining room, get down on one knee… Only he wouldn’t, he couldn’t. The ring, the one passed down to him, it was still in Austin, and when he actually did this, it would be with that ring to present to her. _Maybe I should go and get it out of the safe deposit box some day… just in case._

As caught up as he was in this train of thought, he was not once interrupted, and the reason for this was that Maya was having some contemplations of her own. Much as she didn’t think she’d actually go through with it, she _had_ at times wondered if there might ever be a scenario where she flipped the script, where _she_ was the one who did the asking.

No one could ever accuse Lucas of jumping to conclusions if he told anyone that the two of them would be married some day. Maya saw it the exact same way. This life they were sharing here, in this house, with their friends and roommates, it had brought them one step further, and they both fully intended to take another step before long, and another, and another, until they were dashing through their lives together. So, why couldn’t she be the one to take a knee before _him_ and say the words? The guy may have been pure manners and character, but she was who she’d always been from day one, too. She _could_ go for it. Except… except in her heart of hearts, she wanted to see how he’d do it much more than she wanted to come up with a way to do it herself.

“You come to pick me up as soon as you can, okay?” Maya asked before they left their room. “I’ll be the one standing there with her shoes in her hands and her feet on fire.”

“You mean… you’ll be the one my heart calls to, like we’re connected by an unbreakable elastic?” he offered, and she giggled.

“So much cheese,” she whispered approvingly, pulling him into one more kiss before they could set off past the boundaries of their shared world.

TO BE CONTINUED


	151. Their Affection For Nearness

Neither of them had known what to expect of this day, now that their household was comprised of three couples. No one was single, no one was dating anyone from outside the six of them, just three pairings, no waiting. Just one year ago it had been a whole other situation. One year ago, on this day, it had been Maya and Lucas as always, while Sophie was parted from her girlfriend by so many miles and a whole ocean, and Dylan and Riley, well… they hadn’t figured things out just yet, not even close. But now, this year, today…

By the time they made their way down the stairs, they figured Riley and Dylan would already be gone. He had some set up to do at the café, for which _she_ had volunteered to assist. Really, who wouldn’t want Riley Matthews helping you to ‘Cupid up’ any place?

They may have been gone, but the others were still there, and walking into the kitchen Maya and Lucas came upon the two of them looking so entirely unaware of the fact that they were no longer alone. Sophie was leaned to the counter, with Chiara’s hands planted on said counter on either side of her, both of them laughing as they kissed. It looked as though they might have been in the midst of making breakfast for the four of them when they had gotten caught up in more captivating endeavors. On that, neither Lucas nor Maya could fault them, with the reason for their delay coming down from their room.

Still, for the purpose of getting the day rolling, Maya cleared her throat, and the kiss was parted.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she smirked, as Chiara planted one last quick kiss at her girlfriend’s lips before moving to grab the coffee cups. Sophie got back to what she’d been doing before another interruption had pulled her off task. She’d been in the process of cutting several strawberries into heart shapes because ‘well, why not?’ She would go on to place a few of these in each of their plates of bacon and eggs with toast.

“You are working, both of you tonight, yes?” Chiara asked as they all sat around the table, looking from Maya to Lucas and back.

“Yeah,” Lucas confirmed while Maya nodded.

“Good, then we will have the house,” Chiara looked back to Sophie with a grin which had their ginger friend’s usually pale complexion darken almost enough to match her hair.

“Say something else,” Maya tapped Chiara’s arm with a smirk. “She might actually go full tomato.”

“Hey!” Sophie ‘complained,’ even as Chiara sat back in her chair with a pensive smile, like she could really come up with something to make it happen if she just got to think about it for a second. “Don’t you dare!” Sophie pointed at her with a laugh.

It was still wild to think of how far the two of them had come since that day almost two years before, when they had first met in person. Sophie and her friends had been on their post graduation European trip and, as they all found themselves in Italy, they were joined by a fan of the band as their tour guide. Sophie had been having such a hard time with her mother and the whole college/police academy issue, but then Chiara had happened and she’d just lit up… they both did. For most of the day, the rest of the group could easily not have been there for how little the two girls seemed to recall that they _were_ there, too.

None of that might have ever happened if not for their guide in a previous country getting in touch with fellow TXNY fan Chiara, and none of them could forget that fact either. They liked to think that, sooner or later, the two of them would have found their way to each other even without that specific crossing, but then who knew how long it would have taken, what circumstances might have changed? Instead, Sophie and Chiara had been brought together at that specific moment in their lives, and it had taken them off on a whirlwind together, which started with Sophie staying back in Rome a little while longer while the rest of the group had moved onward.

As wonderful as that extra time together had been, they’d been forced to follow it up with Sophie eventually continuing on her trip and then returning to Texas, dropping that vast distance between them. Sure, Sophie could have called on her mother’s plane time and again to enable the two of them to see one another more often than they really did back then, but it wasn’t in her nature, had never been and never would be, no. Sure, she was all too glad to use that advantage to help her friends, and she had, earning herself the nickname Air Zvolensky. But when it came to her own needs, it was the same with the plane as it had been with anything, like her schools, the house here, and her career plans. She wanted to provide for herself as much as possible, never wanted to be seen as just coasting on her mother’s money.

So, they’d done the long-distance thing, for a year. They’d been troopers about it, the pair of them, and they’d gotten through it. Deep down though… It was plain for any of their friends to see that being apart from one another, after that flash of nearness they’d had over the summer, was wearing at them. They just needed… They needed to be together. One way or another, they needed to breach that distance, whether it meant Sophie moving to Italy or, as it had ended up, Chiara relocating to Texas.

The Italian girl had now been living here, with them, for nearly a year, and it truly felt like she’d belonged with them from day one, like she was the missing piece they’d needed. From the moment she’d arrived, she’d just had this energy about her. She was so happy to be out here, in Texas, to be in America. Sure, Sophie was good for most of her reason there, but it was the place itself, too, so different from everything she’d known growing up. This wasn’t to say she didn’t love her home, far from that. But she’d been ready to burst far out of her comfort zone, and now here she was.

And Sophie… Sophie had gone full butterfly when Chiara had become more than her online friend who she’d swap e-mails with from day to day. She had gone from someone who played it cool even as she was still sort of teasing out her own understanding as far as her sexuality was concerned, to walking around with so much confidence over who she was… She had never looked quite so happy as when everything had just really fallen into place, like that one small leap had been all she’d needed.

To see the two of them together now, the way they’d go around, they just gave off this air, this assurance which left no space for anyone to come between them. They all couldn’t speak as much to the before and after of it all, where Chiara was concerned, but with Sophie… Their once timid friend, who carried about her a sort of hidden double persona, the kind to speed into action when one friend needed desperately to right a wrong, even if it meant an unplanned flight to Philadelphia, was getting to a place where the divide appeared to have shifted considerably in favor of the latter over the former.

Now here they were, living together in Houston, and though none of them had really sat down and gone into details as to what they planned to do in the future, particularly after they all finished school in a couple of years, it seemed like they knew a couple of things deep down. For one, whenever Sophie finished up at the academy, they foresaw her seeking employment as an officer in Houston, not back in Austin, and for the other, they expected both Sophie and Chiara to be the ones to hold on to the house here in the end. The rest of them, at heart, already knew they’d be resettling back in the city they’d previously called home.

“So, what’s the plan here?” Maya asked the pair of them. “How do we know it’s safe to come back into the house when we show up tonight? Are you going to put a flag somewhere? Light a candle in a window?”

“That never works, people always miss it,” Chiara declared. She looked to Sophie, spouting off something fast in Italian, a tactic both of them used, the others suspected, to ensure they didn’t manage to understand what they were saying. They’d picked up plenty of the language, between trips and actually living with the girl for all these months, but that did not make them in any way fluent. Then again, Lucas fully suspected that Maya understood a lot more than she let on, and she was just pretending like she didn’t so they could carry on their charade.

“I think you’ll know,” Sophie promised her friends with a nod.

“Fair enough,” Maya nodded. Lucas could just see her being so close to pointing out again how she expected to be dead tired by the time she got off work.

As they moved to Lucas’ car to head off to school, Maya found her customary rose waiting for her in the front seat and she smirked. She really grew to appreciate the small tradition more and more every time it came around. It could so easily have come off worn out after a while, but instead it just made her smile, like it linked all previous special days like this one together.

When they reached school, they waved Sophie and Chiara off, the two girls walking off hand in hand and looking so very cheerful for being on their way to a full day of classes. Maya and Lucas left the car together, walking with him having his arm around her shoulders, which kept the two of them in a sort of lock step. As they stopped off to grab something to drink from the coffee cart, Lucas had a thought. It was the sort of thought which might have been accompanied with some amount of consideration followed by reconsideration, but then they _had_ promised one another some cheese today…

“Hey, hold my spot for me?” he asked Maya, planting a kiss atop her head before taking a few steps to a nearby bench. Again, with no second to doubt himself, he took a sort of jumping step which brought him to stand on that bench and turn to face the morning crowd milling about. He could see Maya, back in the lineup, eyes a little wide and uncertain, giving him a look that said ‘what are you doing, you weirdo?’

What he was doing, or what he was about to do at least, to the peril of anyone ever taking him seriously again for the next good long while, was to start and sing loudly for all to hear. The song he chose may not have meant a whole lot to most of those who stopped and watched him, either baffled or amused, but he knew that Maya, once she got over how completely silly he was being, would recognize it as the song that had played when they’d shared their first slow dance.

He didn’t sing the whole thing, but it was plenty of it to count, and she walked from the coffee cart and closer to the bench as he did his number. He finished it off by jumping down from his perch to land in front of her, closing it off with a kiss that earned them several cheers all around. As they pulled back, she was unable to keep from smiling and laughing.

“Well done, Cheeseman,” she nodded appreciatively, looking like she was already contemplating how to follow this up.

TO BE CONTINUED


	152. Their Affection For Surprises

It really felt as though it should have been more of a surprise that, by the time they’d both gone on their way and joined their friends for their first classes of the day, everyone already seemed to know about Lucas’ great leap of a ‘performance.’ Several people had been quick to hold up their phones and film his cheese-dipped serenade to Maya, following this up by sharing those videos with friends and the collective strangers of the internet.

“Okay, I get it, it’s hilarious,” Lucas repeatedly waved off amused classmates with a smile throughout the morning’s classes.

The fact that he soon started receiving messages from his friends in Boston and New York, wanting to know what on Earth had gotten into him, had taken him only a moment to figure out. Who could have sent it to them, who would have seen it and found it so funny that he had to share? _Dylan_.

As he was getting out of his last morning class, Lucas pulled out his phone, aiming to text Maya and ask how things looked on her end. They were hoping to share lunch together today, which would inevitably be left to be decided by what they both needed to do and if they could actually manage a sit-down lunch. He was just opening up the message window to start writing, when he heard someone call his name, heard _her_ call his name.

“Lucas!” He turned, finding Maya speeding up the hall toward him.

“Hey, I didn’t know it would get around this fast,” he insisted, holding up his hands as though he feared retaliation of some sort for a morning of people coming up to her over the videos, too. When she grabbed hold of his arms, he was sure he was about to get an earful, despite his disclaimer. What he got instead was easily the furthest thing from what he might have expected.

“Your grandfather’s here,” she informed him.

“My… What?” he frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean your _grandfather_ , commonly known as Pappy Joe, you know the guy,” Maya gave him a nod and a flare of frustration that he wasn’t getting this.

“Here…” he repeated, still needing more information from her. “In Houston?”

“In the building,” Maya sighed, pulling him along.

“On his own?” Lucas asked. The guy hadn’t been the same since his fall, and the thought that he might go off to Houston on his own shouldn’t have carried so much of surprise, except…

“No. Not on his own.”

Maya had done everything in her power to ensure she and Lucas could have that lunch date today. This came down to finishing up something she was due to hand in to Professor Robinson, for the work they did together, and bringing it over to her office before she could finally dash off to find her boyfriend.

She was too caught up in running through her notes one last time, as she reached the door and fished out her key, to even catch on to the sound of voices inside, that might indicate the professor was already there. This meant that, when she did get the door open, she came to a sudden and startled stop, as she found Professor Robinson sitting in one of the chairs set in front of her desk, but more so for the fact that Joseph Friar sat in the chair next to hers, the two of them turned toward one another as they laughed over whatever had just been said.

“Maya,” Pappy Joe smiled brightly as he stood up to embrace his grandson’s girlfriend in greeting. She was sure she hugged him back solely on reflex, as her brain was still trying to adjust to the fact that he was here, _here…_ in the professor’s office of all places. “We were just talking about you.”

“You were?” she asked, looking from his face to the professor’s.

“I was telling him about the project,” Professor Robinson nodded with a smile.

“That’s nice,” Maya blurted, then, blinking, “So, what are you doing here?” She didn’t know if she actually sounded casual as she asked this, but she had certainly been trying to.

“Oh, well, Patty and I had been trying to figure out a day where I could come up and visit, and one thing led to another, and now… here I am,” Pappy Joe informed her before turning back to the woman who shared his grin.

When Maya finished recounting all this to him, Lucas was still simply too stunned to know what to make of it, so on that the two of them were of one mind. She went on to explain how she’d just sort of handed in her notes to the professor before telling the two of them that she was supposed to go and meet up with him for lunch, which led to…

“We’ve been invited… to lunch… with Professor Robinson and your grandfather,” Maya informed him, her voice sounding a whole lot like ‘what are we supposed to do with that?’

“On Valentine’s Day,” Lucas stated, like it really felt necessary to highlight the fact that this was the day. “The four of us…”

“Those are the facts, yes,” Maya nodded.

“No chance we’re getting out of this?” he had to wonder… had to at least try. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the idea of lunch with his grandfather, and it wasn’t as though he didn’t like Professor Robinson, but this… The both of them, today, and then Maya and him, too…

“Relax, it’s only the café,” she pointed out. That did help realign a thing or two. It wasn’t like they were off to some fancy, romantic restaurant or anything.

Then again, they walked into the café and it seemed more like they walked straight into a Valentine’s cannon explosion. There was a sign near the door that said ‘guess the number of hearts, win a coffee and pastry,’ and guessing really felt like the safe route. The room had been decorated by Dylan and Riley, and at a rapid glance, they couldn’t imagine that the place held any less than hundreds of hearts in some shape or form. Maya and Lucas turned to one another, and for a moment they forgot the other pair as they started to laugh, easily betting on their having thought the same thing. If it was cheese which they were after…

“Looks like Cupid threw up in here,” Pappy Joe apprised, all the while sounding sort of amused by it. Both Maya and Lucas looked the tiniest bit apprehensive over this statement, but the professor only laughed and nodded.

“It does call on excess, doesn’t it?”

As they all sat together around a table, it soon became that Lucas and his grandfather went off to get food for themselves while Maya and the professor waited back at the table. Here again, Maya and Lucas were of one mind, even as one stood at the counter – trying very hard to convey to his friend on the other side that he’d prefer he didn’t go on about the video from earlier that morning – and the other discussed the notes she’d dropped off.

It had been all of a month and a half since Joseph Friar had first met Patty Robinson, and in that time the initial spark, which seemed to have taken them both the moment they met, had only continued to spread and to grow, where it might have fizzed out.

Really, if they could get past the inexplicable weirdness of it all, the connection between the pair was actually… kind of a wonderful miracle to them. Here were two people who meant so much to them. On the one hand, Lucas’ grandfather, a lifelong inspiration, and on the other, Maya’s professor, who had come into her life the previous year like a rush of wind. The idea that the two of them might find something with one another, something like… like the potential for love…

It wasn’t even to do with the fact that they were getting on in their years, the both of them, and that they had this thing in common, where they stood widowed from the first loves of their lives. Really, it came down to acknowledging that they were very much alive and still very much deserving of new chapters in their lives, romantic or otherwise. As the weeks following their first encounter had started to accumulate, it still remained open for debate whether this would turn into anything more than a profound friendship, but now…

Of all the days for Joseph Friar to drop everything and drive to Houston to have lunch with Patty Robinson, the fact that he’d done it on February 14th… Maya and Lucas could go and pretend all they liked that it might have been a coincidence, that they might not have seen the day as bearing any sort of ‘power,’ but really, anyone looking at the man and woman sitting once more at the table, with their grandson and student, would have found no difficulty at all in settling this debate in favor of romance.

“You know what I keep thinking?” Lucas had asked Maya as they’d gone to rejoin the two, after she’d come to find him and tell him that his grandfather was at the university.

“No, what?” she’d asked.

“My grandfather’s got this more… impulsive side to him sometimes, and lately it feels like he’s really in touch with it. I don’t know about the professor, but it wouldn’t surprise me coming from him if he wanted to just… skip ahead.”

“Skip ahead,” Maya repeated, not understanding at first, but then, blinking. “Oh, you mean like… marriage, or…”

“I don’t know, maybe? I could see him doing it though, like he’d just think… Who knows how long we’ve got left, so why not, why wait?”

“That’s true for anyone, isn’t it?” Maya had given him a smirk, and on that he couldn’t exactly argue against. “Would it be such a bad thing if they did that?”

“Not bad, just… I don’t know, I guess I just don’t want Pappy Joe to get hurt… or Professor Robinson.”

“They’re grown people,” Maya had reminded him with a knowing smile. “No one’s going to decide except them.”

And now, sitting at their table in the heart-covered café, Maya and Lucas both looked at the man and woman who’d invited them to join their lunch, and it felt like… Maybe Joseph Friar wouldn’t go so far as to go down on one knee – and not just because he probably wouldn’t be physically able to do so – but the fact that he might love Patty Robinson was a whole lot more tangible a possibility, and so was the reverse. How this would take shape going forward, no one could say, not even ‘Pappy and Patty.’ All they could assume was that they’d be seeing a lot more of Pappy Joe in Houston from now on.

“So, the next time we see each other,” Lucas told Maya, after they’d finished lunch and parted ways with their ‘hosts.’

“Four breakups, six proposals, you pick me up, shoes in hand, home… stuff…” she met his eye with a grin.

“Sounds about right,” he nodded, briefly kissing her. His phone gave a ping and he didn’t even bother to take it from his pocket, knowing what it would be. By the way she tried to stifle her laugh, Maya had to have a good idea, too. “Hey, I stand by my… cheese,” he nodded.

“Yeah, you do,” she stared up at him, singing under her breath the song he’d practically shouted earlier. He was so cute when he got shy… “I’m glad there are videos,” she told him. “Cheese or no, all I cared about was that it was you, for me, remembering…”

“If we’re keeping count, does that mean that you… owe me some cheese in return?” he wondered aloud. She didn’t reply either way; her eyes said it all.

TO BE CONTINUED


	153. Their Affection For Discoveries

Once lunch was over, they knew they wouldn’t get to see each other again until much later, once they were through with both classes and work. It was hardly ideal on a day like this, with the world seemingly hellbent on making them think of love and the one they loved. The best way they knew, to compensate for this, involved messages… and an abundance of cheese. This resolved itself in overly emotive selfies from Maya and silly poetry from Lucas. Each one they received was met with an amused chuckle coupled with a warm feeling swelling out of their chests.

For all that, Maya still had one more mission to accomplish, to answer to Lucas and his display by the coffee cart that morning. She’d been turning ideas over and over in her head all day, and then an answer finally started to take shape. It all started from a conversation she had with one of her classmates. They were discussing their jobs, and as she mentioned how busy she’d be at the restaurant, he told her what _he’d_ be doing, which immediately sent the wheels spinning in her head. Was there a chance she could make him a little busier? _What do you need?_

As expected, everything was very quiet at the bookstore that night. It was just Lucas and Rosa out front, with Tracy in her office, ready to assist if they suddenly found themselves met with an excess of customers. This did not look likely to happen.

“What are you doing?” Lucas asked, seeing how Rosa had moved to peel off the chain of hearts wrapped over the edge of one of the display tables. She looked back at him like she didn’t see the issue.

“What, it’s over,” she shrugged. “If they haven’t gotten whatever they needed to get for tonight by now then that’s not our problem, is it?” she asked, with a good rip of another heart chain. The way she looked so satisfied as she did it, Lucas suspected that her primary reason had more to do with her being tired of seeing all these decorations at every turn. He didn’t argue.

He was looking through some order forms when a curious noise out of Rosa made him look over. She was looking out the window, and he followed her line of sight just in time to spot the group of people walking toward the store’s main door. By the way they were dressed, he got the impression they weren’t here as customers, but then who knew anymore? Maybe they were coming straight from Cupid Academy.

The four guys looked vaguely familiar, and he figured maybe they went to the same school. If you saw the same faces over and over again, they’d start growing familiar sooner or later. Maybe it was the costumes, but he was sure they’d been at the house last Halloween.

“Can I help you?” Lucas asked, finding the four of them had come to a stop before him, stood almost in a half-circle. One of the guys smirked, and then there was music inside Coleman’s Books.

When Maya arrived at the restaurant, she didn’t have long to wonder if the night would be as busy as they’d projected. Leona was manning the phone, looking harried and overrun with reservations being refused, as they were fully booked and only taking people as they would come. She was not one who found it so easy to shut down anyone who would be overly rude about it, as was the case now.

“Hand it over,” Maya motioned to the phone. Leona looked more than happy to oblige. She spoke to the man on the line and, by the time they hung up, she had him apologizing as though he was a schoolboy who’d been rude to his teacher. She tried so hard not to be made proud by this, but what could she do?

“Thanks,” Leona smiled meekly.

“You are so welcome,” Maya grinned, with the mischief to mirror her friend and co-worker. “So, all booked up?”

“Yeah,” Leona gestured to the screen before her. “I even cashed in my freebie when Dylan called earlier…”

“Wait, Dylan, _our_ Dylan?” Maya asked, surprised, as she came and scanned the list. _Orlando x2_. He hadn’t said a word to her about wanting to take Riley here for their first Valentine’s Day together, but then again, she supposed it made sense. He would want to go through ‘the proper channels’ instead of asking for favors. The fact that he had technically gotten one anyway via Leona’s table would remain for the two waitresses alone to know.

“Do you think they’ll tick any of the pools?” Leona wondered. Maya looked at her, blinked. Break-ups, proposals… As to the first, she sincerely doubted, and for the second… It was way too soon, but then it was Riley and Dylan, so who really knew what they’d do? The thought settled in like dread, over just how wrong it could all go.

The evening kicked off all at once, and from the start it did not let up. Chef Isabel’s policy was efficiency. They weren’t about to rush anyone through their meals, but they had to mind the number of people who’d be coming through the restaurant that evening. Maya foresaw a few more instances of her needing to ‘rescue’ Leona as she had done with the phone. It wasn’t that she couldn’t hold her own but, sooner or later, she’d need a nudge. Maya, meanwhile, was in her element. She had embraced the chaos.

“Maya!” a familiar voice called, and she turned to find two of her friends and roommates dressed in their finest and being led through the packed dining room.

“Look at you two,” she beamed before looking to the hostess. “I’ve got them,” she told her, leading Riley and Dylan over to their reserved table. Riley was wearing a dress she had borrowed out of Maya’s closet. She recognized it, though neither of the girls saw the need to mention it. The rule between the four of them girls in the house was ‘what’s mine is yours.’ If anything was off-limits for one reason or another, they had ways of letting each other know.

They had all eaten here before, plenty of times, but tonight, Riley and Dylan’s being there on their own seemed to transform the restaurant into a brand-new place for them. It could have felt like spending Valentine’s Day here, with just over a month under their belt as a couple, might have teetered on the edge of ‘too early?’ for some people, but then they were hardly strangers to one another, were they? Not unlike with Lucas and herself, they had this great long friendship to hold on to and save themselves from the oddities of early days.

“Do you want me to do the whole thing?” Maya asked her friends as they sat across from one another and she handed them their menus.

“Oh, would you?” Riley asked brightly. Maya chuckled before clearing her throat and launching into her explanation over the menu and the day’s specials. She left them to look through on their own, walking off with a smile, sneaking a quick look back to the couple, looking to one another like they had forgotten every last person inside the restaurant but the two of them.

The timing was just perfect enough that, after getting them to their table, she had a short break. She knew that, by now, her latest surprise for Lucas would have passed, and she was dying to hear how it had gone as much as she wanted to tell him about who she had in the dining room. She hurried into the back room and took out her phone, where she found a message waiting.

_Lucas: Well played, Cheese Queen._

“Was it a good show?” she laughed when he picked up the phone.

“Good thing this happened after _my_ show, I would never have gotten up the nerve,” he replied, which only made her laugh more.

Her classmate, Devon, had told her about his quartet, not quite Barbershop style, and how they did sung messages and would be running around left and right tonight. When she’d asked if they’d do one for her, too, he had agreed at once. _One singer to another_. She’d looked at the few videos they had online, and they sounded amazing. Add to this the costumes they would wear…

“Hey, you sounded great, don’t sell yourself short,” she insisted. “I would have repaid your serenade in person, but I didn’t get the chance, so I sent you a bunch of dudes instead…”

“I could really hear you in there,” he promised, and she could just hear the smile on his face.

“In the bunch of dudes,” Maya laughed.

“Sure, he replied. “You and me, we can have our own… duet, on the ride home.”

“Harmonizing, yes, that’ll keep me from dozing off,” she sighed, before she remembered what she’d wanted to tell him. “Hey, so Riley and Dylan are here tonight.”

“Yeah?” he asked, surprised. “He did say he wanted to give her a special night, I thought he’d take her somewhere they’d never gone before.”

“Special, yeah,” she spoke, her mind running back to what Leona had said earlier, about the pool and whether the two of them would end up being part of it in one way or another.

“Maya?” Lucas asked, which made her wonder if she had been silent a while. She snuck out of the back room, creeping up to where she could see into the dining room and to the table where their friends sat.

“You don’t think he’d actually… propose to her tonight, do you?” she asked in a low voice.

“Who, Dylan?” Lucas asked, sounding blindsided by the question. “Why, I mean they’re…”

“What, young? Have you forgotten Mr. & Mrs. Minkus? It’s Dylan and Riley, do you really think they wouldn’t have it in them, when our geniuses beat them to it?” There was a pause, which was answer enough: yes, he would deem it a possibility, just as she did.

“What are we supposed to do?” Lucas finally asked.

“Nothing, I guess. We can’t force them to do or not do anything, you know? We’re just going to have to wait and see.”

After they hung up, Maya put her phone away and went back into the dining room. It had not let up in those few minutes. If anything, it looked crazier. As she crossed paths with Lion, he let her know she’d missed one break-up _and_ an engagement, but she was mostly certain he was joking. Still, her eyes darted to Riley and Dylan’s table. Everything looked normal.

Their time at the restaurant that night didn’t add anything to either side of the pool, and Maya was relieved, truth be told. They had a great time though, and that was all any of them could hope for.

She wanted so much for them to have a wonderful story together. They were two of the dearest people in her life, and they deserved the world. Sometimes, she wondered what it might have been like for them if they had managed to get together much earlier, around the time when Dylan had first realized his feelings for Riley, but… no… This way was the right way, the way it had happened.

The evening’s events did not lessen the whole of their entertainment value, once her friends were gone. As expected, there were a number of break-ups and engagements, thankfully no double downs on proposals followed by break-ups. Maya just barely edged out Lion for the win. She chose to use her winnings to buy a full cake from the kitchen, the better to take home to her own Valentine…

She stepped outside with the box in hand and took a seat on the nearby bench. She had only been halfway joking when she’d said she’d be waiting with her shoes in her hands, but now that the night was coming to a stop, it was exactly how he would come by her as he pulled up.

TO BE CONTINUED


	154. Their Affection For the Night

As he drove up to the restaurant that night, Lucas had to smile, spotting Maya sitting out on the bench, shoes in either hand and flexing her feet as she let them dangle in front of herself. She didn’t move to stand when she saw him come along, just followed him with her eyes as he first parked and then climbed out to walk up to her.

“Is that a… bow tie?” she asked, squinting up at him from where she sat and staring at the thing around his neck.

“Courtesy of Rosa,” he confirmed. “She was bored, she had paper and elastics… She also made this for you,” he produced a paper flower mounted on an elastic, which he placed around her wrist.

“Does this mean I have to dance?” she asked, holding up her shoes. When he said no, she beamed. “It’s beautiful, thanks.” He sat next to her, prodded the top of the box sitting between them.

“What’s that?”

“Cake,” she revealed. “I won the pool.” He gave her a curious look. _Which_ cake? “The honey one,” she smiled, knowing it was his favorite from their menu. “Just pace yourself, yeah?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you, I just got ‘cake,’” he teased before getting up again and staring down at her like he was considering his course of action. “Give me those? And that?” he pointed to her shoes and then the box at her side. “Bag, too,” he added. She gave everything as instructed, a curious smile on her face. She watched him head back to the car.

“You’re coming back, right?” she called. He put everything on the back seat and returned to her after having opened the passenger side door. “What are y… oh!” she startled, smirking, when he reached down and scooped her up in his arms with a smile. She looped her arms around his neck and he carried her to the car. “You should be careful, special treatment like that might make me get ideas for the next times.”

“I don’t mind,” he assured her before depositing her into her seat. He closed the door and jogged around to the other side, climbing into the driver’s seat to find Maya inspecting her paper corsage with a contented smile. “So how was it?” Lucas asked, turning to talk before they’d head home.

“Long,” Maya hummed, laying her head to the seat. “Good, but…”

“Long,” he repeated with a nod.

“Yeah,” she nodded back, tugging her hair free and running her fingers through it. “But it was worth it. Not so much with the break-ups, those were just awkward, and sad… One girl was left behind after her boyfriend took off. It was Lion’s table, he brought her water, and buns, then a drink, until one of her friends came to pick her up.”

“Was she okay?” Lucas asked.

“By the end she’d pretty much moved into anger, so she was over him,” Maya shrugged before deciding it might be best to focus on the good parts. “Six proposals though, _six._ At one point, we had two of them happen so close to one another, it was like we needed photo finish to know who said yes first. People in the dining room didn’t know which side they were clapping for anymore.”

“What about the guy from the kitchen?” Lucas smiled.

“Oh, that,” she chuckled, remembering. “As it turns out, they were both planning to pop the question to each other, and when the moment came, it all happened in such a way that they said it one over the other, because they’d figured out what they were both plotting. It made things complicated with the pool at the end of the night. Some people wanted it to count for two, since it was proposals we counted, not just engagements, and technically they _both_ proposed…” she explained, ending on an eyeroll.

“Totally counts as one,” Lucas nodded in agreement. This earned him a small wave, to invite him to lean forward, followed by a kiss. They’d both been waiting so long for the day to be over, to be together again, and now here they were. “Home?” he asked as they pulled back.

“Please,” she tipped her head back to her seat. They drove off then, on their way home for cake and a very late Valentine’s Day, even as the last of February 14th was shrinking away from them. Lucas rolled the window down, cranked up the music. She smiled. “Harmonizing?” she asked, looking back.

By the time they got home, Lucas resumed his role as ‘valiant carrier’ and brought Maya along in his arms, with shoes, bag, and cake box in her lap, too. As she was being led up to and into the house, Maya maintained with deep fervor that she would get him to duet with her on stage sooner or later. As much as he would insist that he wasn’t that good of a singer, she wouldn’t hear it.

“We sounded amazing.”

“ _You_ sounded amazing, _I_ let you bury me so it’d sound better.”

“You’re dreaming, I could listen to you all day,” she looked up to him with dreamy eyes.

“ _You’re_ delirious,” he chuckled as they started toward the stairs, only to stop when…

“Wait, spoons!” she turned her head and pointed back toward the kitchen. Lucas, ever committed to his carrying her and keeping her off her ‘poor burning feet,’ carried her over to the kitchen. He held her near enough to pull two spoons from the drawer. “Milk, too,” she turned toward the fridge. He looked at her. “What, it’s cake,” she tapped the cake box balanced in her lap.

The carton was spirited away along with the rest, and so they were off up the stairs and to their room. All the other doors were shut, so it was anyone’s guess how the others’ nights had ended. Now, all that mattered was the two of them.

Lucas carried her into the room, maneuvering for her to set down shoes, bag, cake, spoons, and milk before sitting her on the edge of the bed. All at once she started twisting about, working to peel off her stockings.

“Don’t you laugh,” she ‘threatened,’ pulling and pulling until they came free. “Okay,” she breathed, wiggling her toes. “Now I’m good.”

“Cake now?” he asked, looking to the box and the things they’d grabbed from the kitchen. She scooted back into the middle of the mattress, crossing her legs beneath her and motioning for him to bring it all. He kicked off his shoes and socks, and he went and joined her. The box was opened, the spoons split, and then there was a sweet familiar scent in the air.

“Is it better than your mom’s cake?” Maya asked with a grin as they both took their first bites. He froze with the spoon stuck in his mouth, staring back at her with a look that said plainly he knew the answer, and she knew the answer, and his mother could _never_ know the answer. Maya just laughed and scooped up another bite.

“We’re driving home this weekend, yeah?” he asked. She nodded. “Sunday morning, you and me, capital D at Ma Maggie’s?” She brightened immediately at the thought.

“Think they’ll still have any of those mini waffles they do around this time?” she wondered, and he got a look like he was just remembering said waffles, and fondly so.

“If I call ahead and ask, maybe they might,” he suggested. Maya was all for this. She was getting her second wind, just a bit, despite her long day at school and especially at work. Between the cake, with the sizable dent they’d already made in it, and the return home, the peace of just him and her… and bare feet, yes, those helped a lot, too.

It was in times like these, with things that should have been so insignificant – like passing the carton of milk between them and taking good gulps to soothe the sweetness of the cake – where they felt most in touch with the luck of their circumstance. To be here, together, at a time like this, sharing in peace after a crazy day…

“So, are you ready for the Ultimate Cheese?” she asked with a furtive glance. He looked at her, with his next spoonful.

“I don’t know, I’m pretty committed to cake right now,” he pointed out. To prove his point, he stretched out his spoon arm, offering his next bite to her instead of having it himself. She smiled, accepting it, chewing and swallowing it before leaning over to kiss him, letting him regain some of the glaze from off her lips.

The cake was forgotten for a time, as he reached for her face and held it tenderly in his hand, ensuring the kiss would carry on, the contact would hold, and expand… He hardly had to try; she would stay and be held by him, kissed by him, for as long as she had breath in her lungs and restraint in her from jumping for what would come next.

Her brain was singing. Her heart was chiming in. _Harmony…_ For about as long as they had been a couple, it had not required any proximity to the fourteenth of February for the two of them to feel and act as though they could still hear the faint thrum of Cupid’s arrow on them. Everything remained bright, everything felt alive in the same way she might feel in the throes of creation. And for all that, here they were, on the fourteenth of February, and the day felt absolutely special.

Their anniversary would hit them with the realization of how much they had both lived together, and Valentine’s Day… Today felt as though all this love they felt and expressed for one another, on the day to day, was suddenly wide open for both of them to see, to exchange.

“I think…” she breathed after a while, “I think we need to put the cake away.” If there was any doubt to her meaning, he only had to catch the look in her eyes to know. Without a word, he collected the box, spoons, and carton, depositing them on his desk, also known as the nearest but not too near surface which wasn’t the floor.

In the months since Halloween, since the night neither of them would choose to refer to as their pregnancy scare, there had been an inevitable change in the way they saw certain aspects of their lives, which could not be helped. They were in no way ashamed of the things they had done and of what it had almost turned their lives into. But for all that, the conclusion remained the same.

They had miscalculated certain things and now… now they had to ensure it wouldn’t happen again, wouldn’t end in the opposite result, no matter how much they knew they would have accepted it, if it had come to pass sooner rather than later.

Much as they wanted to sidestep any repeats of Halloween, for a few years at least, it did not make either of them in any way wanting to put a stop to the whole of that part of their lives, not in the slightest. But… caution… they had to have so much more of caution… What it came down to was that Maya would keep a closer eye. Really, there was no other way around it, not the way they wanted to carry on as they’d done.

Later that night, later in a night already late, to the point where it nearly bordered on very early morning, the two of them lay curled up together under the covers. Maya could hear Lucas’ heartbeat under her ear, still not quite settled, same as hers. She felt like it would have been so easy to fall asleep at this point, teetering on the edge as she’d already been back when they both still had clothes on, but here she was, awake like him. It seemed too good a moment for sleep.

“Do you know what I’m thinking right now?” Lucas asked as he ran his fingers gently through her hair, up and down her back…

“Uh… ‘Gee, I could really go for some more cake right now, even if it’ll just keep me up all night’?” she guessed.

“Well, I wasn’t, but I am now,” he replied after a beat.

“Sorry,” she giggled. “What were you thinking before?”

“I was thinking about the seventh grade.” Now she was the one to pause, taken by surprise as she was by the answer.

“Okay…”

“It was really the last year where any teacher had us make any sort of Valentine’s Day card in class. You remember?”

“I… yeah,” she chuckled. “I don’t even remember what I put in mine. Actually, I think I spent the whole time just doing the cover and then the period was over and I never filled it in.” She’d been in Austin for not quite half a year yet at the time, so she didn’t feel at ease doing the card anyway. The more she remembered, the more she was sure she had spent so much time on the cover in order to run the clock out.

“I never sent my card out when I was done, but…”

“But I’m guessing the only reason you would even tell me this story, especially on this day and… at this very moment, is because the lucky would-be recipient was going to be me?” He nodded. “Really?” she smiled.

“I…” he shrugged, “It’s not like I had figured everything out by then, far from it, but I remember, when I was making it… You were the one I thought about, right from the start.” She made a noise like ‘aww’ before stretching up to kiss him. He held her close, smiling.

“Do you still have it? What did it say? What did it look like?” she asked eagerly.

“I feel like it has to be in a box somewhere back at my parents’ house. On the front, I tried to draw the Statue of Liberty. Only she had a bow and arrow and wings like Cupid,” he revealed, which got her giggling. “It wasn’t that great,” he insisted.

“Again, stop selling yourself short, come on, Friar,” she shook her head in mock reproach. “What about inside?”

“Dear Maya,” he smiled. The words came to him a lot easier than he’d expected. “You are the coolest person I’ve ever met,” he recited, surprised at his thirteen-year-old self’s inner dorkiness. It certainly made Maya laugh as she listened, looking down at him. “I am really happy you moved to Texas. I know you miss New York, but I think if you give it a chance, this place will feel like home, too.”

“You had that one right,” Maya nodded.

“And then the rest was just… ‘Can I be your Valentine?’”

“So proper, so formal, so… Huckleberry,” she grinned. He squinted at her, taking hold of her before rolling them over together. Maya laughed, now looking up to Lucas as he leaned to kiss her again. She stretched her neck to meet that kiss, and he slid his hand beneath her head to support it. “And yes, you _can_ be my Valentine.”

“Yeah, I… I figured as much,” he smiled, pressing his forehead to hers. Looking to one another, the whole mad, crazy day got to feel like it had been going on so very long, and they were so okay with that. They were already not looking forward to having to get up in the morning and go to school, or anywhere else that wasn’t this room, this bed, and each other’s arms, but then there would be other mornings, and there would be other nights, for him and for her.

TO BE CONTINUED


	155. Their Break With Weeks

The semester had hit its stride, taking them from February and into March before any of them had time to notice. And now, as of today, they were on break. The house was loud with activity, as all six roommates prepared for a trip back to Austin for the days to follow.

“We can leave Trix and Lou at Rosa’s again, but I want to bring Peanut with us,” Lucas declared as he walked into their room with the pup in one arm. They’d had the little guy living with them for over a month now, and he was still getting used to all of them, humans and dogs alike. Except for Lucas… Peanut followed him around like the guy was his mother. It was no wonder he wanted to bring the dog with them.

“We need the Peanut, yeah, we do,” Maya cooed, coming up to scratch at the dog’s ears. He gave her a squeaking growl of a bark, tongue lolling as he leaned into the touch. Maya smiled. The dog may have loved Lucas the best, but he was really getting to like her, too. “You’re going to make some new friends, too.” They hadn’t gotten to introduce Peanut to the twins yet, and they could already guess what the girls would make of the pup. They’d have to convince them to let him go once their break was over and they had to come back to Houston.

At the very least, Lucas had kept up his promise not to take every single ownerless dog coming through the clinic back home. His days there, working with his aunt, had really been so great for him, and every one that came along was always his favorite time of the week. Now, with the break coming, he’d be missing a couple of those days, and he genuinely felt disappointed about it. He’d made friends with a nurse there, Bodhi, and he had promised to keep Lucas informed on some of the ongoing cases.

The novelty had not worn off for Maya either, as far as making him aware of her continued appreciation for his clinic gear. She had populated the whole of the pages sent by her little sister for her twenty-first birthday with drawings of her boyfriend in said gear, and a growing number of them could absolutely _not_ be shown to the girl who’d gifted her with the materials.

“Maya, can you come help me with something?” Riley appeared at the door.

“Sure, what’s up?” Maya asked, only to be taken by the hand and dragged off to her best friend’s room. Once there, Riley shut the door and turned to her. “You okay?” Maya couldn’t help but smirk.

“I don’t know, I just… I don’t know what to do.”

“About what?” Maya asked. Riley sat on the edge of the bed, inciting her friend to do the same.

“It’s just that… My parents don’t actually know that Dylan’s my boyfriend now,” she admitted. Maya blinked. How was that even possible anymore? It wasn’t like they’d been out of contact since January, how could they not know? “And when we go to Austin, we were thinking… maybe we’d like to stay together, at his parents’ house, at mine…”

“Oh,” Maya slowly nodded. “But you two haven’t… You’re not…”

It felt weird to say, but she knew that whenever Riley and Dylan actually slept together for the first time, she’d know about it, she’d be told. _You didn’t tell her when_ you _lost your virginity. You lied right to her face when she asked._ When she’d finally told her, she’d looked affronted for a few seconds, but then she’d forgotten to be upset and gone right into asking to hear about what had happened, how it had been. Maya had told as much as she’d been willing to tell and that had been that. But this was Riley here… She wouldn’t be able to hold back if she tried.

“No, I know,” Riley quickly insisted. “A-and we’re not going to, not there, I mean… not out there…” she blushed before getting back to the point. “We’re just used to being close by… a door away…”

Maya understood what she meant. Riley and Dylan’s experience of their budding romance was made inevitably unique, compared to hers and Lucas’, by the fact that they were already sharing a house. She couldn’t think of the number of times she’d come home from work or the library or even just from up the stairs in the middle of the night, only to find them watching something on television, or just chatting away. They were used to having access to one another if they couldn’t sleep and wanted to have someone to hang out with. But then once they got to Austin…

“Alright, look… You are not a kid anymore, none of us are. You are always going to be their daughter, but you’re also your own woman now, so you get to act like it. And if they don’t like it, then you can spend the whole time at the Orlandos’.” Maya closed this statement with a firm nod, leaving Riley to stare back at her, sort of nodding back but mostly looking terrified. “You should tell them before we head out there,” Maya suggested, softer now. “Give them time to adjust… Well, give your father time to adjust,” she amended, because one way or another, they both knew exactly who of Cory and Topanga Matthews would have the most need to ‘adjust.’

“We’re leaving in less than an hour, we’ll be there by lunch time,” Riley pointed out, rather than to say, ‘there won’t be enough time for that.’

“You’re the one who waited until now,” Maya countered. Riley sighed. “Maybe go through your mother? If anyone can argue in your favor, it’s Lawyer Mom Extraordinaire. We really need to make sure Dylan makes it back to Houston in one piece…”

“I don’t know how I feel about that joke,” Riley stared at her with those big saucer eyes.

By the time Maya left her, Riley was at the very least calling home to talk to her mother, so there was hope yet for things to go well once Dylan was moved from the ‘former student’ and ‘friend of daughter’ column into the ‘boyfriend’ one. Returning to their room, Maya came to find Lucas typing away at his screen. He looked up when he was done and held up the phone.

“Just heard back from a couple more of the old teams, they’re going to be in Austin in a couple days,” he confirmed, and she gasped, moving toward him.

“Who?” she asked.

“Kenji, and Sofia,” he told her. “I’m still waiting on a few more, but it’s looking like we might get them all back.”

It had been his task, as given to him, to coordinate the bringing in of their former teammates for this upcoming reunion/fundraiser they’d been working on. Dylan was in charge, as everything they were aiming to accumulate would be going to the community center where he worked, but it had admittedly started out as a completely different goal. The year before, as they’d been having their spring break, they’d heard about several of their former teammates getting together down in Miami, and they had thought it would be a wonderful thing for all of them to get together and have something like that the following year, which was now this year. Back then, it had also included a trip of some kind, taking them out of Texas. Once the idea of combining that first idea with doing something for the community center had been pieced together, of course, they had to adjust their previous plans. They may not have been headed for Florida, but they could still hold to their beach location. After that, they’d convinced their old teammates to travel en masse back into Texas, first to Austin to visit their families, of course, and then up to Houston for the event.

“Hey, Dylan!” Lucas called out, briefly startling Peanut. Their roommate came from his room and into theirs. “Got Kenji and Sofia for the beach,” Lucas told him, and Dylan grinned at once. Every once in a while, they would look at him as he came in and it would be like they were seeing him with the short hair for the first time all over again, even though they’d had nearly two months to get used to it by now.

“Also, Riley is talking to her mom right now, and she’s about to let her know you two are dating, so just, you know, lock your windows, keep an ear out for Mr. Matthews…” Maya told him, and Dylan chuckled. Maya kept a straight face, and his smile flickered. He turned now and moved off, they guessed, either to go and see Riley or to lock his windows.

“Speaking of boyfriends,” Lucas looked to Maya, “Still waiting to hear back from Scott.” His former basketball teammate, her former quiz teammate, and Riley’s former boyfriend was presently studying abroad, and though he wasn’t the only one in this position, in his case he had greeted the invitation with the warning that, much as he’d try to make it work and join them, he might not be able to swing the round trip, in which case he would only manage to be there in spirit. The closer they got to the event, the more they came to expect he wouldn’t be there.

Their packing and preparing was interrupted by a sudden and loud thudding sound, followed by a shout, emanating from down the hall in what they quickly found to be Sophie and Chiara’s room, as Maya and Lucas and soon Riley and Dylan, too, hurried out in search of the source of the noise. They came to find Sophie crouching worriedly over a fallen Chiara, who sat on the floor, holding on to her leg and bellowing a flurry of Italian words they knew enough to identify as swearing by now.

“What happened?” Riley asked, as the others crowded around. Lucas crouched next to Sophie.

“She was going to get another of our suitcases from the closet shelf and she fell,” Sophie quickly explained, holding to her girlfriend’s hand. “Look, you guys just keep doing what you gotta do, don’t wait on us. I’ll take her to the ER, if you leave before us, we’ll take my car, yeah?” she turned to Chiara, confirming that this plan worked for her. She nodded.

“Are you sure? We can wait,” Dylan insisted.

“No, she’s right,” Chiara breathed, biting back a cry when she tried to move and releasing it again with a new curse word.

Lucas picked up the girl and carried her down to Sophie’s car, and he watched them drive off, Maya, Riley, and Dylan at his side. It was somewhat reminiscent of New Year’s Eve, years before, when Dylan had suffered a fall and injury of his own, and with the four of them there, they could all expect the thought to be shared.

When they had all finished packing up their own things, taken Trix and Lou to Rosa’s house, and done everything they could have needed to do before leaving, they were left to decide whether to do as they’d been told or to ignore it and go see to the state of one friend, all the while supporting another who’d be worried up to her freckled ears.

Soon after, the four of them found their way into the ER waiting room, where Chiara still waited to be seen. When she and Sophie saw them arrive, much as they might have protested, they were just glad to see them.

The six stayed, and waited, and eventually they all left, heading back to their house in order to allow the girls to finish packing before they could start on their way to Austin a few hours later than planned. Chiara’s foot was wrapped in a bandage and she was now the reluctant bearer of a pair of crutches, but on the whole she would be fine. The delay had brought more worry than anything else, but it also caused an unexpected shift of affection, as Peanut the dog spent the length of the drive in Chiara’s arms, like he sensed her pain and wanted to make it go away.

TO BE CONTINUED


	156. Their Break With Distance

The roommates’ unplanned delay, as brought on by Chiara’s fall and the trip to the ER which followed, made it so that they all arrived in Austin much later than planned. There was nothing to be done for it, so here they were. They dropped off Sophie and her injured girlfriend over at the Zvolensky house first, the better to allow Chiara to settle down and rest, as she’d been instructed, all the while nursed by her willful girlfriend. After that, they were off to the Matthews house.

Riley’s conversation with her parents had incited a similar conversation between Dylan and _his_ parents. All the while, it hadn’t been that the two of them intended to hide their relationship. There was nothing _to_ hide, and they didn’t, not from anyone in Houston, but then in all this time they hadn’t exactly mentioned to either of their families that they were dating. When asked why that was, as they were pulling away from the Zvolensky house, Riley and Dylan turned to one another in the backseat, thinking on the question.

“I just knew she hadn’t told _her_ family yet, and I wanted to wait until then,” Dylan shrugged.

“I guess… I wanted to keep him mine for a little while,” Riley countered with a smile, which made _him_ smile, and Maya cleared her throat right here, feeling like they were a blink away from diving for each other. Looking through the rear-view mirror, she got her confirmation, seeing those amused looks on her friends’ faces. “He’ll be fine, right?”

“Your dad? Or Dylan?” Lucas asked, at the wheel. Maya tried not to chuckle.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Dylan asked, blessedly clueless. “Mr. Matthews always liked me… didn’t he?”

“Sure, everyone loves you, that’s who you are,” Maya smiled back at him, turned in her seat. “Last time he saw you though… you weren’t dating his daughter… or making out with his daughter… and who knows what you might be up to,” she went on quietly, watching both of her friends’ faces change, sitting side by side as they did.

“At least he’s had a few more hours to deal with it before you guys get there,” Lucas tried to reassure them. Seeing as the extent of Dylan’s family’s reaction to the news had been to say that they couldn’t wait to see both he and Riley, it had been decided that they would go and spend their first night back in Austin at _her_ parents’ house. Maya resisted the urge to refer to this as ‘ripping off the band aid,’ guessing their friends were already sufficiently spooked at the prospect of how it would go with Riley’s dad. _Oddly enough, he’d probably get a kick out of knowing he instilled this ‘fear’ in his daughter’s boyfriend._

They were left at the Matthews house with their bags, looking hesitant, as Maya and Lucas – and Peanut in Maya’s lap – continued on. They were heading first to Maya’s parents’ house, where they’d stay for dinner, after which they were bound for the Friar house for the night.

“I think the little guy’s fallen asleep,” Maya announced in a whisper, peering down to the curled up puppy in her arm. “That might be for the best. Nellie and Gracie have been learning to keep quiet with MJ around.” Lucas couldn’t keep his chuckle in, and Maya knew absolutely where it came from, of course. The twins could give their best effort, always, but they were still just toddlers, and a tiny sleeping puppy might challenge that resolve right quick.

When they pulled up to the house, they could see a pair of small faces looking out the living room window. Almost as soon as they’d been seen, they both disappeared, as the girls rolled and crawled off the couch which had served as their perch. At some point, they had managed to figure out how to get the door opened, and that was what they did now, only stopping on the front step when Maya called out and told them to do so.

“Maybe I should…” Lucas indicated the dog as the car stopped and was turned off.

“Yeah,” Maya agreed before carefully handing Peanut over and climbing out of the car, on her way to greet her sisters. This was received as a signal that it was safe to move, which Nellie was quick to welcome. She took off at once, dashing off to leap into her big sister’s arms. “Hey, hey, hey,” Maya laughed, squeezing as good as she got. “What’s this here?” she asked, noticing a colorful band aid near the firstborn twin’s elbow.

“Winnie,” Nellie poked at the bear with a smile.

“Yes, I’m familiar with the Pooh bear, but why’s he there?” Her little sister kept looking at her like she didn’t understand the question, and finally Maya got her own answer. “You just wanted to put it on because it was cute,” she nodded, and Nellie giggled. “Fair enough,” Maya kissed her cheek before setting her down and crouching to meet Gracie, who’d patiently waited her turn before finally jumping into her sister’s arms. “Hey, Mouse-Mouse,” Maya kissed her, too. “What about you, any bears to speak of?” Gracie presented her own arm, with an identical bandage laid over the very same spot. She could just picture their father dutifully angling the second bandage to match the first as closely as possible.

Peanut chose this moment to start and wake, letting out a telltale little yelp which drew the girls’ attention at once. They gasped, and Lucas held his finger to his lips to incite them to be cautiously quiet. They nodded, never looking away as he approached and came down to their eye level. Peanut yawned, looking around.

“Hi, hi,” Nellie whispered, reaching out her hand to gently touch the puppy, stroking down its ink black back. Peanut didn’t show any sign of being against this, so she did it again, all smiles. Gracie kept her hands close to herself, sufficiently contented to watch her twin rather than to reach in and disturb the small animal.

And as to small things, Maya looked back through the still open door only to spot a small blond boy teetering along in footy pyjamas. She moved to kneel just inside the doorway, smiling as her baby brother spotted her and came along on those feet of his, still new to walking but growing more and more proficient by the day. It was the first time she had the privilege to see this in person. When she got to scoop him up just before he could fall on his butt, she held him and expelled a breath rather than to allow herself to go and melt in wistful tears. After almost two years, much as she had accepted that this was just how it would have to be, there were still times when she hated realizing how much she was missing of her siblings’ growth, all those milestones…

“Well, now, Mr. Hunter,” Maya stroked her brother’s cheek with a smile. “If those two got out the door and _you_ almost did, too, the big question is where are our parents, mm?” MJ just looked at her and mimicked her shoulder shrug as best he could.

Katy and Shawn were soon located, deep in conversation in the kitchen until they spotted Maya and MJ there and moved into welcoming mode. Lucas soon joined them, with Nellie hoisted on to his shoulders, while Gracie walked cautiously with little Peanut in her arms, the pup once more asleep. All up to dinner and through the meal itself, he never left her hold. Nellie would help her sister as they ate, deftly manning both forks.

“Can he stay?” Gracie begged, when it was time for the twins to go to bed. Maya looked back to Lucas, the ‘official’ authority on all things Peanut. Lucas looked to the girl, who had relinquished the pup only so long as she had to, when she’d been sent off for her bath and then to put on her PJs. Now she was eyeing the dark little thing like she really just wanted to hold him again. They could already foresee a difficult parting when they took Peanut back to Houston…

“He really seems to like you guys already,” Lucas declared, stealing a look to Nellie, perched on her knees over on her own bed as she awaited the decision. “He’s still very little, now, what if he wakes up in the middle of the night and you don’t know what to do with him?”

“I get Daddy!” Nellie vowed.

“Well, she’s got you there,” Maya smirked.

So, they left Peanut in the care of Gracie Hunter for the night. They might come to regret adding more kindling to the problem of how the girls would deal when they took the dog away, but they would take their chances.

“Hey, give me a minute?” Maya told Lucas as they were coming down the stairs, ready to drive off to his parents’ house for the night.

“I’ll be at the car,” he nodded. Maya watched him go, saying goodnight to Shawn on the way, before climbing up the stairs again to find her mother in the nursery, rocking a fussy MJ to sleep.

“Hey, we’re heading out now,” Maya nodded out the door. Her mother nodded back in parting. “Earlier, when I arrived, I just… I overheard you and Dad talking,” Maya had to bring it up. “I’m not sure what I heard, so I just had to… Are you guys… Are you having another baby?”

“Oh, no, no,” her mother shook her head, whispering. “No, but, we…” she sighed, like she hadn’t planned on bringing this up but now saw no way around it. “We’ve been… discussing the possibility of trying for it, I guess.”

“Oh…” Maya blinked. “And did you decide?” she had to ask. She’d never asked it of either of her parents, whether they ever intended to have more children after the twins and MJ, and how many if they did, but now here they were.

“We didn’t get to finish the conversation before you and Lucas arrived,” Katy pointed out, then, “Would you _want_ more siblings?” Maya hesitated, not entirely sure how she felt on being included in this decision, on the one hand honored and on the other very aware it wasn’t exactly her choice to make.

“I mean…” she slowly replied, “I’m going to love any brother or sister that I get, you know that. The rest, I’m not…” After a pause, she shared the thought brought on by the question being put to her. “I don’t know where _he_ stands on this, but I’m guessing you _do_ want to. I don’t think you’d ask me that if you didn’t.” Katy considered this for a moment before letting out a breath, smiling. “Are you capping off at five, or are you going to keep going?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. It’s like I told Shawn. When I had you, I was young, I… wasn’t ready,” she shook her head, and Maya nodded in understanding. “And after that, it was just you and me for a long time, and I figured that was what it would always be, and I was more than happy that way. Then, Shawn came along, and we had Nellie, and Gracie, and then MJ, and now… I don’t think either of us knew what our lives would become when we left New York, and this, watching our little family grow…” she hummed, brushing at her now sleeping son’s fine hair, “I’m ready to see what could come next.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Maya smiled, touching her brother’s back as she leaned in to kiss her mother goodnight. Heading back down the stairs, she stopped to do the same with her father before moving to join Lucas at the car. He looked curious about what the hold up had been. She waved it off with a knowing look. “I’ll tell you later.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	157. Their Break With Absence

Waking up in their old homes, the first morning of any visit, whether it was for a single night, or a week, or more, it always felt for a moment like they didn’t know how to behave, like a part of them needed to be reminded that they were guests here and not residents. The rules were no longer what they had once been, when they’d been teens, kids… That did not stop them from having this reflex in them to act as though nothing had changed.

“Admit it, you’re more relaxed when we spend the night here instead of at my parents’,” Maya told Lucas as he finally woke up. She’d been awake about twenty minutes already, kept from sleeping again by this small crumb of a beat she was trying to tease out of the back of her mind and waiting to see if she might get a song out of it. When she felt Lucas’ hold shift, as it would when he’d start to wake, she took this in stride by turning herself around until they would be facing one another. He still had those half-opened sleepy eyes going, and his hair was a madness of morning messiness, but then she could always pinpoint the moment where his brain finally ‘booted up’ by the way his gaze would find her, and he’d give a sleepy smile.

“What?” he mumbled.

“You heard me,” she shook her head. He shook his head back, bringing her tighter into his arms as he leaned in to kiss her.

“Did I?” he asked, feeling her giggles rumble through joined lips.

The plan had been that they would all be taking off for the airport that morning, like their very own motorcade. All six of them would be taking off in a parent’s car, or a girlfriend’s mother’s second car, or in their own in Lucas’ case, and all in a row they would be making for the airport where they would pick up their friends and former teammates. They were all coming in from a number of cities, and a number of flights, though some of them had managed to get connecting flights which would land them combining with some of the others on the same Houston-bound flight.

That had been the plan, of course, until Chiara’s fall and the ensuing injury. This left them short one driver, and they really needed six drivers, six cars, to hold all passengers and associated luggage. So, as much as she lamented having to miss the arrivals and finally getting to meet so many of these people she’d been hearing so much about, Chiara was forced to relinquish her driving spot to Shawn, who volunteered to take her place. While they would all be gone, Chiara would hang out back at the Hunter-Hart house, with Katy and the kids and the dogs.

All in all, they would be waiting on five flights, landing in the span of about four hours. A few more of their friends would be coming in by road, on buses and trains and cars, but twenty-one of them would be descending upon the airport, and the roommates could not wait.

“Where to first?” Shawn turned to Maya as they all moved from the parking lot and into the terminal.

“San Diego,” Maya reported, checking the list she’d scribbled down, channeling her inner Nadine to track each flight and who they’d be getting from these, along with which car they’d end up in once they all left together. “We might be cutting it close, so let’s hurry.”

From this first flight they would be picking up four of their former teammates. They were all four a year behind them, on the end run of their very first year in college, after having been part of the new recruits taken on when the teams were reformed, nearly three years ago already. Zach Willis was flying in with Margot Covington, Billie Thompson, and June Meyer-Jones. Zach had come into the new team as a junior along with his then sophomore brother, Alexander. He had gone off to California last fall, while his little brother still had one more year to get through before he could possibly rejoin him. As for the girls, they had been a power trio on the new team from day one, and since graduating back in Austin they had carried on that energy with their new college team and were making quite a name for themselves.

The reunion was left to be hurried. The flight from San Diego came in nearly half an hour late, and now the next flight they were to meet, out of Toronto, was due to land before long, leaving the now ten of them no choice but to hurry onward. They were picking up three passengers this time, three of ‘the original twenty-four,’ the last teams their old school had had before the shut down. In this case, they were picking up Étienne St-Pierre, who had lost his final year of play, Anna Keller, who’d lost two, and Kenji Yamada, who’d been fortunate to be part of those reformed teams in his senior year.

After this, they had an hour to cool their heels, pick up the first seven’s luggage, get them off to the cars, and then grab something to eat before the flight out of Tampa would bring them three more of the old teams. Two of the ones they picked up here had been of the roommates’ graduating class. Blake Wilczewski and Sofia Velazquez had been of their reformed teams, too, and though they hadn’t expected to end up at the same school, in the same city, once they’d found one another there, one thing had led to another, and they were now a couple of almost a year. They were landing in Austin along with Sofia’s sister, Ana, who had been a senior when the roommates had been freshmen. She had graduated college by now, settled in Tampa and living with her little sister.

“Says here the London flight is going to be late,” Lucas reported as the group was moving toward the terminal some time later. Once they had dealt with the third group’s luggage, all they could do was sit and wait, everyone chatting away as they awaited the late flight, all the while minding the time, so they wouldn’t miss the arrival of the final flight, coming from New York.

“We might be cutting it close, maybe we should split up,” Sophie suggested.

“We’ll go!” Riley volunteered at once, pulling at Dylan’s arm even as he was already rising along with her. They took off along with a few of the others, promising to keep them posted. Not five minutes after they’d gone, the flight from London landed.

They’d been jokingly referring to this as the royal flight, not so much for its origin, more so for the passengers they awaited, all of them imposing figures in their histories within the former teams. Julianne Shelby, of course, had been instrumental in maintaining the team spirit even after they had been forced to disband, hosting them especially for the end of year parties. And then there was her older brother, Nathan, who had been the boys’ captain in their freshman year, coming along with Riya Chari, his counterpart in the girls’ team of that same year. While Julianne was now in her third year of college, Nathan and Riya had both graduated. They had also been wed, just the previous fall.

“Wait, _wait!_ ” Maya gasped, along with all the girls among them who’d been of that old team, when they zeroed in on Riya’s round little belly. “When did this happen and why weren’t we informed?” she grinned, though the words were caught in a flurry of similar questions from the others.

Whatever story they had to tell was interrupted as they suddenly realized they were joined by not two but three of the legendary Shelby siblings. There was Scott, slowly approaching from behind his older brother and sister, looking to his old friends and teammates.

“Hey… everyone… I made it,” he shrugged nervously. They could guess the reason why. Much as they’d all tried to carry on like it wouldn’t change their friendship, they had sort of drifted apart after his breakup with Riley.

“I’m really glad you’re here,” Maya was the first to step forward, smiling as she pulled him into a hug. “Come on, the others went ahead to wait on the New York flight.”

As eased and welcoming as she’d been, Maya still felt it necessary to send off a discreet text Riley’s way. _Heads up, Scott’s here w/Jul and Nate & Riya._ It wasn’t that she expected trouble out of this. She expected… She didn’t know _what_ she expected. The way things had ended between them, it hadn’t been that Riley and Scott had fallen out of whatever feelings they’d had, it was more about circumstances, about being realistic as they faced impending separation.

And now, nearly two years onward… Riley was happy with Dylan, so incredibly happy. Her relationship with Scott really felt like it belonged in another era, a time now ended, but what about him? How did Scott feel now, after all this time? And would it cause any problems?

_Riley: I know. He wrote from the plane._

Maya was surprised when she read this response. All this time, Riley had known he was coming, and she hadn’t said a word? As surprising as this was, Maya chose to see the good in it. There would be no drama here… she hoped.

They rejoined with the group by the New York gate, where they were told the flight had not come in yet but should be arriving on time, any moment now. The new arrivals were greeted by Riley, Dylan, and those who’d gone with them. Riya’s pregnancy here again was a big hit. The former captains, now husband and wife, were happy to tell their friends how they’d decided to keep it quiet for a while, out of superstition instilled in both of them that it would be better to wait.

As the final flight’s passengers came through at last, the group was joined by its biggest bunch yet, with eight people the roommates were most especially anxious to see. The moment both groups spotted each other, it was hard not to go off running to one another. But here they were, their friends out of New York and Boston, here were Zay and Nadine, who’d gone and joined the others to fly in together, and Farkle and Isadora, who had no inclinations toward basketball or the old teams but came anyway, and Joey and Rebecca, who were proud supporters and little more, and then Asher and Ray, both just itching to get back on that court with their old teammates.

“We’re all here,” Lucas remarked as they were collecting the last of the luggage before heading to the parking lot and splitting across the six cars. There were still a few they waited on, like Tommy and Lizzy who were taking a train, and Stevie and Rene arriving by bus, and the rest of the old girls’ team, Heather, Rachel, Melanie, and Tasha, who were all driving in, and then the rest of the new teams, those who were still attending their old school, before and after the rest of them had graduated. But they would all be there, all participating, so the statement held. They were all here, every last one of those they’d hoped would be there.

“We are,” Maya smiled, looking around at all these old friends and teammates of theirs, walking along, talking, and laughing... This great big family they’d created by joining those teams… It was still alive, thriving. And now, all of them reunited, they would go and do something for others, for the love of the sport which brought them together.

TO BE CONTINUED


	158. Their Break With News

After the ‘motorcade’ left the airport and split off like so many taxis to drop off their passengers where they needed to go, everyone went off about their days. They would be getting together again the following day, giving everyone time to settle in after their travels. Maya was going back to her parents’ house to look in on Chiara and take her back to the Zvolensky house, while Lucas headed back to _his_ parents’ house, knowing his mother especially would be glad for his presence and, as always, his assistance in some task or another.

When he walked back in though, what first caught his attention, much as he tried not to listen in, was his grandfather’s voice, his laughter. He was on the phone, and it didn’t take long to know who he was talking to. Professor Robinson, or as he called her… _Patricia_ … Lucas moved right along at this, unsure what he might overhear if he stayed too long. He climbed the steps up to the second floor.

“Everything go alright at the airport?” He turned, having passed by his parents’ room, where his father stood.

“Yeah, everyone’s here,” Lucas confirmed.

“Good. I’m heading out on a few errands, want to tag along before your mother poaches you?”

“Sure,” he chuckled. “Where are you going?

“Drug store, butcher’s, hardware, bank,” his father counted off. Lucas hesitated for a moment, a thought coming to him out of the blue. “If you need to go anywhere along the way…”

“No, well, I… I might need something at the bank. Meet you at the car, okay?”

It felt good to be back in Austin, to be driving through the area he’d grown up in. He loved his life in Houston, he did, but it would never hold the memories that Austin did. In times like these, he felt that he understood some of what Maya must have felt for New York after she’d left and come here for the first time. Of course, whenever he was in one city and missed the other, he only had to get in his car and drive a couple hours, whereas she didn’t have that option.

It felt even better to be on this drive with his father, the two of them talking about one thing and another as they went from one place to another, working through the errands that needed to be dealt with. It would be coming on dinner time once they got back to the house, and Lucas knew very well his father could have done all of this earlier, in the morning, while he and the others were at the airport. The fact that he’d waited all this time, ensuring he could spend this time with his son, made Lucas even happier for being here now.

“Right, I shouldn’t be long,” Tom Friar nodded as the car pulled to a stop outside the bank. “You want to go and pick up bread after you’re done?” he asked, pointing off to the bakery a few doors away.

“Actually, you’ll probably be done before I am,” Lucas replied, reaching in his pocket for the small key he’d retrieved from his room. His father stared at it for a moment, surprised, before settling back into his seat as he looked to his son.

“So, it’s happening?” he asked, showing how little need there was for either of them to state what Lucas was aiming to get with that key.

“I’m not saying I’m going to do it today, or this week, or even this year, I just… I’m at this point where it feels like it needs to be within reach, not two hours away… just in case,” he breathed. His father looked at him with that knowing expression of his, the one Lucas had seen so many times throughout his life, molded to whatever it was that his father could see in him, the joys and the disappointments, the highs and the lows. This one was the kind of high that came with elevation… He was moving forward, growing, further and further away from the baby boy he’d held in his arms nearly twenty-two years ago.

“Just in case,” he repeated with a bow of the head.

“Yeah,” Lucas felt the smile rise in him so smoothly, there was no effort or awareness to it. It was the kind of smile he would only ever get when he thought of her.

The woman who came to lead him down to his safe deposit box had been the same one who’d helped him set it up, the same who’d been there when he’d first opened his account as a kid, and that realization only fed into this feeling of being back in his hometown, in the place where he’d grown, especially as he went down with his key in hand.

Left alone with his box, he pulled the lid back. He’d placed a few other items here when he’d first gotten the box, but today he only cared about one thing. It was just there, the small box tucked in the corner. He picked it up, closing the lid of the large metal box with care not to let it clatter, and for a minute or so he just stood there, looking at the small box, fitting in his hand like a small piece of cake. The box itself was old, a little worn, but in a way, it would have felt strange if it wasn’t.

Pulling the top of the small box open, the creaking sound, the faint scent still lingering, the floral perfume his grandmother wore for as long as he knew her… It took him right back to the day he had received it. His mother’s mother had lingered long in illness before finally passing, though you would hardly have known it by looking at her, or at least _he_ had not realized it. Then again, he’d been eleven years old when she passed, and whenever he’d go and see her, she would light up. It wasn’t until a few years later that it really dawned on him that he hadn’t seen the truth of her condition.

The last day he ever saw her, she called him into her room while his parents and other visiting relatives were finishing up dinner. She told him to shut the door before directing him to open a drawer on a dresser, pull a wooden box from the bottom and carry it over to her. He watched her rummage through it until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out the small worn box, cracked it open, and then she slipped the pair of rings from her finger. Her hand shook, so she had him set them inside the small box. When he’d done so, she reached over, closing the box in his palm before pressing both his hands together over it with a smile.

“You hold on to these,” she spoke quietly, almost conspiratorially, willing him to listen with great attention. He nodded, not knowing what he was meant to do from this point. It must have been on his face, the way his grandmother smiled at him. “One day, if you’re lucky enough to meet someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, you will give her these,” she explained, squeezing his hands as they squeezed the box.

He blinked, finally understanding. Still, he was eleven, so the thought of love and marriage was so far beyond him, but then with these rings literally placed in his hands, he felt the magnitude of the gesture. It felt so impossible to even know how he’d be able to decide that it was time. When he told his grandmother as much, she just smiled on.

“You’ll know. When the right one comes along, you won’t be able _not_ to know.”

He wished he could tell her how right she’d been, wished she and Maya could have known one another. They would have gotten along so well, too, he was sure of it.

He looked to those two rings set in the box, right where he’d put them a decade ago. He hadn’t even told his parents that Granny Marianne had given them to him, not until after she’d passed and everyone had been looking for them, thinking maybe someone at the home had stolen them. When he’d told them about her giving them to him and what she’d said, his father had taken him to the bank, and they’d gotten the safe deposit box. There had never been any question of his giving them back. Those rings were his to hold on to, until the day came when they found their way on to the hand of the one who should have them.

It was like he’d told his father. It wouldn’t happen right away, but more and more it felt like it _could_ happen sooner rather than later, and if that happened, he wanted to be ready. For all he knew, he’d stay the course and wait two more years, but if he didn’t…

When he rejoined his father and they left the bank together, it felt like his hand couldn’t stop going to feel at his pocket, making sure that the box was still there. He only stopped fussing over it when he saw the amused look on his father’s face.

Arriving home again, he hurried up to his old room, relieved that Maya wasn’t back from her parents’ yet. Where could he put it? They’d be here for a few days more, and he could put it back in a drawer, as he’d done when he’d first gotten it, but then what if he forgot it here? He’d have to put it in one of his bags, all the while being careful that it was neither found nor lost. He packed and repacked it about six times before finally being satisfied enough to leave it alone. It couldn’t have happened fast enough, as a minute later he heard the door downstairs and knew Maya had returned.

He found her in the kitchen with his mother, who now held little Peanut. If Gracie Hunter had been instantly enamored with the puppy, Melinda Friar was giving her a run for her money. For how much he could have difficulty with strangers, Peanut looked like he’d almost just given in and let himself be held out of some understanding it would happen one way or another.

“Look who’s back,” Maya smiled, nodding to the pup. Lucas couldn’t say whether this had been for his own benefit, or Peanut’s, or both, except that soon as he saw him walk in, Peanut started to bark and wiggle in Melinda’s arms until he was finally relinquished and put back into Lucas’ arms.

“Hey, hey,” he was so happy to have the puppy back, too, after he’d been left in the care of Maya’s little sister. “Did Gracie have trouble giving him back?”

“She had that whole quivering lip going, but then I reminded her she’d get to see him again as long as we were in Austin, and then whenever we’d all see each other, so she agreed to let him go.”

“Good thing Nellie wasn’t the one to latch on, yeah?”

“Oh, you would never have gotten him back,” Maya agreed with a laugh.

They took Peanut out into the yard along with Dash, tossing a ball around. It was always a good feeling to watch the little dark one outpacing the other dogs, especially when remembering the state that he’d been in when he’d first been brought into the clinic. He could just manage to grasp the ball in his teeth now, and then he would skitter happily back to Lucas, the picture of canine pride. After dropping the ball at his feet, he would then go and run around Maya, looking up at her, barking eagerly. _Now you_ it said, and she would happily oblige him.

TO BE CONTINUED


	159. Their Break With Steps

The next morning started as many a morning used to start for the various former teammates, back when they’d been current ones. They had appointed their old high school as a meeting point from where to start a run, taking them off to the park and the hoops, where the non-players also visiting would wait with equipment and refreshments.

It didn’t take long to see which of them had or hadn’t kept up any sort of workout routine since they’d left the teams. Even fewer of them had actually kept on playing in college, not because they hadn’t wanted to but because it simply didn’t fit with what they needed to do in order to get where they wanted to get in life. It didn’t mean they didn’t play every once in a while, just for fun, but now here, training together… Oh, it took them back, and it felt good.

When they called it a day and split off to whatever other activity they had set out for this day, Lucas and Maya made their way back to her parents’ house. Both of them in notable need of a shower, Lucas insisted on letting her go first, so off she went to wash off the morning’s sweat and refresh herself until she was changed and feeling at ease. While Lucas went and had his turn, Shawn and Katy took off with the twins for a pediatrician’s appointment, leaving their eldest to look after their youngest, to said eldest’s noted delight.

“Alright, MJ, you want to show me those moves of yours?” Maya smiled, pulling the fifteen-month-old boy from his crib as she went and found that he had woken up from his nap. He looked much more interested in being held than in walking for the time being, so she carried him out of the nursery and down the stairs, to where the television was still playing the movie the twins had been watching before they left with their parents. “What’s this, huh?” Maya asked. Taking a seat as she crossed her legs beneath herself, she had her little brother still settled in her arms. “You want to sleep some more? That’s fine,” she hushed.

For a little while it seemed like MJ would go back to sleep, but eventually he must have gotten curious. He turned his head, again and again, until Maya finally had to turn him around, the better to see the screen. A few minutes more and he was wiggling in her arms until she set him down on the floor, where he climbed on to his feet and teetered closer to the screen. He turned back to look at her, a big smile on his face as he pointed to the animals running around.

“I know,” Maya matched his smile. She climbed down to the ground, as she sat and waited for him to come back toward her. When he did, she snatched him up and relished in his giggles, fueling him with good hugs and silliness. “Hey, you might be a big brother someday, can you believe it?” she whispered at him, cranking up the wonder in her tone, the better to make him look back at her with a similarly amazed look.

She couldn’t help it, _she_ had definitely been thinking about it, ever since the night before last, when her mother had confessed that she and Shawn were considering the possibility of having another baby. Of all the things she might have thought about in relation to this, what she’d gotten stuck on was that, with her still having two years and some dust of school left over in Houston, if her mother got pregnant in the months to come, this new brother or sister would be roughly the same age MJ was now by the time she got her degree. She’d miss loads of stuff again, and that would always make her a bit sad, but then here she was, with this small boy who missed no opportunity to show how much he loved her to bits, and she knew that, no matter what, everything would be alright.

“Maya?” she heard Lucas call.

“Down here,” she raised her brother up in the air, so he’d hopefully see them both from over the top of the couch. MJ squealed as she raised him and pulled him back down to her lap. Looking up, she saw Lucas come toward them smiling and looking much refreshed from their training now that he’d showered. “Hey, can you keep an eye on him for a bit, I’m supposed to call…” she motioned up the stairs.

“Hand him over,” Lucas nodded and held out his arms. MJ was passed up to him, and Lucas plopped down on the couch with his sort-of-almost-brother-in-law while Maya got up and moved into her former/current room. Picking up her laptop, she moved to sit at the bay window, propping up the computer on her legs and signing on to Skype. After a minute, the icon next to Sam’s name turned green, and she put in the call. A few seconds later, there was a connection, though the face appearing on the screen was not her brother’s.

“Hey, Maya,” their father sat there, in Sam’s room, at his computer. Maya didn’t know why he didn’t just make his own account, but then this didn’t matter as much as the fact that they were here, having this conversation.

In the weeks since they had ‘opened up communication,’ the pathway between Maya and her estranged father had been growing more and more stable as time advanced. Once upon a time, it would feel tenuous at best, sort of like one of those broken down rope bridges you yelled at characters in movies not to cross, knowing they were about to drop down a bottomless chasm to their most certain deaths. Even days before it had all started, she would have deemed this switch impossible, fated never to happen, but now…

They weren’t suddenly the best of friends; she didn’t suddenly call him Dad. She called him Kermit, and he never argued for or against that choice. But they had good conversations, good, sometimes lengthy conversations, and to her greatest surprise she genuinely looked forward to their calls now. It may have started that their way in was music, but over time this had expanded.

He would tell her about some tale or another of her siblings out in New York, both recent and going back to times before they’d been in her life. And it never made her feel like she was being reminded of his absence from her own childhood, never left a twisting feeling in her gut anymore. And she would tell him about school, about her work, both at the restaurant and with Professor Robinson. Of course, they still spoke of music a lot, about the band especially. A couple of times she’d played or sung something for him, a song she was working on, and he would provide some feedback. He really had a great ear for things like that.

A few weeks after she had entrusted her mother with the thumb drive Kermit had sent her, containing the videos from when she was a baby and toddler, she’d actually asked to get it back. Her mother had given her that cautious sort of motherly look. _Are you sure?_ She didn’t assume it would be a piece of cake all of a sudden, but she knew she wanted to see what else was on that drive, and she was readier than she’d been the first time. So, Katy had sent the drive over via messenger.

Once she’d received it, Maya hadn’t actually opened the envelope for three days, and even then, it was a week more before she sat down to try and watch any of it. She’d opened up that first video again, the one from the day she’d been born, which she’d never finished. If she could get through the parts she’d already seen, that would be something already. Even so, she’d gotten up to the part where she’d stopped the last time, and she could feel a slight nervousness rise in her for what would come next.

The young Kermit in the video, holding his newborn daughter after he’d just sung her to sleep, was replaced with a shot of a young Katy, sitting up in her hospital bed and holding the baby now, looking at her like she was the most incredible, improbable, most wonderful thing in the world. It had been stunning to Maya to see her mother that young, too, but of course it resonated in a whole other way. Her mother had been there the whole time, and it was easy to sort of forget the way she used to look when she’d seen her from day to day. But there she sat, an eighteen-year-old girl on day one of her motherhood, and she looked scared, too, but that fear coexisted alongside a trace of the fierce protection she would forever embody for her daughter, whether or not Maya always saw it.

“Hey… Hey, baby girl,” the young Katy smiled down to the babe in her arms from beneath a veil of happy tears rising in her eyes. After a few seconds, the camera steadied with a thud, as it had been set down. A moment later, the young Kermit came to sit at the edge of the bed, looking to the newborn, too. “Can’t believe how small she is,” Katy sniffled.

“She’s okay, isn’t she?” Kermit asked, reaching over, lightly holding the little foot dangling out the barely wrapped baby.

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that,” Katy shook her head. Maya bit back a chuckle, hearing this. She remembered her mother telling her about this moment, about how small she’d been and how unbelievable it had been when held up against how big her mother had gotten by the end of her pregnancy, to the point where she’d wondered if she might have been having twins and no one had told her. To actually see the moment ‘live’ now, Maya felt a glowing happiness take hold in her chest.

She hadn’t watched all the videos yet. So far, she’d watched two more, after deciding she would pace herself, watching one every once in a while. The second had shown her homecoming, to a tiny apartment given as much grandeur as they could manage at the time, while the third showed a variety of small activities, from her waking up, through being dressed for the day, going for a stroll in her carriage, and going down for a nap, the whole thing chronicled and narrated by young Kermit. For as much as she’d been sure she wouldn’t be able to make it through, it didn’t feel the same as the first time, the day she’d received the drive. Now, after weeks of moving forward, looking back to this time felt wonderful.

Today, as she sat in the bay window, she told Kermit about being back in Austin and her old teammates being back in town for their basketball event, her father was the one to seek videos. He wondered if she had any recordings of her old high school games.

“Mr. Matthews filmed a bunch of them to send to Shawn. I don’t know if he still has them, but I can ask. I’ll send them if he’s got them.”

“I’d love that,” Kermit nodded. “Thank you.” Before they hung up, he offered to send a cheque over, his contribution to the effort, and she graciously accepted.

After the call ended, Maya reached down to where her bag sat nearby and pulled out the now familiar drive. She connected it to the computer before starting up the next video in line after those she’d seen. It showed young Kermit with his guitar, sitting next to her crib, and putting his own spin on the old nursery standards, and Maya smiled through it all. She knew deep down that the further down the line she went, the closer she’d get to the time where that young man in the video made a choice that would change all their lives. She didn’t know how she’d feel about seeing those, but she would get there.

TO BE CONTINUED


	160. Their Break With Games

Three days later, a large rented bus pulled up in front of their old high school, driven by a jolly man named Freddy. Already, many of his passengers on the journey from Austin to Houston had assembled, taken with such an energy that it really got to feel like he was the exact man for the job. The energy was bolstered by one suggestion made on the previous night, at the Shelby house.

It had only made sense, with all of them there, on break and on the verge of riding off to the event, that they should have a mega party down at Mr. & Mrs. Shelby’s house. Since Scott had graduated, the teams had been ‘Shelbyless’ for the first time in several years, but this would only last a few months more. After Matt, Kate, Nathan, Julianne, and Scott, the sixth of the eight Shelby siblings, Allison, was just one tryout away from carrying on the family legacy. Still, even in the ‘dry year,’ the house remained the place for the team to gather at year’s end to celebrate, and this day here was no different.

This was easily the largest gathering they’d ever had, with the original twenty-four, and the ‘rebirth’ roster both ongoing and graduated, and the six newest players having replaced the graduates, and a never before seen number of ‘civilians.’ It used to be that the parties were players only, which they still were, though, for the four years they’d spent in high school, Riley had always been welcomed as an honorary guest. This time, there was Riley, and there were Chiara, and Joey and Rebecca, and Farkle and Isadora, too.

Maya and Lucas had been there early, along with a few others, and as Maya, Julianne, and Riya were chatting over the set up of the drinks table, the talk turned to the event. Riya told her former teammates how, when they’d first invited her and Nathan, she hadn’t been pregnant yet, and afterward, when they _had_ found out, she’d kept fussing over whether she’d still fit in her old jersey by the time they headed to Houston. She’d pulled it out after getting the invitation, and as the weeks had rolled on and her body had started to change, the concern had started to build.

“I tried it on while we were packing. One more week and I don’t think it would have fit, but thankfully for now it does,” Riya smirked.

“You brought yours, too, yeah?” Maya pointed to Julianne, who gave a loose nod, as though to say ‘of course,’ before raising her eyebrows to inquire if Maya had brought hers, too. She had, even if she could have left it until the day of the event, since they’d be back in Houston. “Good… yeah… We should check with the others. We’re going to ride in style tomorrow.”

Not every one of them had packed their old jerseys, but those who hadn’t all expressed confidence that they’d have a spare somewhere back at their parents’ houses. A few of them even called, begging a parent or sibling to find the thing and toss it into the washing machine, just to be on the safe side.

So, it came to be on that next morning, the forty-seven current and former players boarded the bus in their school colors, numbers and names displayed just as proudly. Their six civilians were forced to ride back in Lucas’ car, as they would have pushed past maximum occupancy, though none of them showed much frustration on that part. The one exception to this came in the form of Allison Shelby, who was brought along, much as her older brother Scott had been integrated into a number of activities when he’d been on the cusp of joining the teams. The fact that it rounded their number of players to a solid forty-eight was just a bonus.

“We have to get this printed for everyone,” Nadine passed Maya’s camera back to her after getting a look at the pictures they’d taken of the forty-eight of them lined up in four rows of twelve in front of the bus, taken by Riley before everyone got on to the bus or into the car.

“Definitely,” Maya agreed with a grin, passing the camera to Lucas for him to see, too. They’d taken a few different shots, with Riley calling them to be serious here, wacky there. Everyone had done as told, gladly so. The serious shots were for frames and walls; the others would be looked to with fond memories and easy laughter, pointing out this one’s facial expression or that one’s pose.

Much of the conversations they would catch in the cacophony were retellings of this game or that party, shared between old friends who had all been present, or with newer players who hadn’t yet been part of this extended family of theirs. It was still much too early for any of them to be pulled into a high school reunion, but it did sort of feel the way they imagined those would go as they all rode the bus to Houston.

They were deposited outside a hotel, where many of their group would be spending the next two nights. Much as they would have loved to host everyone back at the house, there were simply way too many of them to have it feel manageable. Their house had always felt pretty big, all things considered, but right about now it showed in its modesty. So, they wouldn’t all be sleeping there, fine. That didn’t mean they couldn’t all gather there, to hang out, to practice, to organize…

In all this time, the roommates, those who had left Austin to come here almost two years ago, had never dreamed there might come a day where they would be out here in their house, surrounded with their former teammates in this way, and yet here they were. It was just a small pause between one half of the semester and the other, but in that moment, it felt like year’s end, with summer just ahead of them.

One of the highlights of the night, beyond the inevitable trip to the hoop outside the house, was how the gathering at one point somehow transformed from a hangout on the evening before the big event into two parties. First, there was a sort of late wedding/early baby shower for Riya and Nathan, and then there was a college end/academy start party for Sophie. They had Chiara to thank for the swift arrival of some themed cakes, as she’d benefited from her mobility restriction to put in a call to Ellie Beale at the bakery. They had no opportunity to go out and shop, but then Zay had started weaving around the house going from person to person with a bowl from the kitchen. Everyone put in what they could toward the Baby Shelby-Chari Fund, and in the end, they presented the lot to the young parents to be, who received this with gracious and thankful tears.

By the time they made it out to the hoop, most everyone was walking around with a piece of cake perched on a napkin, which gave way to a lot of ‘let me finish this first’ or ‘hold on to this for me.’ The shoot off ended about as appropriately as they could see it go, with Allison Shelby winning the night and being cheered on by siblings, and old heroes and future teammates, as the future of the girls’ team.

By the time they had to call it a night, to get some rest before the early start in the morning, Lucas and Sophie’s cars were used to ferry the many visitors back to the hotel. The rest of them would still be out playing in the yard, and then one driver or the other would show back up and another chunk of people would take off, until the last group set itself to assist the roommates in picking up around the house and the yard following the party. When the last of them had gone, driven by Lucas, the others headed up to bed, leaving only Maya, who naturally went and waited for her boyfriend’s return, sat on the front step with Peanut the pup. They’d get Trix and Lou back from Rosa the next day, and she couldn’t wait.

“Waiting up for me?” Lucas asked as he got out of the car upon returning.

“You know me, can’t sleep worth a damn without Dockleberry right there with me,” she shrugged with a smile as he came and sat next to her. Peanut got all excited when he saw Lucas was back, so Maya passed him over. Lucas kept the pup tucked in one arm, the other going around his girlfriend’s shoulders. She leaned right into that hold, breathing out at this moment of quiet peace after all the frenzy of the past few days.

“I get that,” he mumbled, lips pressed to the top of her head.

Somewhere in the middle of that whole night, with so many of their friends gathered at the house, he had briefly, quietly, considered pulling out that old box and going down on one knee, making his proposal to her right then and there. They were already in such a celebrating mood, so why not add to it?

It had only been a moment and then he’d changed his mind. For one thing, he hadn’t wanted the proposal to get lost in the already charged night. He wanted it to be special all on its own. And for another… After all this time, after going around with this half-made knowledge that sooner or later this was an event that would be part of their future, he really wanted it to feel like something more than an expected step on the road to… everything else. He wanted to catch her by surprise, wanted to… Alright, it almost sounded bad to say it like that, but he wanted to make her cry. Happy tears, of course, but he wanted her to get to feel those emotions, the same ones he got at the mere thought of finally going through with it.

And once he’d figured out that much, the idea, the real one, started to take shape in his head.

Maybe he wouldn’t have needed to get that box out of the bank just yet, because, if he pulled it all off, then he really wouldn’t need to have it near him ‘just in case,’ and yet… Maybe there would be a day where he really decided he couldn’t wait any longer, and if that happened then… He’d have everything he needed.

“We should go back in, it’s getting late,” Maya finally sighed, pulling him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah,” he nodded, getting up with Peanut asleep in one arm. He held out his hand and pulled Maya to her feet before they walked into the house and headed to their room.

“I’d like to go to New York over the summer,” she told him as they got ready for bed. “A couple weeks maybe, midway through or something,” she went on, looking back to him. “What do you think? We could stay with Farkle and Isadora.” She didn’t have to say the actual reason, but he knew it well enough. The way things were going with her and her birth father, these past few weeks, it was only natural that she’d want to carry on this stride and maybe try and spend time with him in person instead of across a screen. She was still apprehensive, of course, which was to be expected, but then she’d have him there with her, so no matter what…

“I think that’s a great idea,” he nodded, making her smile.

TO BE CONTINUED


	161. Their Break With the Beach

For early risers, you could find no better than Maya Hart. Long before the alarm they’d set could even come around to the idea of ringing, she was already up and set in motion, getting ready. She was showered and dressed and preparing breakfast for herself and the roommates down in the kitchen by the time anyone came to join her. Lucas would say that, while he’d always been prompt, he had never been such a morning person as when he’d started sharing a room and bed with her, so of course he’d been the one to follow, first making his way down to the basement bathroom for his own shower before finally joining her, taking the cup of coffee she handed him in between chopping onions and dropping them in the pan to go and sizzle with the rest.

“I have missed that jersey,” she told him as he stood there, leaning to the counter’s edge.

“You said so yesterday, too,” he reminded her. “Are all my clothes going to… inspire you?” She looked back at him, giving him a once over. She didn’t reply, though she smirked as she looked back to her pan. “I miss the long ponytail,” he reached out, tickling at the back of her bare neck below the still sort of short ponytail she could now muster.

“Hey,” she laughed, swatting his hand away. “You keep that up, you get no food.”

“Sorry, sorry,” he smiled, getting back to his coffee.

The table soon filled up with a couple more jerseys, courtesy of Dylan and Sophie, and two just as eager civilians. Riley took no time to show her allegiances might be divided between the girls – her usual choice – and her new boyfriend on the guys’ side. As for Chiara, she was simply happy to finally get to see her girlfriend in a real game, after having heard so many tales of her working toward being good enough for the team and then joining it in her senior year. Sure, it wouldn’t be part of a whole season, but just because it was a charity game did not mean there would be no competitiveness involved, not by a long shot. The old teams were still very skilled in their playful smack talk.

Dylan and Riley took off in Sophie’s car soon after breakfast, heading to the community center to pick up some equipment. In the meantime, the others would head to the beach to start and get things settled. The location called back to the previous year, how they had intended to remedy their not being out in the sun and sand with former teammates. As far as actually playing basketball, it was not ideal, but then they’d found a way to create their own court. Besides, the event wouldn’t just be about the game. There’d be food, and music, and other games, and, of course, the beach, the water…

Little by little, their old teammates and the current players back at their old school started to arrive from the hotel, instantly recruited as extra hands to get everything set up. The vans from the community center brought some of Dylan’s co-workers along with the borrowed equipment. Their arrival, along with everything the players had already done, and the sight of all their jerseys, quickly started to draw people’s attention, people who had just been at the beach with no idea of what was set to happen there that day. There were also others who clearly looked like they had come to participate in the activities.

“Hi, Coach!” a pair of boys shouted, both about seven or eight years old and wearing their own jerseys, from the center. They were waving at Dylan, and when he saw them, he waved back before jogging over to them and the woman who had to be their mother.

“That’s Fidelio’s wife,” Maya blinked, recognizing her. “And his boys, I didn’t even know they went to the center,” she smiled back to Riley. Speaking of the man from Chef Isabel’s kitchen, he appeared, moving to join his wife and sons, carrying a large cooler. It was almost weird not to see him dressed in kitchen mode, but at the same time the relaxed style really fit him. She gave a loud whistle to draw his attention before calling his name. When he looked up and saw her, he laughed and moved toward her.

“Miss Maya Hart,” he set down his cooler, looking like it was very much in his nature to greet with a hug, but he wanted to make sure she was on board first. She answered by reaching over and hugging him first, soon to have it reciprocated. “I had no idea you were a part of this.”

“It was her idea,” Riley piped in with a proud smile.

“My boyfriend and mine,” Maya specified. Really, it had been Lucas’ idea, though they _had_ worked it out together, so he would insist on her getting some of the credit, and even then, “Really Dylan was the one to take the lead after that.”

“Tony and Luis can’t say enough about him, they really look up to him,” Fidelio revealed, looking back to his family, still chatting with Dylan, who was crouched before the boys and pointing to one activity and another, still in the process of being set up. “If you need a hand…”

“We’ve got it covered,” Maya assured him. “Go on, enjoy the day,” she smiled.

Along with their band of past and present players and accompanying civilians, they also had local friends coming along to join them that day, and two of them arrived with some company of their own, the band of unified jerseys marking them almost like rivals, which they had been, once, and to some degree remained, though not today.

“Can we come and play, too?” Franny asked, as she and Kayla walked ahead of a group nearly as large as the one from their old school. The jerseys were familiar, too. These were players from _their_ old school. As they’d learn, they had the whole of the current teams there that day, along with about a dozen former players, including Franny and Kayla.

Nathan and Riya, who had been nearby, setting up some decorations, stopped and came over, spotting who Maya and Riley soon learned had been the team captains of the opposing team back when they’d been playing. They all stared each other down for a moment, like they were about to smack down, and then in the next beat they laughed and reached out to shake hands. The former captain of the other girls’ team noted and congratulated Riya on the baby, and the congratulations expanded when they learned it was Nathan’s as well.

“We’re so glad you came,” Maya looked back to her friends and classmates.

_“And miss this?”_ Kayla asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“We have teams from Houston schools, and others nearby, coming in to participate,” Riley told the girls. “And we’ve got sponsors!”

“We wouldn’t have pulled this off if we didn’t,” Maya added. Each one of the events they’d organized, from the senior year pup fund, to last year’s haircuts, and now this… It always started so small, and then it got bigger, and bigger, so it never felt so overwhelming in the process except when they got to the end, to the days themselves, when they would stop, and look around, see it all come together and think… they’d really done all that, they’d pulled it off.

When they finally kicked off the day, they did so from the stage set up near the makeshift court. They also did so side by side with their special guests. They had a handful of professional players with them, which had been the most incredible and unexpected get for them, enabled by Dylan’s boss at the center, who was a former player himself, back in the day.

In no time, it all got to be so massive, with so many people gathered, that losing sight of one another made everyone within the group at the heart of this day very thankful for their phones. Their group text became a series of queries as to where this person or that person had ended up, if they were on the court, or near the stage, or at the row of food trucks who were also on site for the day, or by the radio station’s booth, or off for a swim…

For a solid hour, no matter how many times they tried to get back to one another, neither Maya nor Lucas could manage it. They’d always be pulled off to one thing or another before they could get a hold of one another. The longer it went, the more their texts to one another suggested their increasing determination not to let the other out of their sight whenever they finally managed to get to one another. Maya claimed to have ‘somehow’ gotten her hands on some cuffs, while Lucas offered to keep her on his back the rest of the day like a backpack.

_Lucas: Incoming…_

She barely had the chance to see the text before she felt a pair of hands slip beneath her arms and legs and pick her up off the ground. She squealed and laughed, knowing without sight whose hands they were. She looked up as she looped her arms around her boyfriend’s neck for security, finding him with that smile that had her melting for nearly eight years.

“Found you,” he declared.

“Give the man a prize,” she kissed him before he set her down on her feet. “You stay with me now,” she ‘demanded,’ pointing at him.

“Where else would I go?”

The makeshift court was so well surrounded, it was a wonder anyone could get near it, but then that was one of the reasons they had set several of their former players on security mode. If they weren’t enough, the professional players had their entourage to keep everything flowing, too. Here, many of the kids from the center were taking advantage of the hoops, and of the demonstrations provided by the older players and the professionals, too. This was all leading up to smaller competitions between the various players, current and former, from the many schools represented in attendance. The winners would become two teams and face off against one another. Later, in the evening, when all this was said and done, there would of course be a shoot off. It was tradition.

The two of them weren’t going in for either of the teams. They’d decided that they would rather sit back and watch, to take in the sight of everything they’d worked on, alongside Dylan, to make this day happen. He wasn’t playing either, instead sitting along with his kids from the center, pointing out one player or another. The kids followed his every word, and they could really see it was as they’d been told. All the kids looked up to him.

“I am getting so many flashbacks right now,” Maya shook her head in awe, watching when Franny and Kayla came out to play. When they’d met in class the year before, even as she’d remembered them from their days on the opposing team, she couldn’t remember clearly enough to really attach the image to their faces now, but oh… Seeing them out there that day, owning it, she could really picture them out there, five years prior.

When at last the teams were created, complete with armbands to identify them, the blue team versus the red team, their gathered audience was ready. Of their people on site, both Allison and Scott Shelby were selected, she for the blue, he for the red, as well as Asher and Nadine, both for red, and then of their school’s contingent Kayla was also picked for the blue team.

“So, we just root for everyone,” Sophie declared as she and Chiara came to sit with their roommates to watch the game.

“That’s the idea,” Lucas nodded.

After a very tight game between the all-stars of the day, the blue team just edged out the red. Even the players could hardly get that upset over this, as their opponents also counted their friends.

“I really want to go for a swim before we get to the shoot off,” Lucas stretched as he stood. It was coming round to late afternoon/early evening, and soon they’d be making their way to the food trucks to grab something to eat, so this would really be as good of a time as any.

“You go, I go,” Maya stood, too, peeling off her jersey and shorts to reveal her swimsuit underneath. “Do you mind?” she turned to Chiara, feeling a bit guilty for leaving her as the clothing guard when she was noted as being the one of them who loved being in the water the most.

“Please, go on,” she shrugged, holding out her hands for Maya’s things. Lucas did the same, and then he and Maya hurried off. They’d really lucked out on weather for the day. They were as close to summer as they could get while still being in the month of March.

The closer they got to the water’s edge, the more they both started speeding along, until they were almost running, wanting to be the first one in. Maya got there first, swimming as soon as she could, though in the end Lucas caught up to her with ease. She blamed his long limbs, and he ‘apologized.’

“I don’t believe you,” she squinted at him with mock suspicion. She dipped below the surface just long enough to get her hair wet, emerging again and breathing out.

“Look,” he nodded back to the beach, the vastly occupied area. They couldn’t really grasp the scope of it, not like this, back on the ground. Maya swam up behind him, arms around his neck like a cape or a backpack, as promised earlier. She was amazed, too. To think it had all started with a small idea, shared in a shed in his parents’ backyard not three months ago…

“We have to keep doing these,” Maya told him. It never felt like so much work, even though it was. Always, it was all of them, friends having fun together, working toward a goal that wasn’t for their own benefit in the end, which ended up making it even better.

“What’s next year’s going to be?” he asked, slowly swimming around, dragging her along. She tightened her hold, beaming.

“No idea,” she shrugged. “But we’ll think of something. We always seem to find something.”

“Alright, deep breath, we’re going under,” he announced, and as they both took in some air, he carried them below the water’s surface, swimming them into a few seconds’ peace and quiet before returning to the thrumming sounds of the packed beach.

TO BE CONTINUED


	162. Their Vision For The Time

The overwhelming success of the basketball beach day had carried them swiftly through the end of March and into the start of April. The prevalent mood came to be anticipation, with most of them having one if not many things to look forward to in the weeks and months to come. Sophie’s graduation, her start at the academy, Lucas getting to work more hours at the clinic, Maya looking forward to visiting her family in New York… and the birth of Zola Aileen Obi.

On the morning of April 9th, Maya, Leona, and Lion were at the restaurant, in the midst of Sunday brunch. A relatively new event for the place, it was already proving to be very popular. It wasn’t hectic the way big nights like Valentine’s Day would get. The patrons would for the most part be all about coming in and enjoying a casual meal. The extra chaos came with the higher than usual number of children on the premises at the same time, though this was a good kind of chaos, where the three young waiters were concerned.

“All done?” Maya asked a small girl at one of her tables. As she returned to clear away their plates, she found the kid sitting at the ready on her chair, arms folded protectively over the drawing she’d been doing on the paper before her. The two crayons she’d gotten had proven insufficient, as they were only two colors and she needed ‘the other colors,’ so Maya had gone and discreetly grabbed her a few more of the little duo packs, in whatever other colors they had at their disposal, handing them over on the promise of a masterpiece. When she came back now, the girl sat back and help up her completed work.

“That’s my dog,” she pointed to the animal. “Her name is Hazel.”

“And she’s in space?” Maya asked, noting the stars and the planets, splashes of color against the dark sky the girl had filled in all around. “Is she an astronaut?” The girl shook her head.

“She’s an alien,” she announced with pride. “That’s what my dad says,” she pointed to the man, who made a face like this was a very big secret she wasn’t supposed to tell and got his daughter giggling in the process.

“One of _my_ dogs is basically a grandma in dog shape,” Maya confided, which only made the girl laugh harder. By the time this died down, Maya had gathered up the empty plates and utensils and was about to head back to the kitchen. Before she could go, the girl stopped her and held out the drawing. “For me?” Maya asked. “Are you sure?” The girl nodded. “Okay, then you have to sign it, like an artist.” With a smile, the small artist set the paper back on the table, picked out a green crayon after a quick deliberation, and printed her name in the biggest blank corner left on the page. “Ariel,” Maya gasped as she read. “Like the mermaid?”

“Yeah!” Ariel grinned as she held out the drawing again.

“Thank you so much, Ariel,” Maya smiled, carrying the plates and the drawing back to the kitchen. Once the load was deposited, she quickly went to put the paper with her bag before getting back out to check on orders for her tables. Lion came and joined her there, both of them left to wait for plates that were all of a minute out.

“It’s going to be today, I can feel it,” he confided, shaking his head to himself. He’d been antsy ever since he’d arrived, like if it had been up to him, he wouldn’t have come in to work today. He covered this well while attending to their various patrons, but when it was just him and her or Leona, the anxious dad-to-be emerged. “I should be at home with her.”

Maya didn’t try to go for anything along the line of ‘it’ll be fine’ or ‘it probably won’t be now.’ In the past week, Willow had been three times left to believe her labor had started, and each time it had turned out to be a false alarm. Her due date was still a few days away, but each false start left them just a bit antsier for the time when it would be the real deal.

“Alright, how about I call Lucas and see if he can go and hang out with her for a while, that way she won’t be alone,” Maya suggested. Lucas _was_ due to work at the bookstore today, but not for a few hours, and by the time he had to leave they could probably get someone else to go and be on Zola Watch.

“Yeah… Yeah, maybe. Do you think he’ll mind?”

“Huckleberry, mind?” she gave an exaggerated laugh before moving to the phone.

Lucas had just finished his last load of laundry when Maya called. After lamenting the fact that she wasn’t here to share the chore with him this time, he was asked to go see how Willow was doing and quickly agreed. He got in his car and headed off to the apartment shared by Willow, Lion, and Bishop. Both of the guys were working that morning, leaving only the expectant mother, who was in no uncertain term waddling about when he arrived, attempting to sort through the pile of baby shower gifts still occupying the better part of the floor space in the small nursery, weeks after said shower had taken place.

“Oh, good,” she grasped him by the arm and pulled him to assist her the moment she opened the door and found him there. “This place can’t be a mess when we bring Zola home,” she gestured around.

“Sit down, I’ve got this,” he promised.

“Thanks,” Willow smiled, moving to the rocking chair, which had been a gift from Rosa’s mother. “Where are we even supposed to put all this stuff?”

“You could build shelves into the closet?” Lucas suggested, looking through the closet door.

“I might just give some of it away… Would that be bad? I know they were gifts, but…”

“They’re yours now, you get to do what you want with them. That’s what my mother would say anyway,” he shrugged.

“Really?” Willow laughed.

“Oh, she still writes a personalized thank you note for the gift. She just doesn’t specify whether she kept it or not.”

For the next hour or so, Lucas and Willow went about performing a post shower triage… or culling, depending on how you looked at it. Some items were definite keeps, others definite discards, while others wiled away in the middle. It wasn’t always that the gift was bad, far from it, only that they either had more than enough of the item as it was, or really couldn’t imagine getting any use from it. Also, every so often, Willow would see one item and already have an idea as to who would benefit from it, from other mothers-to-be she’d met in the past few months. These were set aside with a post-it note stuck on top.

“This one?” Lucas held up a box. Willow stared at it for a few seconds, thinking hard before finally declaring it future property of someone called Andrea. Lucas had gotten as far as writing ‘ANDR’ on the green sticky paper when Willow made an odd sound that drew him to turn around, something like a shuddering moment of surprise. He found her sitting up, hands gripping the ends of the armrests in a strange sort of concentration. “You okay?” he asked, watching her take a deep breath in, then letting it out again, repeating this a couple more times. “Hey…” Lucas went and crouched next to the chair.

“I just need to… oh…” her hand went to her belly. “Oh…” Lucas stood again for a moment, then thought better and went back into his crouch.

“Is this it? Are you…”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, shaking her head. “I don’t know anymore.”

“The other times, did it feel like this?” he asked. He’d heard about the false alarms, though he’d never been present for any of them. If anyone asked him, this looked pretty real, so what did he know?

“Kinda, I…” She looked a little scared, and confused, which was understandable, after having believed for certain that the time had come again and again, only to be told it wasn’t real. “I read so much about this, when I was still in school, but now it’s happening to me and I can’t say.”

“Okay, well I came here to…”

“You came here because Lion was worried,” she cut him off, breathing deep once again. “I get it,” she nodded, smiling.

“Right, so, if he was here now, he’d want to be sure, so maybe… we get in the car, and we start driving toward the hospital, and if it passes before we get there, then we just drove, and no one has to know. But if it’s real, then you’ll be where you need to be. How does that sound?”

Five minutes later, they were driving off from Willow’s building, the pre-packed bag slung into the backseat and the undetermined alarm still going. Lucas did his best to keep Willow calm, all the while putting all that cautious driving of his to work. She was on the whole a lot calmer than he would have expected, though this then led to her gasping and reaching for her phone.

“Go faster,” she tossed as she hit speed dial. “I’m not looking down there, but whatever just happened, I’ll pay for the cleaning.” Lucas went faster.

At the restaurant, the hostess flagged down Maya, holding up the phone. Excusing herself after having taken a table’s order, she zigzagged her way over and took the receiver.

“Hello?” she asked, wondering who’d be calling to the main line.

“Maya?”

“Willow?” she blinked. Even though she hadn’t said it so loud, and even though he was way across the dining room, Lion turned around all of a sudden, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound he’d heard.

“Look, Lucas is driving me to the hospital right now, I think… I’m pretty sure… the baby’s coming for real this time.” Maya blinked.

“Oh!” she stared across the dining room again, found Lion still staring back at her. She held up her arm, closing her hand in a thumbs up signal. She half suspected him to jump over the tables to get to her. Instead, he came as fast as he could without causing a scene, and she handed him the phone as soon as he was within reach.

“Will? Is it… Do you have the… Okay, I’ll meet you there… I love you, too… okay… okay…” he breathed after they’d hung up. Maya looked to the hostess, still staring back at them.

“Stay with him, don’t let him leave on his own,” she told her before dashing back to the kitchen. She told Isabel about the situation, and a minute later Maya and Lion were climbing into Lion’s car. Maya insisted on driving, as she didn’t want him to jitter his way into an accident before he could meet his baby daughter. Maya was a careful driver, too, although her care resolved itself more into precision, which meant extra speed, though entirely within legal limits.

One way or another, this made so that Lucas’ car had only just driven up to the front of the hospital when Lion’s car came up behind him. The father-to-be got out and went to the car ahead of them, helping Willow up and into the hospital, leaving Maya and Lucas both to go and park the two cars before dashing in after their friends, waiting to know for sure whether or not Zola the second was about to make her grand entrance into the world.

TO BE CONTINUED


	163. Their Vision For The Call

It had all happened so much faster than they might have anticipated. One second, they had all been going about their days, some at work, others not, and in one instant it had become Zola’s day, and everything else was forgotten. Maya had escorted Lion from the restaurant to the hospital, thereby preventing him from coming into some unfortunate road circumstance as he sped to attend his daughter’s birth, while Lucas had been left to rush Willow the hospital, once it became clear that this might in fact not be just one more false alarm. This was the big moment.

“What do we do now?” Lucas asked, after Willow and Lion had gone inside and he and Maya had gotten the cars parked. By the time they had gotten into the hospital, too, there was no sight of their friends, who were already on their way up to a room to get everything started.

“First, we need to find them,” Maya nodded with what confidence she had. By now, she did have some experience with attending births, having seen her mother and father through the births of the twins and MJ, although this time was inevitably made different by the fact that this was a friend and not her own mother who was having a baby. Then again, she was to be this child’s godmother, along with… “Scotty!” she exclaimed as they got on the elevator.

“Lion’s brother?” Lucas asked.

“I should call him, tell him what’s happening, he should be here, him and the others. What about Bishop and everyone, do we call them, too?”

“At least to let them know the baby’s coming,” Lucas suggested.

“Good point.”

As they got off the elevator, Maya pulled out her phone and called Lion’s brother, while Lucas went up to the nurses’ station and inquired on their friends’ location. They were pointed in the direction of a room, where they found Lion sorting through Willow’s bag while she was being looked over as she settled on a bed.

“Lion,” Maya called quietly, and he looked around. She held up her phone. “Scotty.” He blinked and hurried toward her, mouthing a silent thank you before taking the phone to talk to his brother. From what she got of that side of the conversation, the future godfather was on his way, once he got in touch with the rest of the family and figured out whether he needed to pick any of them up on the way, which was very likely. “Are we putting the word out?” she asked when Lion handed her back the phone. This was as much asking whether they were indeed going to welcome Zola today as it was asking whether they wanted to wait before letting their friends know.

“If you would,” Lion nodded, his usually small eyes looking so much bigger today than they had ever seen them. This was it, he was about to be a father, and he was as nervous as he was overjoyed.

“As good as handled,” Lucas promised. “We’ll be out here, let us know when we can come in.”

The next part was easy. Out in the hall, they went about texting and calling, as required, letting Willow and Lion’s dearest friends know that the day was upon them. They were not all obligated, one way or the other, to come and hang out at the hospital for who knew how many hours it would take before the baby was born, though they would be more than welcome if they did. One way or the other, they would absolutely be kept updated as to what was happening here, whenever there might be updates to give.

_Bishop: I’ll be there as soon as I get off work!_

_Rosa: OMG! Lucas, I’ll let my mom know you can’t come in today, I wish I was there, too. Maya, give Willow a hug for me, whenever it seems appropriate._

_Franny: On my way! Should I bring food? I’m bringing food._

_Leona: Everyone here says good luck! Isabel is sending flowers. I’ll drop by ASAP!_

_Riley: WHAT?? How’s Willow, is she okay? How’s Lion, is he freaking out?_

_Kayla: I had a feeling it might be today! Be there soon!_

_Sophie: I’ll call Chiara to come and pick me up and then we’re coming, and Ellie’s packing cupcakes as I write!_

_Chiara: I get Sophie and we are coming! Is Willow very far into the labor?_

_Dylan: YES! ZOLA! Should I bring Maya’s camera?_

By the time all messages had been acknowledged and responded to, Maya and Lucas were able to go into the room to look in on their friends. Lion was still going through the bag, finding his peace in ensuring that everything was where it had to be. Willow, laid out on the bed now and looking just a bit calmer than before, might have looked like she was in the midst of any other regular day, if not for the machines nearby, monitoring her and the baby.

“If I touch you, will you pop?” Maya joked, and Willow chuckled, shaking her head, so Maya stepped up and hugged her. “From Rosa,” she reported.

“Thanks,” she smiled, before turning back to Lucas. “And thank you, so much, for getting us here,” she breathed, setting a hand to her belly.

“I’m just glad we made it on time,” Lucas nodded.

“Oh, admit it, you would have rocked the roadside delivery if you had to,” Maya told him. He squinted, doubtful, though the others laughed. “How are you feeling so far? What did they say?”

“Not too far in yet, so right now we just have to wait, I guess. But it’s definitely happening today…” Willow told them, then, after a beat, more to herself, “I hope it’s still today by the time she comes…”

They showed the messages they’d been getting, and Willow sent out some replies here and there, when she could. They were in the room with the parents-to-be for almost a half hour by the time the first of their friends popped in, and it turned out to be Kayla, complete with a teddy bear ‘holding’ a balloon, which she presented to her bandmate.

_“Thank you so much, he’s so cute,”_ Willow signed.

_“I know how much you like turquoise,”_ Kayla grinned, indicating the stuffed toy’s color. _“As soon as I saw it, I had to get it.”_

_“I hope everyone doesn’t get the same idea,”_ Maya pointed out.

It wasn’t so far off of a hope. When the next few of their friends came along, they all came with a contribution of some sort in hand, and all of them were in a general color palette veering around turquoise and teal. Sophie and Chiara arrived with the promised cupcakes, each garnished with a swirl of turquoise frosting and sprinkled with yellow stars and pink hearts. Franny arrived with the promised food, likely sufficient to feed much more than whoever would come along, but also with another stuffed toy, thankfully not the same bear, but also colored in teal. And Dylan, being Dylan, came along with the camera bag slung over one shoulder and a giant turquoise bear under his arm.

The Obi siblings soon arrived, all four of them, to back up their big brother and await the birth of their very first niece. All four of them, regardless of gender, bore that unmistakable resemblance to Lion. All of them so very tall, with that perfect dark skin and those narrow eyes, and that warm smile…

After Lion, all of ten months younger, was future godfather Scotty, the only other boy and often mistaken for his brother’s twin. The two boys were followed by eldest sister Kimi, two years younger and a soon-to-be high school graduate. The same could not be said of the youngest two, Sheryl and Joanna, twins and recently turned sixteen. They were fraternal, as they’d specify whenever anyone asked, due to just how much they could have been identical.

“You took them out of school?” Lion asked his brother, indicating the three girls and looking caught between needing to be the responsible big brother and just being glad that they were all here.

“Family emergency, Lionel,” Kimi grinned that Obi grin. He could hardly say a word against this choice. After he’d gone off to live in Japan, it had been Scotty and Kimi who’d been left in charge of the twins. This departure had never caused animosity between the siblings, but it _had_ shifted some of the family dynamics, where Lion almost came off like the middle child out of the five, rather than the firstborn.

They couldn’t all of them be in the room, family and friends together, so most of them were already in the waiting area, tucking into the food Franny had brought. Maya and Lucas found themselves hanging back in the room almost without intending to. They had been the ones to bring Lion and Willow here, and those two seemed just as much to want them hanging around as they did, so here they were.

When the Obi siblings turned up, they all greeted one another like the great sort of extended family they were. Maya and Lucas were getting to know Scotty and the girls very well by now. With Maya pegged as Zola the second’s future godmother, it had meant getting included into a number of family events, in which both Maya and Lucas were all too happy to be included.

Maya and Scotty were finding a similar attitude as they looked forward to their impending godparent status. Kimberly “Kimi” Obi would be starting college in the fall, at the same school they attended, and through Lucas she was in the process of getting a job down at the bookstore. As for the twins, who had, like their older siblings, known Willow for a very long time, even keeping in touch after she and their oldest brother (“the idiot”) had broken up and he’d taken off for Japan, they had already been vaguely aware of TXNY before Willow had joined it. When she _had_ joined, they had become instant super fans, and Maya had a sneaking suspicion they were just waiting for a chance to join the lineup. She’d heard them sing, and as far as she was concerned, they just might have been one vacancy away from getting their wish.

“I told you we should have gotten the brown one with the bow,” Sheryl told Joanna, as they looked from the turquoise stuffed bunny in Kimi’s hand to the set of matching presents near Willow’s bedside.

“We’ll be back!” Joanna grabbed her sister’s hand, retrieved the matching bunny, and the girls disappeared together.

“I wouldn’t have minded the bunny,” Willow breathed, too late to stall the girls. Finally, she had to let it go, taken with a new rise of labor pains.

Before the two of them could even return from a successful exchange of turquoise bunny for brown bunny with a turquoise bow, all but Lion and Willow had left the room and rejoined the group in the waiting area, as things had progressed and they needed to go. There was no telling how long it would be before they could go in again, or how long it would be before Zola was born and ready for viewing. Either way, the group of friends and soon-to-be uncle and aunts were left contented with experiencing this wait together. Whatever nerves were working away in them, hoping that all would go well, that both Willow and the baby would come through this about as well as anyone could hope, this feeling of the unknown was made much more bearable for the fact that they weren’t alone. Whether or not that feeling would carry on all the way would remain to be seen.

TO BE CONTINUED


	164. Their Vision For The Halfway

“Here, look,” Sheryl Obi approached Maya with a grin and a bottle of teal-colored nail polish. “We found it in the gift shop, and we thought we could all do our nails like that, sort of like a celebration, for Zola and Willow and Lion,” she explained, gesturing around the group with the bottle. Turning to the others, it looked as though the pitch had already been made and accepted by the others. Joanna Obi had a second bottle and was already bent in the process of painting Franny’s nails, her long braids curtained over her shoulder.

“Sure, that sounds awesome,” Maya smiled back, and the soon to be aunt took a seat, giving the small bottle a shake. “Will you let me do yours when it’s your turn?”

“Okay, yeah!”

“Who’s going to do mine?” Lucas inquired, and there was no need to ask if he was serious or not.

“Oh, I’ve got you, Huckleberry,” Maya assured him with a smirk.

“Keep your hand still,” Sheryl warned.

“Sorry, sorry.”

“You’re lucky,” Sheryl declared as she precisely applied a first coat of color to Maya’s left hand nails. When asked why that was, Sheryl looked up and shrugged. “You’re in college. I can’t wait to go, high school is always the same thing, the same people. I want to go somewhere new, far away, like Lion did for a while.”

“What if we need someone with your voice for the band and you’re way out there?” Maya teased.

“Then I’ll come back… maybe.”

“If we can afford you?” Maya suggested, getting a smile in return. The Obi twins had varied tastes between the two of them, and yet always they would navigate these differences in looking for ways to combine them, intertwine them (or ‘intertwin’ them, as they would say), like they were the queens of mash-ups.

“But I mean it, I’m tired of it,” Sheryl went on, both with her discussion and with the nail polish. “You remember what it was like back then.”

Lucas chuckled quietly at this, especially seeing the momentarily startled sort of look on Maya’s face before she smiled, too, having been caught off guard by Sheryl’s calling on her as though she had been out of high school long enough that she wouldn’t immediately remember.

Then again, it _had_ been almost two years already, hadn’t it? They were coming on the halfway point of their college days already, and in as much time as they’d already spent in college, they would find themselves out of it, thrown into the world and expected to navigate it. Sure, they were already sort of doing that by being out here, in Houston, on their own, but after having gone to school year after year for so long, how could they not feel the tiniest bit thrown at the idea that they would be done with that entirely? Well, Maya would be done. Lucas was still looking at another four years and then some before he reached his goal, but even that would feel different, like he had moved on to the next step.

Maybe this halfway point thing was what had them both contemplating things further off in the future more and more these days. Maya had her siblings, and this potential fourth Hunter-Hart brother or sister coming along, while Lucas had his grandmother’s rings, secreted away where they wouldn’t be found, and the proposal that would come along when he finally took them back out again…

If they were to answer Sheryl’s question plainly, at this point in their high school days, they had more or less been doing what they were doing now, which was to think about what would come next. They would be thinking about college, and what it would mean for them, just as they now found themselves contemplating what they would do once their time in Houston would in all likelihood come to an end. It _was_ still two years away, which kept them from doing much more than vaguely consider and wonder, but it was also getting closer, which also made them aware that sooner or later they would actually have to make some decisions.

“No matter how bad you want to move forward now, it’s still going to take the same amount of time for you to get there, so you might as well enjoy it while you can,” Lucas offered their young manicurist. “When it’s over, you might wish you’d done it if you don’t.” Sheryl turned her eyes up to Maya, who was just smirking.

“Does he talk like that all the time?” the girl asked.

“I am not at liberty to say,” Maya declared with a casual air, which made Sheryl laugh and Lucas reach his arm around her to kiss the side of her face. “Watch the nails, watch the nails! Anyway, he does have a point, about the high school thing.”

“What are you in now? Sports, clubs, teams…”

“I’m on the soccer team, mostly because of Joanna,” Sheryl tipped her head toward her sister. “And there’s the anime club, that’s kind of the best part of all this.”

“What do you guys do in there?” Maya asked, curious.

“Mostly watch stuff, and argue about this and that,” Sheryl shrugged. “We’ve been talking about going to this convention over the summer, with cosplay and everything.”

“Alright, so do that,” Maya nodded, as Sheryl finished her second coat and sat back up. She stared back at Maya, hesitant. “I could help you guys with some makeup effects, stuff like that.”

“She’s been convincingly chopping my head off for five years,” Lucas informed the girl, which got Maya smiling.

“And now I’m about to give you some ‘tealtastic’ nails, Doc, so come on, right here,” she turned to him and tapped her knee for him to lay his hand out there, as Sheryl handed the bottle over and went to grab something to eat while she had a break. Lucas set his hand down as requested, and Maya got to work, all the while cautious of not damaging her own still drying nails. “If we had another color, we could put letters on them, like Z-O-L-A on one hand, and 0-4-0-9 on the other.”

“That leaves you two fingers,” he pointed out. She turned a frown up at him like she was of course aware but also hadn’t decided yet. “You can put a W on one thumb and an L on the other? Unless that’d end up being confusing… You can draw a heart though.”

“Better,” Maya nodded before looking back to Sheryl and laying out this idea. She went to crouch next to her sister, who was now starting on Kayla’s nails, and after a shared nod she scurried off back to the gift shop. “This is giving me Halloween flashbacks, and those are definitely welcome in April like in October.”

“Have you started thinking of themes for this year’s party yet?” Lucas asked. Going off the silent smirk he caught sneaking on to her face as she kept painting, he knew that she had. Sure, they were six months out, but that was no reason to wait, was it? _And we could really do with a do-over after last Halloween…_ “Do I get to be let in on this planning committee?”

“Dude, you _are_ the planning committee. Me and you? That’s all the committee we need,” she gestured between the two of them with a shake of the head.

“What about the other people who live in our house and pay for stuff?” Lucas inquired.

“Two words: track record,” she whispered at him.

“Fine, then if I’m in it, spill. What’s the plan?”

“Hey, shh, not here, come on,” she made covert eyes. He countered this with pleading eyes. “Well, that’s just playing dirty,” she shook her head again before leaning in to whisper at his ear.

“Hey, what’s happening over there?” Sophie called from across the room. Maya and Lucas looked back at her, finding both Chiara and her staring back at them with curious smiles. “I smell plotting.”

“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about, Officer,” Maya replied, playing up the mystery as she got back to doing her boyfriend’s nails. It wasn’t like she intended to say much more as to her Halloween plan. She’d given Lucas enough with those few whispered words to start and imagine what it could all lead to.

Sheryl soon returned with a bottle of pink nail polish and one of red. By then, Maya was done with Lucas, so she started to do hers. They got to talking about Zola Obi, not the one about to be born, but the one who had lived with such a presence that Lion would know at once that he’d want to pass the name on to his and Willow’s daughter.

“Joanna and Kimi and I, we would call her Mama,” Sheryl told her and Lucas. “None of us remember our mother, Kimi was too little when she died, and Jo and I were just…” she paused. “But _she_ was there, and we sort of got it in our heads that she _was_ our mother, before we really knew any other way. Even when we did though, it just kind of stuck. Our dad didn’t want us to call her that, said we had to remember… I think he was scared that we wouldn’t think about her, that we’d forget. He loved her so much, we remember that. But Mama was Mama, and that’s what she is, even now that she’s gone like the rest of them.”

After she’d finished applying the teal color to Sheryl’s nails, Maya set her hands back down so she could trace the letters and the numbers and the hearts over the base of Willow’s color of choice. She did the same with Lucas, thereby completing both their hands and liberating them to walk about for a while, which was what they chose to do.

“So, tell me about the plan,” Lucas asked as they went on down the hall. For a moment there, she looked at him like she didn’t remember what he was talking about, but then she remembered and smiled. All she’d managed to tell him, before they’d been interrupted by ‘Officer Zvolensky,’ had been ‘let somebody else decide for you.’ Much as he sort of figured he understood what she meant, he still wanted to hear it from her.

“I know not everyone is going to participate, most people just pick something at random and go for it, and that’s fine. It wouldn’t be a theme that’s too involved, for the ones who decide to do it, but it could end up being kind of funny. I don’t know. I was also thinking about decades, like… get dressed as a person or a character from one decade or another. Then I thought about doing some kind of murder mystery thing, have people try and guess the answer and they get a prize…”

All he was hearing was that her head was overflowing with ideas, yes, but really what it told him was just how badly she wanted this coming Halloween to go well. Seeing as he knew exactly why that was, all _he_ wanted was to ensure that she’d get her wish.

It was hard to be thinking about that day being almost half a year ago already, thinking about what might have been, especially as they walked through the hospital’s maternity ward. Right about now, if things had gone a different way, they wouldn’t be so far off from checking into this place, and as silence stretched on over them, it was clear they were both thinking about it. Just when they’d think it was all in the past, they’d discover it really wasn’t. It stuck to them like an unfulfilled idea. But then she’d reach for his hand, and he’d give hers a squeeze, their fingers mixing letters and numbers, with two little red hearts on their thumbs.

TO BE CONTINUED


	165. Their Vision For The Wait

They didn’t realize quite how long they had all been waiting until some of the others started showing up, after coming off their respective work shifts. First there was Leona, complete with a care package of more food, courtesy of Chef Isabel. Then Riley came running along, so intent to join them that she went right by the waiting area without spotting them. Dylan had quickly gotten up to go and retrieve his girlfriend, already showing her his marked teal nails as they came around. In no time, they were sitting, and he was giving her some matching colors of her own.

“Did I miss it?” Bishop asked when _he_ arrived, a load of flowers in his hands.

“You’re good, we’re still waiting to hear,” Lucas reported as his best school friend came and sat with them, next to Leona, who was having her nails painted by Joanna Obi. When he saw this, and noticed everyone else’s hands, they told him about what they’d been up to, and he asked the girl if she might do him next.

It had been hours now since they’d left the room and come to settle here. There were other people, doing some waiting of their own, none nearly as numerous as their group. Franny had welcomed them to help themselves to the food she’d brought, which some of them accepted with thanks, and now Leona’s arrival became something like a second course, equally open.

“You know, when it was my siblings being born, I think I was just so filled with stress, and anticipation, I just… never realized how long it could be,” Maya sighed. She’d turned sideways in her seat, her head in Lucas’ lap and looking up at him. With her legs bent, her feet would tap along the seat’s edge as they remained perched there. “Was it that long for them, too?” she asked.

“I don’t remember how long, but yeah,” he shrugged. It was easier to just look back on the wait once it was over, to realize it hadn’t been so bad. While they were in the middle of it, they would really get to the point where jumping to conclusions that the length meant trouble was remarkably easy.

Kayla was the one to spot Rosa when she arrived, doing almost exactly as Riley had done. When she got up and hurried out of the waiting area, the others watched her go, wondering what was going on until they saw her return with Rosa, who had her phone in her hand and was just now passing it to Kayla for her to see something.

“Hey, Kimi,” Rosa waved to the girl, then to the twins, all four girls being of the same high school. Rosa was most familiar with Kimi, being in the same year and all, though it was hard to know one sister without knowing all three. “Weren’t you at that remedial thing this weekend?” she asked. With finals coming for all of them, there had been review sessions set up. The joke went that only the ones who needed it the most and those who needed it the least would show up. The sisters were of the latter.

“It was boring,” Kimi shrugged. “So, you know, we decided to come and sit around here for hours, doing nothing except eat and paint nails. You want in?”

“What’s that?” Maya asked, when Kayla came over and passed her Rosa’s phone.

_“I think people found out Willow was having the baby today,”_ she signed, and both Maya and Lucas looked at the screen, with Maya scrolling through for the both of them. They were on the band’s page, and it was just flooded with well wishes and more than a few requests for baby pictures if Willow should be willing to share them.

“How did they even know?” Lucas asked.

“We had a show tonight, remember?” Maya told him. “I had to cancel it, we would already have had to be there by now and we’re clearly not going anywhere. I went on to let people know we wouldn’t make it, and I had to give a reason. Willow told me to go ahead and say it, right before we had to leave the room.” Already over the last near on two months, of the three shows they’d done, Willow had taken no part except to be in the audience to cheer them on. She might have been out there again tonight, if not for more pressing matters…

_“A lot of them want to know if they can send gifts or flowers,”_ Kayla pointed out, even as they could see the messages on Rosa’s screen. It was one of those more surreal moments of their self-made fame. For a beat, they sort of had to wonder if it was a good idea to mention which hospital they were at. It wasn’t like they’d dealt with anyone troublesome, but still, this felt like they might have pushed their luck. That didn’t mean they couldn’t come up with an alternative they could all get on board with.

“Riley, Rosa, come here a second,” Maya called to them, head upside down before she could move to right herself up and rise, with some assistance from Kayla to ensure she didn’t fall. _“Thanks,”_ she smiled, as the other two came over. She showed Riley the phone, all the messages, which made her smile. At the mention of the gift and flower thing, she gave her suggestion, and the other three were all in agreement, so all they had to wait on was for Kimi to finish Rosa’s nails.

With a picture of the four of them in that waiting room, displaying their hands and their matching nails, they opened up their turquoise celebration out to anyone out there currently keeping Willow and Lion and their baby in their thoughts. Within fifteen minutes, the first pictures started to pop up in response. Some of them didn’t have a color exactly in that palette, but they got as close as possible.

“Excuse me?” a woman’s voice took them from their scrolling through the growing number of nail pictures, and they looked up to find an older man and woman standing just inside the waiting area. Looking at them, it was as evident to know they were related to Willow as Lion’s siblings were to him. Even those who hadn’t met the couple up to that point could identify them as William and Aileen Regan, Willow’s grandparents, the ones who’d raised her after she’d lost her parents and who had instilled the love of music in her.

“You made it!” Maya moved up to greet them. Again, in her capacity as soon-to-be godmother, she’d gotten to know the two of them as well. They’d been off on a short vacation, out in Phoenix, believing they would be back well before their great-grandchild’s birth, but then the call had come in, and they’d been left to do whatever they could in order to be back with their granddaughter on this day.

“Just barely, yes,” William Regan nodded, looking like he couldn’t have been happier that their return trip was over.

“Have you heard anything?” asked Aileen Regan, with those eyes so much like her granddaughter’s.

“No, not since we all came out here,” Maya told her. “I don’t know if they’d tell us, but they might tell you.”

“I’ll go,” said Aileen. “William, you sit, have something to eat,” she gave her husband a pointed look, and he waved this off, like he’d heard it a hundred times, though he did go and grab something from Leona’s load before taking a seat.

As he quietly ate, they could see him notice everyone’s nails, all of his granddaughter’s friends in his girl’s favorite color. When they saw that he was looking for the bottles Sheryl Obi held hers up for him to see. He casually held out his hand for it and she gave it to him. Then, even as he went on eating, the old man sat there and started painting his own nails, with the precision of one who spent much of his days tending to musical instruments in need of maintenance and repair.

They were left to guess, by Aileen’s not having returned after five, ten, twenty minutes, that she’d ended up staying wherever Willow and Lion were, which got them no closer to an update as to their friends and their baby girl. Instead, the waiting just carried on.

The longer they were here, the sleepier Maya would get. She didn’t know what it was, every time, she’d start feeling her energy get sapped away. By the time William Regan was having Sheryl trace out the letters and numbers for him, Maya was leaning to Lucas, who had his arm around her, more than happy to play cushion for her. She wasn’t alone in feeling that sleepiness coming on though, so he took it upon himself to keep them both talking.

“So, did you talk to them out there about us heading to New York over the summer?”

“I did, yeah,” she perked up just a bit, as she would, whenever her family came up, the one nearby in Austin as much as the one far off in her first hometown. “We’re still working out dates on their end before we can even look to see if we can get away.”

“Any plans yet on what we’ll do out there?”

“Not really, not yet,” she shrugged.

Deep down, she did have some ideas, one for sure. She wanted to record something, with Cara… and with their father. Not so long ago she would never have imagined wanting to do anything remotely like that, but now… She had even started toying around with lyrics and a melody for a new song, one that could be theirs. She’d been exploring how certain airs really felt as though they fit so well to one person or another, and somewhere in the videos she’d been watching off that thumb drive, she felt like she’d found her father’s tone.

“I was just thinking, it’s been like five years now since the whole TXNY thing really started. Maybe, if Riley came, too, and Nadine got up to New York while we were there, you three and Isadora could maybe do something together… like a milestone.” She sat up, looking back at him like the idea was as much a surprise as it was a revelation.

“Yeah…” she breathed, smiling. They could try and bring the others, too, their new members, although she doubted that Willow, so soon after giving birth and now looking after a newborn, would be able to swing the flight to New York. “Or maybe it should be the other way around. If we can get Nadine and Isadora down here for a little while, either before or after we head to New York, then it can be all seven of us from the band, together.”

“Guys, she’s back,” Rosa stood up, and the others turned to see Aileen Regan coming toward the waiting area. There was a smile on her face, though it had the distinct air of being born of relief, freshly gained. The group collected to hear the news.

“She’s here,” Aileen told them, causing some much anticipated cheer.

“Is she okay? How’s Willow?” Riley asked.

“It was rocky for a little while,” the woman revealed, causing a ripple of fear over the faces staring back at her. “But it turned around eventually. Willow’s sleeping now, and Lion is staying with Zola. For now, there’s no point in everyone sticking around, you wouldn’t get to see them anyway, not until tomorrow.”

It was a jarring end to the day, but there was nothing to be done for that, so they all picked up after themselves, clearing up the waiting area before moving out of the hospital to head back home. No matter what, all they needed to hold on to was the knowledge that, even though they had not seen them, their friends were well, and up there somewhere, Zola the second was born and thriving.

TO BE CONTINUED


	166. Their Vision For The Girl

Coming home on Sunday night, it had been difficult for any of them to just go off to their rooms and get to sleep. It almost seemed like it should have been all too easy for them to do, after the draining hours they’d spent sitting around the waiting room, but it was the way they’d left things that now had their minds all in knots.

They were okay now, Willow and baby Zola. Aileen Regan had been straight with them back at the hospital, revealing that there had been some small complications, but she’d been just as straight in telling them that those complications had been dealt with and that her granddaughter and great-granddaughter were both well when she’d left them. They were left to rest for the night, and they would be visited the following day. There was nothing else to be done except to go home, so that was what they’d done. Except now they were here, and they felt this restless energy emerging in them that prevented them from going to sleep.

“You guys want to watch a movie?” Dylan asked, and soon after that the six roommates were packed along the U-shaped couch, with fresh-made popcorn and leftover candy from their last visit to the movie theater.

The movie worked its magic in time, distracting their minds until their exhaustion reasserted itself. When the sun rose, they started to wake, finding that they’d spent the night all together on the couch, snuggled up two by two.

It was Monday now, which meant class for five of them, and work for the last. It was the last thing on their minds, but there was nothing to be done for it, so they got up, working out the kinks of their unplanned sleeping arrangements before going about their morning routine.

“So, lunch today,” Lucas turned to Maya as they waited for the others to join them in the car. “How do you feel about hospital cafeteria food?”

“You spoil me,” she gave an exaggerated sigh, laughing as she agreed.

Going through their morning classes got to feel like a lot of what the movie had been the night before. They focused, applied themselves, but all the while they knew very well that all it did was give them something to turn their thoughts away from the thing they couldn’t ignore. They wanted so much to just be with their friends, to see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears that Willow and Zola were doing well. By the time that the last of those morning classes were done, the veil fell away. It was time to go for a visit.

Maya had texted Lion between classes, checking in since they hadn’t spoken from the moment the non-parents had to leave the room the day before. She had mentioned hers and Lucas’ intention to drop in over lunch, just in case it wasn’t the right time. He had replied with eagerness to see them both and the update that everyone there was napping and doing well.

Lucas found his girlfriend already waiting at the car when he came jogging up. He’d more or less expected as much. In all the years he’d known her, she had always been the most prompt of them all.

“Did anyone comment on your sweet manicure?” Maya asked, holding up her own hands, still impeccably displaying the teal and the pink and red.

“A few,” he nodded. “All I told them was that a friend of ours had a baby and it was for her. A couple of them actually knew because of the picture you guys put up. I’m not sure if they just thought I was a fan or if they know about you and me and being friends with Willow and Lion.” They couldn’t well have taken away the colors before they saw their friends, could they?

They drove off from their school and toward the hospital. When they arrived, they made a quick stop for flowers before heading up to Willow’s room. They slowly walked in, as one might when uncertain of what they’d come to find.

“Hi,” Willow greeted them, with a smile made of still diminished forces mixed together with overwhelming gladness at seeing her friends. She was sitting up in her bed, with Lion in much the same position at her side, a bundled blanket in his arms. As Maya and Lucas approached, they could soon see the little human inside that bundle, blinking those freshly opened eyes at the world, what part of it she could see at least.

Maya had to cover her mouth, for fear she might let out a squeal that would startle the baby girl. She was barely half a day old, still had a fair amount of growing to do before her appearance could be said to settle and favor one parent or the other’s features, but her little nose undoubtedly reminded them of Willow, and those fine, almost elvish ears were all Lion. Her head was already covered in a respectable amount of hair, catching some of the sunlight streaming in from the window.

“I know you must be tired of hearing it, but how are you doing?” Lucas asked Willow.

“It’s fine,” Willow smiled. “It’s hard to explain. My body’s still feeling so much of everything, of yesterday, but my mind’s just in another place, I just… I look at her…” she turned to her daughter, in the arms of her mesmerized father, “And I’ve never felt better.”

“Painkillers?” Maya guessed.

“Little bit,” Willow pinched her fingers together.

Lion carefully got up from the bed at this point, looking to the newborn all the while as he walked around the bed to reach his friends. Realizing she was about to be handed her goddaughter, Maya handed the flowers to Lucas, who went and set them where he could. As she was passed from one pair of arms to another, Zola gave just a small sound of uncertainty, only to settle again, staring up at the new face swimming overhead with something like curiosity. _And who are you?_

“Hey, Zola… hey…” Maya hushed, her face unable to do anything except smile as she felt the little one in her arms, completely at ease. Just a few years ago, Maya might have been a bit anxious at holding the newborn, but then between Nellie, Gracie, and MJ, she had Zola in as confident a hold as it was caring. “There are so many people who just can’t wait to meet you,” she told her, before going down to a whisper, “But they’re not here right now, so I get to be the one to hold you.” She looked back to Lucas, looking on, just knowing he’d be raising his hand in that moment, to indicate he had dibs on getting his turn. “Yeah, yeah,” she smiled at him before looking back to Zola. “He’s very polite, he’ll wait his turn.”

“You did your nails, too,” Willow noticed, pointing to Lucas’ hands. “My grandfather was showing me his, earlier this morning. He was very proud of his work,” she laughed.

“Maya did mine,” Lucas nodded to her, still completely absorbed with the baby as she slowly walked around the room with her. “Did you see the pictures? And the messages?”

“A little,” Willow nodded. “Once I’m home, I’ll have to go through them, try and reply to some of them.”

“Do you know when that’ll be? How long do you have to stay here?” Lucas asked, as Lion came back to sit with Willow.

“Not sure, a couple more days at least,” she replied. She didn’t seem overly concerned about this, which they took to mean that the length had more to do with recovery than with there still being any potential for trouble.

“We’ll be here to keep you company whenever you need us,” Lucas assured her, with a nod of agreement from Maya.

“And call or write, too,” she chimed in, before making a face for Zola, who responded with a yawn. “Then again, I might just stay here, with the queen of hypnocute over here.”

“Wait until she starts crying, then you’ll really have a show,” Lion told her.

“Look out, TXNY 2038, here comes Zola Obi,” Maya nodded.

When she finally did cry, they were forced to remember that this was only a short visit, as they still needed to eat and get back to class. Maya passed her back to Lion, though soon enough she was passed into Lucas’ arms, while Maya went down to grab them something to eat.

Lucas went and sat down with the small girl instead of pacing the room. As he held little Zola, what he came to think of the most was what might have happened the day before if some things had gone a different way. What would have happened if he hadn’t been sent to hang out with Willow? What if it took too long for anyone to get to her? What if Lion hadn’t had that gut feeling that this would be the day, which led to Lucas being sent out to her in the first place? They would never know, and that was all for the best. Instead of thinking about that, they could focus on this precious little girl now held in the crook of his arm.

As he looked at her, her tiny hand propped up on his index, over the letter Z traced in pink on his nail, he continued to be mesmerized by her presence. Willow and Lion were the first of their whole circle of friends to become parents. They were a couple of years older than them, sure, but it wasn’t so big of a gap that it set them apart from the rest all that much. They were just getting further and further away from childhood, from adolescence, and deeper into their newly adult lives. Farkle and Isadora had been married for almost a year and a half, now Willow and Lion had a baby and, as they’d finally decided on the if and the when, planned to marry sometime in late summer.

And Maya and him, well… He had that ring burning a hole in his pocket, whether he carried it there or not, and both of them had this plan for their future, much as it remained sort of time locked for the next two years or so. But it was a constant part of their lives, like an intangible presence, every day.

By the time Maya returned, Zola was in need of some feeding of her own, so they left her to her parents, on the promise that they’d come back to visit later. Maya and Lucas ended up eating in the car, once they were back in the school lot. Lucas showed her a picture he’d taken while she was off in her own world, holding baby Zola, and she showed _him_ the one she’d taken, smiling up at the camera and absolutely aware of the photo being taken.

“I like this one best,” Lucas indicated the one of Maya and Zola.

“I figured you might,” Maya smirked, even as she couldn’t help but smile, looking at the image again. The thought in her head almost reached her lips, but she kept it unspoken. She’d almost said, ‘babies are so cool,’ which they were, of course, but she didn’t want the statement to be interpreted as her still being hung up on their maybe baby from Halloween _or_ some indication that she was looking for them to try and have one now. “We need to do something,” she stated instead. “They’re going to be stuck in that hospital for a few days. They should be able to come home with some peace of mind.”

“Yeah,” Lucas nodded. “So, what do you have in mind?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	167. Their Vision For The Help

To say it hadn’t taken long to recruit the others into Maya’s plan would have been… well, it would have been true, but at the same time it would suggest that it had taken any time at all, and that wasn’t the case. She had asked, and they had all immediately said yes, said ‘what do you want me to do?’ The longer part had been about establishing tasks and then assigning them out to any of their collective fifteen.

Seeing as Willow would be in the hospital a few more days, and also seeing as all of them were already busy, between school, and work, and actually being out there at the hospital with their friends and the newborn Zola, they divided things so that everyone had their one task, and that was that. They would do their part, and after that it would be up to the others to do their own.

By some convenience, they came down to five tasks in need of being accomplished, which then made it easy for them to break off in teams of three.

The first team’s task involved going out and picking up any items Willow and Lion did not have but might need, outside of food. The trio here consisted of Dylan and the Obi twins, which immediately left some of the others mildly concerned. Unleashing those three in particular on to any store, especially shopping for friends – and for a baby – felt like inviting chaos… or a lot of unnecessary purchases. But then they all seemed so eager to do their part, and they _would_ be most likely to go back out in an instant if it ever came that they realized they needed something else.

On the whole, they really showed restraint, although Zola’s wardrobe somehow found itself garnished with a number of outfits which she was still just a bit too small to fit in.

The last two teams would not go about their own tasks until they had a better idea of just when Willow and Zola would be discharged from the hospital. Team four would be in charge of groceries, while team five would go about cooking a number of meals the new parents could then easily heat up and consume.

Team four counted Scotty Obi along with Riley and Rosa, who would get messages from team five back at the apartment even as they strolled down one aisle of the grocery store after another. This other team, who had already started cooking with what was readily available, was made up of Kimi Obi, Franny, and Kayla. The three of them had bonded greatly in those long hours at the hospital, and this only continued here. Neither Lucas nor Maya was around for this part of the great plan, though they’d hear plenty from their friends on either team.

The most amusing part of the day in question, the night before Willow’s discharge, had been for the others, on either side of the conversation, to find themselves unintentionally eavesdropping on either Scotty or Kimi as they talked to one another. They could really see here how much the brother and sister’s relationship had evolved upon being left in charge of their younger sisters, after Lion had left for Japan. To say that they bickered like an old married couple wouldn’t have been entirely accurate, but it wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate either. It was about half and half an old married couple and an older brother and younger sister, and it was riveting. The two of them could have had a show.

Once Scotty’s team returned with the groceries, they were dismissed, leaving Kimi’s team to occupy their brother’s kitchen and go about finishing up their part. They were in there well into the night and ended up crashing at the apartment.

In between all of this, there were teams two and three, though their tasks were spread over the days between the plan’s creation and the family’s return. Both teams were in charge of the apartment, team two – Lucas, Sophie, and Chiara – would go about cleaning the apartment in general, while team three – Maya, Bishop, and Leona – concentrated on the nursery and its readiness to welcome baby Zola.

The apartment was not huge, but it wasn’t small either. When Willow had first moved in to the three-bedroom location, she’d had two roommates. Then, one had moved out, and another had replaced her, and then another had moved out. Then, her newest roommate had moved out, leaving her alone to manage both cost and upkeep. She’d been about to seek out a new roommate when Lion had come back into the picture, and then not too long after that Bishop had come aboard. There had been a brief period where they considered finding another roommate, seeing as they had a spare room. But then Willow had found out she was pregnant, and well… their newest roommate was ‘found.’

Up until they’d started to move things into the extra room, it had grown into little more than a spare/storage room, which had required a lot of clearing out, a lot of cleaning out, so on the whole, ‘Team Apartment’ was only really left to do some dusting/sweeping/etc. The three roommates here were overall good about keeping tidy.

As for ‘Team Nursery,’ they came into the midst of the triage which had been left incomplete on the day when Willow had gone into labor. Maya had been informed of the effort though, so she told the other two about it. Thankfully, they’d almost been done when they’d had to leave, so there weren’t too many items with an undetermined fate. They would be placed around the room for now, and Willow and Lion could decide what to do with them when they returned. Those items already destined to be removed or donated were passed into the care of the other team moving about the apartment.

“Really?” Lucas asked, when he saw the pile lining the hallway.

“Really,” Maya nodded with a sweet smile tinged with mischief.

The first big task of Team Nursery, as could almost be expected with Maya around, would be to give the walls a lot more life. Assisted by Bishop and Leona, who in their own rights came to display a deftness with the brush, Maya set about the transformation of the room, ready to welcome Zola the second. She took many of her cues from her own knowledge of Willow and Lion and from the Obi siblings’ suggestions. Maya, Bishop, and Leona together had spent that whole first session in the nursery on their mural, leaving the room ready for phase two when they’d return.

When Lucas, Sophie, and Chiara had made their way to the apartment the following day, they’d found the nursery door shut, with a paper stuck to the front. _No admittance until we’re done!_ Lucas knocked at the door when he caught the sound of voices from within. A moment later, his phone rang. Even before he pulled it out of his pocket, he knew it would be her, and he answered without much of a need to look at the screen.

“You feel so near to me,” was Maya’s greeting, echoed by the physical nearness to its source.

“When you said you wanted to leave ahead of us because you had to stop somewhere and didn’t want to delay us, you just wanted to make sure you got here before we did, right?”

“Caught me,” she replied, and he could hear the grin in her voice. “Now, just go about your business, and we’ll go about ours, and as for the big reveal, well, you know, patience and all that…”

“If the roles were reversed, you’d be pulling out all the dirty tricks just to be let in, wouldn’t you?” Lucas couldn’t help but smile.

“Then it’s very fortunate that you’re the one out there and not me, Huckleberry.”

Knowing better than to keep this going, the two teams went about their task for the day’s session. While Maya and Bishop and Leona were off doing who knew what in the secret nursery, Lucas, Sophie, and Chiara started off by tackling the bathroom. The shower curtain was taken down, and Lucas volunteered to go and put it in the washing machine downstairs. When he returned a few minutes later, Sophie and Chiara were already dealing with the whole bath/shower area, chatting casually in Italian.

By now, Lucas – like all the roommates and some of their closer friends – could understand and even speak Chiara’s native tongue, to some level. Even without all that, he could probably have picked up on the personal nature of the discussion, evidenced by the fact that they’d chosen to break from their commonly known English. And then there was the word he caught, which for him had been one of those foreign words you just knew without knowing the rest of the language. _He’d_ known it from reading ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ as a kid. _Bambini._ Children. It made it so that when he came up to the bathroom door, he stopped a bit abruptly, unsure what he was supposed to do. The girls turned and looked at him.

“What?” Sophie asked, her red hair twisted up on her head in much the same fashion as her girlfriend’s, the better not to let it get in the way.

“Sorry, I just… Maybe I can start in another room, or…”

“No, no, you do the toilet,” Chiara pointed to the thing.

“Sure, no, yeah,” he approached, picking up the brush. After looking to one another for a moment, his two roommates seemed to grasp what was holding him back. Deciding maybe that they wanted an outside perspective after all, they relayed the points of the conversation back to Lucas.

It was inevitable, much in the way that being in the maternity ward had stirred up memories of Halloween and the maybe baby for him and Maya, that the birth of Zola Obi might also stir up some other lines of discussion on the topic of children. For Sophie and Chiara, it had been whether or not they ever saw themselves having any and, if they did, just how they would go about it.

Chiara admitted that it was something she’d seen in her future for a long time, while Sophie’s admission was that she’d never really considered it while growing up. Maybe it was the combination of the loss of her father and the strained relationship with her mother, but she’d never considered ‘the next step.’ But now that she was older, now that she had Chiara in her life, and she saw the spark in her eyes when she spoke of it… For the first time, she could see it, see herself… as a mother, someday.

As to the how, well, there was no way around the fact that they would need to have a plan. It wasn’t just going to happen to them, as it might for others. They were very much considering adoption, somewhere down the line, but Chiara had also expressed the possibility of their having at least one via insemination. Whichever way they went, they wouldn’t even start to consider any step forward until they were both out of school, established, working… There was plenty of time.

By the time when the last two teams had their turn on that last night, before Willow and Lion’s return with their daughter, the apartment was as spotless as it could get. If it could actually sparkle, it would. The nursery – still ‘barred’ – was ready, everything their friends and family could foresee them requiring had been provided, and there was food at the ready, leaving them all the time in the world for Willow to carry on recuperating and for Zola to be welcomed into her home.

TO BE CONTINUED


	168. Their Vision For The Home

When Dylan and the Obi twins had returned from their errands a few days back, they’d left a bag in the others’ care, on the promise that it wouldn’t be touched until the morning of Willow & co.’s return. And now, that morning had come. By the time they would be done, the very clean apartment would be festooned – Dylan’s word, and he insisted on it – with balloons and ribbons and a great big banner he’d had made, which led to a mock argument between him and Maya over the fact that he hadn’t simply asked her to do it, as they were hanging it up.

_WELCOME HOME ZOLA!_

Scotty went to the hospital that morning, Saturday, six days after Zola’s birth, to pick up the trio and bring them home. There had been some debate as to whether or not they should all be there when they arrived, and if it would be kind of overwhelming for so many people to be around when they were finally getting out of the hospital and bringing their daughter to the apartment for the first time. But then whenever anyone would go and offer themselves as someone who could be removed, who would just go and return to visit later, the others would protest and insist they had to stay. In the end, they took their cue from two days back, when they’d gone to visit at the hospital and Willow had lamented that she almost had to schedule her visitors, to account for limits. There were no limits here.

Save for the interventions of family and friends with cleaning and cooking and the likes, the apartment had just been empty, all week. Lion had remained at the hospital, sleeping on the small couch in the corner of Willow’s room, washing in the little bathroom. He wasn’t about to leave his girls for the sake of the comforts of home when _they_ couldn’t have those themselves. And as for Bishop, with the others gone as they were, he’d just gone ahead and spent his nights at Leona’s.

“He’s moving in over the summer,” Leona told Maya and Riley as they all waited. “We’ve been talking about it for a while, he wasn’t sure about just leaving in case Willow or Lion thought it was because of the baby. They told him he was still welcome, of course, and he wouldn’t have minded the crying baby in the next room, but now he made up his mind,” she smiled. “Plus, Lion’s sister Kimi’s starting college in the fall, and she wants to move out on her own, but maybe she’ll take up the chance to be close to her other brother and her niece.”

“They’re coming!” a sudden doubled alert, courtesy of Sheryl and Joanna, brought the group of friends, new aunts, and new great-grandparents to attention. There was a bit of a scramble as everyone tried to figure out where to stand, what to do… They couldn’t stay too close to the door, didn’t want to crowd around the arrivals, but they didn’t want to hide either. The moment they could faintly hear the bell of the elevator go off, everyone froze for a beat before finally managing to sort out their greeting positions. Seconds later, they heard the key in the lock, and then the door was pushed open by Scotty, leading Willow in while Lion followed with the baby in her car seat.

When they all saw what awaited them, they were momentarily stunned into silence before breaking into great smiles, the relief of finally being home now officially kicking in. Soon, they all sat around the living room, some of them taking to the floor once the seating availabilities shrank to none, and still others just stood around, leaning to walls. The trio at the heart of this gathering were naturally given the heart of the big couch facing the television. For a while, they all just spoke, Willow and Lion sharing the tale of their departure from the hospital, the others slowly revealing what they had secretly been doing all week. It was only really now, as they sat and discussed it, that they came to appreciate the fact that Zola would already be a week old the following day.

The little one was really looking well, and all her visitors got the chance to note this fact as they got their turns holding her. As ever, everyone’s responses to having a baby put in their arms tended to fall into a number of categories. There were those who looked moderately uneasy, uncertain, like the very real reality of a tiny and possibly breakable human being left entirely in their grasp felt like too much. Rosa was one of those, though they could really see her make the effort to push past that. So long as she didn’t actually have Zola in her arms, she was just fine, unstressed.

On the flip side, there were those who took so smoothly to the baby’s presence in their arms, either from extended experience with siblings or some sort of innate parental fiber in them. Maya was one of those, as were Scotty, and Chiara, and Dylan. Somewhere in the middle, there would be those who felt so happy to be holding the baby but would constantly worry that they were doing something wrong and would inquire of the others at every turn to know if they were doing okay. Riley was one of those, and Franny, too.

“My turn?” Lucas asked, as Kayla gave a sign, and he caught its meaning. She nodded before moving to put Zola in his arms. He smiled as she settled there and stared up at him. “Hey, Zola, do you recognize me?” he asked her. Maya, sat at his side, looked at the girl with a grin, reaching out to gently stroke at the back of her hand with one finger.

“You’re just in a class of your own here, aren’t you?” she looked back up to Lucas.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, it’s just like… You sit there, and you… experience the moment,” she decided on the words and nodded to herself in satisfaction of her choice.

“Okay?” he smiled back at her, not entirely sure what this meant.

“It would feel weird to say that you turn into a cradle, wouldn’t it?” Maya squinted.

“Little bit?” Lucas chuckled.

“It’s just really peaceful. All the times you’ve held her, I can’t remember one time she hasn’t ended up falling asleep in your arms.”

“So more like a pacifier then,” he suggested.

“Something like that, yeah. You sit there, and you hold her, and you watch her, and she falls asleep. It’s kind of amazing,” Maya admitted. “And also, maybe Willow and Lion should keep you on speed dial some nights if she won’t sleep,” she had to add with a smirk.

Both Willow and Lion were really so touched to find out what all of them had been up to throughout the week. They were also beyond thankful for the food in the refrigerator and the freezer, which would be so much of a life saver when they didn’t feel like cooking. Willow was still meant to be taking things easy for a while, and Lion would only be able to stay off work for so long before he had to go back. Both Maya and Leona insisted that it would hardly be a stretch to imagine that Chef Isabel would provide any number of meals sent directly to the new mom whenever needed.

The last surprise of sorts was the nursery, and only when Willow and Lion were both ready to go and have a look did Maya lead them toward the still closed door, along with her teammates and their equally curious friends. The door was adorned with a sign, much in the fashion of the ones Maya had created for Nellie, Gracie, and MJ. Other than Zola’s name, traced in turquoise, of course, Maya had done a cartoon sort of likeness of Lion and Willow, side by side and holding baby Zola in their joined arms.

Inside, much as they quickly took in all of Zola’s things, from furniture to clothes, toys, and any other things the baby girl might need, it was inevitable that the art on the wall would draw the eyes. Maya’s instincts had only been bolstered by everyone putting her on the same track, which was that the thing Willow and Lion wanted most of all for their daughter, other than health and happiness, naturally, was for her to be both aware and proud of the paths and the heritage which had led to her parents and to their coming together. It was both clear and subtle, being mindful that this was after all a nursery and that it would be some time before Zola herself could even comprehend her surroundings.

There were nods to Willow’s Irish and Scottish roots, as there were to Lion and his Nigerian roots. There were also calls to Japan, which had been important to Lion and remained so. He and Willow had spoken of going there for their honeymoon. And all through this, there was Texas, the place where they had both been born, and brought up, the place where Zola was now born, too, and where she would grow for the foreseeable future.

“Maya…” Willow breathed, still unable to look away, taking in the various details. For his part, Lion’s reaction was to reach his long arms around his friend and co-worker and embrace her.

Soon after, Zola went down for a nap – after a passage back through Lucas’ hold, though he swore it proved nothing – and Willow needed to do the same, so the gathering was disbanded, everyone heading home to leave the new family to enjoy peace and quiet now that they were finally back from the hospital.

The six roommates, headed back to the house, decided to pick up some pizzas for dinner. The next thing they knew, messages were going out, and Rosa, Kayla, and Franny all came to rejoin them and partake of a few slices. This lasted well into the evening, after which their guests took off, and the roommates, bit by bit, headed up to their rooms.

“Where are you going?” Lucas turned around when he twisted his head to see Maya, who had been trailing after him, cut back down the stairs and head toward the kitchen.

“Hungry,” she declared as he went back down and followed her. When she pulled the fridge door open and tugged the mixed leftover pizza box open, she grabbed one of the now cold slices and turned back to look at him as though to ask, ‘want one?’ He sighed, she smiled, and soon they were both sitting at the kitchen table, each with a slice in hand. He watched her pick out the pieces of pineapple one by one, setting them aside, he knew, for the end.

“I’m still not sure about your whole thing there,” he nodded to the fruit bits.

“I already told you…”

“I know, I know, you like the taste of the juices on the pizza but not the pineapple chunks themselves,” he recited. “But you eat them anyway, after, so why not just…”

“I did it that way since I was a kid,” she insisted, then, “I didn’t even remember until a few weeks ago, my father was the one who did it first, and I started doing the same thing. I just kept doing it and I didn’t even remember it was because of him… and because I like it,” she added, before he could suggest otherwise.

One day, rather than continuing on her chronological viewing of the videos on her father’s thumb drive, she’d skipped ahead on a whim. There, she’d found a video of herself when, by the date on the file, she knew she would have been four years old, coming on five. They had been having pizza, possibly at some mall or another, doing some Christmas shopping.

She’d looked to her young father, twenty-two years old now, his hair gone longer and almost looking like Dylan pre-cut. He was still with them, still looking at her like he loved her more than anything, but at the same time, she could see something in his eyes, something like… distraction. There were things on his mind, but he smiled for his daughter and carried on, no doubt hoping she wouldn’t notice. Always, he said that he never wanted to hurt her, and for a while she’d been unable to make herself see it, but now…

“Full day tomorrow,” Lucas stated now, shifting the topic away from pizza preferences.

“Full day,” she slowly nodded, finally done with her pineapple extractions, taking a bite of the cold pizza slice.

They’d had the day off, all of them who’d been there at Willow and Lion’s that morning, those who’d then been able to join them for dinner. The next day though was opening-to-closing for both of them here, which had been an unfortunate sacrifice for Maya. Part of the work she had been doing with Professor Robinson all this time had to do with her new book, which had just finally been published. The following afternoon, she was to give a talk down at Coleman’s Books, and Maya wouldn’t be there. Lucas knew how much it meant to her, and he would tell her to talk to Chef Isabel, see if she could have the time off, but Maya wouldn’t. She knew that the chef had always been more than flexible with her, with everyone, and deep down she knew that, if she asked, Isabel would say yes. She also knew that she would start to feel like she was abusing this kindness, especially with all the breaks she’d been given in the last week.

“You’ll record it, yeah?” Maya asked, like she hadn’t done it plenty already, and like he hadn’t already answered her every time.

“The whole thing,” he promised. “You got your copy of the book, want me to get her to sign it?” he asked with a smile as they later went up to their room. The book sat just there on her desk.

“Don’t have to,” she told him, opening up the cover and turning a couple of pages before showing him the dedications. There were three, one to her son, the other to her granddaughter, and then the third.

_For Maya, my tireless friend. The world will be brighter for knowing you._

“Wow…” he smiled, looking back to her with her humble face turned up to him. “She’s got that right,” he set the book’s cover back down before closing his arms around his girlfriend, kissing her slowly for a few seconds before stopping and chuckling.

“What?” she asked, smiling back.

“Tastes like pineapple,” he whispered. She laughed and kissed him again.

TO BE CONTINUED


	169. Their Rush For Freedom

The semester was on its last leg, just days away from seeing the end of classes and the start of finals. As was coming to be expected, now on their fourth of these periods, the house was taken with a sort of intense feeling, with five of the roommates caught in that whirlwind. Dylan, the odd man out, slipped right into _his_ habitual role in this time: moral support, snack support, self-proclaimed errand boy. You needed something? He was your guy.

The last several weeks had been filled with a… a burst of life, in all of them, one they all chose to call the Zola effect. The small new life in their circle of friends had quickly become a highlight of their days. Every visit, every picture and every video sent to them via a shared chat, left them feeling like a smile had grown inside them and continued to bloom. Willow and Lion’s daughter had such curiosity in her eyes, such an openness to the world around her, and to the people she met, the people she knew… They could already feel her just ready to take on anything.

Being co-worker to one and bandmate to the other of the new parents, Maya got to see so much of her two friends as they evolved in their new roles. Lion, at the restaurant, could barely hide the exhaustion of tending to the newborn, but he also carried that sleeplessness like a badge of honor. He would have endured any number of sleepless nights for the sake of his Zozo Girl. He would tell her stories at night, stories he’d heard so many times growing up, from Zola the first. Willow would chuckle, telling them how, when he told the stories, his voice would sometimes change, sliding into some remembrance of his grandmother’s voice, her intonations, her accent. Zola the second would stare up at him, a captive audience to her father’s tales.

Willow struggled a bit in the beginning, balancing her time at the hospital and her return home, attempting to recover, and all the while just wanting to be there for her daughter. She was surrounded by so many friends and family members who wanted to help her in any way they could and were ready to do so, and she was thankful for them, and she called on that help when she needed it, but they also saw in her the need to just try and move forward on her own, to tend to Zola on her own whenever it was just them. So, that was what she eventually got to do, and before long she came to find her rhythm. She dealt with as much of that exhaustion as Lion did, of course, but also like him she took it on as a necessary part of having their amazing girl in their life.

About two weeks after coming home from the hospital, she started showing up to band practices with Zola in tow. She wasn’t about to take to the stage again for a while, and she didn’t actually pick up any instrument during those sessions, but she was there, and she was supportive. Once the practice would truly kick off, she’d head upstairs with the baby and go about making her bandmates dinner, often with whoever of Lucas, Dylan, Sophie, or Chiara was also at home at the time. To no one’s surprise, whenever Willow and Zola would come down into the basement, the practice would take time to actually kick off, as Zola’s ‘band aunties’ would descend upon her, lining up for their turns at holding her and talking to her.

At one of those practices, Maya showed up late, coming into the basement to find Willow and Kayla on the couch, Zola in the latter’s arms, with Riley and Rosa perched on the armrests.

“Hey, Maya,” Willow smiled, looking glad to see her finally join them.

“So, I just got off the phone,” Maya addressed the girls, talking and signing. “I know we said no more gigs until after finals were over, which should be fine, because this one would take place the night after the last of us have finals…” She let the words hang in the air, a question and a request opened up to the others. Were they up for it? None of them had ever felt pressured to say yes just because the others did. If there was ever something that would prevent them from being able to do one show or another, all they had to do was say so and that’d be that. No show. That day everyone said yes, and so they were booked, one day into their coming summer.

Having the show to look forward to, whether they were in the band or not, was all any of them could ask for. It was near enough to that last day, those last tests, that all they really had to think was ‘by the time the night of the show rolls around, we’ll be done.’

As had been the case before the semester ever started, the coming end was particularly emotive on Sophie, as this short period of her life was about to come to an end. In the beginning, it had been sort of a bridge between getting out of high school and finally getting into the academy, which was what she’d wanted all along, but then once they’d all actually started college, the roommates, and the friends they’d soon make, she had really found her footing, found something that didn’t feel like the means to an end anymore. She would miss being out there with her friends. It made her feel as though she was leaving a party early, when everyone was still in the thick of it.

“It is good that you will miss it,” Chiara would remind her. “It means that it mattered.”

Now, as they went through those final days of class of the semester, Lucas started to notice Maya turn to what he initially interpreted as a classic version of her pre-exam mode, where she would get so intensely focused on everything she had to do. He’d seen it so many times, most notably with those multiple projects in what became her hell week, and then way back in high school when she’d taken that test for advanced placement. Eventually, however, he started to think that, while this was absolutely a part of it, there was something else under the surface, something she was not letting on.

When he went to pick her up from the restaurant that night, making a quick stop for ice cream, as they would so often do, he brought it up with her. He never took it as a slight on her part. He knew how she could get sometimes, how she’d get stuck in her own head and not realize she was holding back. Other times, she just wouldn’t be ready to say anything, and if he asked and she said not yet then it would wait. This time, when he asked, she let out a breath, sinking into her seat just a bit, taking a spoonful of her ice cream before speaking.

“I think… I don’t know, it’s just a feeling, I guess, but… I think something’s up at home,” she slowly explained.

“Something how?” he asked. She let out another breath.

“You know how sometimes your parents think they’re so clever, keeping surprises from you, but you’ve been living with them for so long you see right through them?”

“My mother has zero poker face, but yes,” Lucas nodded. She smiled briefly at this before carrying on.

“Last week, there was something about both of mine, when I’d talk to them on Skype, like they had something they wanted to say to me, but they were holding back, something that got them excited, and it was just so hard not to talk about it. And with what I know, with what they’ve been talking about doing, I could sort of guess…”

She’d told him about that, their considering having another baby. If what she’d perceived from them was to be believed, then not only had they made up their mind, but they had actually succeeded. His face started to turn up into a smile, about to say that this was great, but then she just looked at him and he paused, asking just as silently. _It_ is _great, isn’t it?_

“I talked to them this morning again, and… the look’s gone,” she confessed, her own troubled look showing on her face again. “They don’t look like they’re trying to hold back their giddiness now, more like the polar opposite.” He didn’t know what to say, but then she said it for him. “I think… I think they were pregnant, and they were going to tell me when I came home after finals, but now… now they’re not anymore, and they don’t want me worrying and messing up my exams.”

“And now you _are_ worrying,” he sighed. Maya nodded. “What do you want to do?” he asked her plainly. Maya sat there, considering her options for a minute. Much as she knew that, if she asked it, Lucas would drive her to Austin right now, and she would be with her parents in two hours, and she could get to the bottom of this, she couldn’t escape the knowledge that it was already late, and they were both exhausted.

“Tomorrow evening after class?” she simply asked, and he nodded.

The next day, as afternoon drew ever closer to the evening, Lucas and Maya drove out of Houston and into Austin, right over to the Hunter Hart house. The knowledge that they’d be going down there had helped Maya at least make it through the day, but now that the day was done and they were on the road, Lucas could see the concern etched so deep into her face. He could have tried to reassure her, to suggest that she’d misread the situation, but it wouldn’t do any good. She had to hear it from them.

Lucas didn’t know how she intended to even approach the subject, but in the end, she never needed to. When they arrived, she rang the bell, and when Shawn opened the door and saw them there, his face just released, like relief to see her, to see that of course she’d figured it out, that she was here with them. He pulled his daughter into such a tight hold, neither of them saying a word. Finals or no, she had to be there, had to know what was going on.

As they went in, Lucas volunteered himself along with Shawn to intercept the twins before they saw their big sister, allowing her to head upstairs and find their mother. Maya found her in MJ’s room, watching him as he’d tug one book after another from his little shelf, dropping each one on the ground as he reached for the next. He’d either tire of it or run out of books, and then he’d stop.

“Mom?” Maya spoke quietly. Both Katy and MJ turned their heads, the small boy with a happy smile at seeing his sister, the woman showing that same sort of reassurance as her husband. She was here, she’d come… she knew. Maya wasted no time, moving forward and embracing her mother. How many times had her mother held her over the years, passing on comfort after a bad dream, or a scraped knee? Today, the roles were reversed. Katy was the one in need of comfort, so much comfort, and her daughter gave everything she had in her. MJ went back to his books.

“I didn’t want you to…” her mother’s voice came muffled at her shoulder.

“I know,” Maya assured her.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” her mother’s voice trembled. Maya hugged her closer.

“Me, too.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	170. Their Rush For Knowledge

If it had been up to Maya, to Lucas even, they would have stayed in Austin the whole day, at least the whole morning. But they had classes to get to, and both of them had already skipped one in favor of driving over to see her parents, to find out whether her suspicions were correct. And now that they _had_ confirmed, much to their dismay, that Katy and Shawn’s brief joy had been snuffed out as she’d guessed… Even though they wanted to stay, both her mother and father insisted that she’d be better off going on with her day, her week, going on with the end of her semester, which they’d wanted so much to protect with secrecy. They would talk. The secret was out now, so there would be no point tiptoeing around a ‘how are you doing’ or two.

The drive back to Houston was silent for a whole other reason than the drive out had been. Lucas knew to leave Maya be for a while, to let her process what she’d learned for herself. Even though she had pretty much guessed it on her own, once she knew it wasn’t just a thought she’d had, knew that it was real… Her empathy for her mother and her father was so heavy in her, and to think of what they were going through, knowing she had to push it to the back of her mind somehow, to do as they wanted her to do and focus on her finals… She needed to push really hard for the feelings to even move a tenth of an inch.

Once they came on to the familiar path toward their school, as best he could see, she had either managed what she’d intended to do or she had gotten it as far as it would go and she’d pulled up a mask to cover what parts she couldn’t budge yet. As the car pulled into its space in the parking lot, Lucas turned the key and pulled it away before turning in his seat to look at his girlfriend. Elbow on the window ledge and head in her hand, Maya turned to look back at him.

“Don’t tell the others, okay?” she quietly asked.

“I won’t,” he promised. A few seconds hung with silence, and he kept looking, needing at the very least to hear something from her, something to know _he_ wouldn’t be worrying about her all day.

She looked at him for a few seconds, and then she had to turn her head away, a shuddering breath coming to threaten her with tears. He reached out and took her hand. She shook her head, insisting she was fine, but then she had to resort to the gesture, he knew, because if she opened her mouth to speak, the dam would break. Her love for people, for her family especially, had always been such a fierce little thing inside her, the joys felt as deeply as the sorrows, and this was a big one. Long gone were the days where she kept everything so bottled up.

They stayed in the car like this for almost forty minutes. When Maya’s phone buzzed with a message from Franny, asking where she was and whether she was coming to class, it was like the world outside the car demanded that they rejoin it.

“I’m okay,” Maya finally said, then, because it was just him and her, “I can be okay until tonight.”

“We’re supposed to have everyone over to study after classes today,” he reminded her at the same time as he remembered it himself. She blinked; she’d completely forgotten, too. “I can cancel it, or we can just say we can’t go, if you…”

“No, no, we’ll go,” she shook her head, looking at him. “Right now, I could do with having people around, I think.” He didn’t ask if she was sure. If she’d said it, he believed her. And if it turned out that wasn’t the case, then… they’d deal with it when they had to.

They went their separate ways as they were nearing Maya’s next class. She told him to go on ahead, didn’t want to show up where her friends would be waiting, sent off by her concerned boyfriend and opening up the curiosity toward her emotional state. While Lucas did worry, he could only be reassured by the fact that, whether or not she told them what was happening, Maya would be surrounded by her friends, and it would do her some good.

“Hey, where have you been?” Bishop asked when he saw him coming. Lucas had had plenty of time to think about an excuse for his absence, and still he had nothing. In the end, all he could do was give something as close to the truth as possible while also keeping the secret he’d been asked to keep.

“Maya needed help with something, it couldn’t wait.” They walked toward the coffee cart, moving to their next class, with Professor Hillard, with cups in hand.

“You know, I’m practically moved into Leona’s place already,” Bishop told him as they went. “I’m leaving the furniture for Kimi when _she_ takes the room, and after that I’ve only got a few things left back there. I don’t even sleep there anymore, so I should just grab the rest of my stuff and make it official, yeah?”

“Make it of…” Lucas blinked, looking at him. He hadn’t heard a word he said before that last part, and when he realized it, he sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t…” Bishop obliged him, repeating the information he’d shared, to which Lucas finally gave a nod and agreed this was great news. After a beat, of course, because he was a good enough friend to tell the difference between someone being distracted for nothing and distracted for something, he had to ask.

“Is everything alright with you?”

“Yeah, really,” Lucas promised.

“And Maya?” Bishop went on to guess, a safe bet where Lucas was concerned.

“She’s good,” he promised again. _She will be._ As much of a shock as it had been for her, he knew she’d come around, given the time. The really difficult part for her would be to compartmentalize everything, giving priority to her schoolwork when everything in her wanted to be back in Austin with her family. It had been that way long before they’d even known they would move to Houston. She hated the distance, bore it most times, except in times like today…

They got through the day. Lucas continued to feel the urge to check on her, but thankfully Maya knew _him_ about as well as he knew her, so she’d text him every once in a while, showing, whether or not she used the words, that she was okay. She was powering through. They managed to cross paths a couple times throughout the day, hiding in casual embraces this feeling of shared comfort. By the time when the day was over, and they were all converging on the house, she had either found a way to move forward or she’d perfected her mask for the sake of the others. He tended to guess it was option two.

“Willow texted and asked if we wanted her to bring anything,” Sophie told her roommates as they were walking through the door.

“If she brings the baby here, we will accomplish nothing,” Maya pointed out with a smile.

“She could come _after_ ,” Riley suggested. “You know, like a reward.” The others laughed. “Besides, we’ve got him,” she smiled over to her boyfriend and Dylan nodded firmly. This gave Lucas a thought.

“We’re out of ice cream, right?”

“Say no more, I’m on it,” Dylan doubled back and was gone in an instant. Maya turned to Lucas with a look that said, ‘I see what you’re doing’ at the same time as ‘thank you.’ It reminded her of the night they’d told her parents about the maybe baby, made her think of them, how they’d been so supportive. It would make her think of them, as much as it would make her think of how they had all moved forward.

In no time, the house was overtaken with friends and classmates, with books, notebooks, computers… Smaller groups broke off in one location or another, from the rooms upstairs to the kitchen, the living room, the basement, and even the back yard. Dylan had taken care of the ice cream, as promised, and he went about distributing his loot to everyone, his pockets jingling with the sound of so many spoons knocking against one another.

Around dinner time, Dylan made another round, taking everyone’s orders and the money they handed over, before ducking out and returning a while later with their food. This went on well into the evening, Dylan moving on to refilling everyone with coffee, or water, or anything else they needed. It was just past midnight by the time everyone who didn’t live here went away to their own homes. With some coaxing, the roommates started to gather up their things and head up to bed.

Coming into their room, Lucas found Maya had already given herself to her habitual response to being near the bed after a long night of studying or working. She’d let herself drop on to the mattress, arms and legs out like a star and staring at the ceiling. Tonight, of course, there was another feeling to make her glad to be here again, just the two of them on their own. Just as he’d guessed, the mask was gone, the remaining concerns for what her parents were going through back in Austin now written all over her face.

“Did you get a lot done tonight?” Lucas asked after a beat, as a way to test out the waters and see where she stood.

“Yeah, pretty much everything I wanted to do,” she replied, still staring at the ceiling.

“That’s great,” he walked over and sat at the edge of the bed.

“Yeah,” she agreed.

A few seconds went by before she slowly moved on to her side and sort of scooted her way over, until she was curled up to him with her head in his lap. He traced his fingers through her hair, the repeated motion slowly leading her to shut her eyes, breathing slowly. Within minutes, she was asleep. Lucas leaned forward, kissing the top of her head before carefully moving her until he could pick her up and bring her to lie on her side of the bed. He turned off the lights and went to lie down at her side. She was turned on the side that had her facing him, so he turned on his side and faced her, too, doing his best not to wake her as he reached over and took hold of one of her hands.

He was sort of near to drifting off when he heard his name spoken very low. He opened his eyes, finding Maya’s eyes also open and staring back at him.

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered, slowly stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.

“Tell me that we can still go to New York this summer,” she spoke quietly. He blinked, confused. “I know myself, I know this whole thing is going to make me hesitate, like I should stay here with my mom and dad instead.” He sighed, understanding. “Tell me.”

“They’ll be alright, Maya. If anything, they’ll only feel worse if they’re keeping you from doing what you want to do. They tried to keep you in the dark so you could get through finals. And you going out there, spending time with your birth father, that’s a big deal. You should have it. And I’ll be there with you.” After a moment, she smiled, moving closer so that he could put his arms around her, and she could tuck her head to his shoulder. They both fell asleep soon after this, though Lucas had a vague memory of hearing her mumble a thank you as they were drifting off.

TO BE CONTINUED


	171. Their Rush For Guidance

Even though classes had now ended, leaving students to gear up for upcoming finals, Maya continued to work with Professor Robinson. She would be travelling over the summer, giving several lectures, and Maya would help her prepare. When all this was said and done, she would be saying goodbye to her favorite professor until the fall semester started. She wouldn’t be working with her on any projects at this point. Instead, Maya would step in as the professor’s teaching assistant. She found this out just today, though it took some time for her to actually realize she was being offered the position.

It had been days now since she and Lucas had gone to Austin to see her parents, and the initial shock of realizing what her mother and father were going through had worn off to some degree, and yet… Sometimes she would find herself thinking about it and she would drift off into her mind. She kept thinking about how she’d felt, Halloween night, when she’d found out she wasn’t actually pregnant when she’d believed she might be. As deeply as it had affected her, it would have been so much worse to have had something and lost it while her heart was still doing cartwheels. If it had been her… She didn’t even want to think about it, but then she almost had no choice.

She’d been so caught up in this ceaseless run around in her thoughts that, when the professor tried to get her attention by tapping her arm, Maya startled, sitting back in her chair, which rolled back the short space to thump against the wall.

“I’m so sorry…” the professor apologized at once, but Maya shook her head, still trying to collect herself.

“No, no, it’s fine, _I’m_ sorry, I was just… I-I was… Never mind, I’m sorry, I… Did you need something?” Maya looked back down to her desk as she pulled her chair forward with her foot. Patty Robinson looked down at her, her eyes asking if she wanted to talk about anything. When Maya just shook her head, just enough to convey that she was fine, or at least that she didn’t want to talk about it, the older woman decided, at least for now, to go along with it.

“I wanted to talk to you about the fall semester,” the professor moved back to her desk and pulled one of the visitor chairs over to Maya’s desk.

“Okay,” Maya replied, unsure where this was going.

Was this it? Was her time of working alongside her professor coming to an end? She tried not to let her face suggest one reaction or another, but she couldn’t help it. All at once, the idea that this might be the end had settled in her mind, and the immediate response was disappointment. Sure, she’d still have classes with her across the last two years of her studies here, and with the way things were going with Patty and Pappy Joe, there was every chance that she’d continue being a part of her life one way or the other… But she enjoyed this so much, the work they did together… She was learning so much.

When instead she learned that she was being offered the TA position, she sat there for a few seconds just… blinking, surprised. The professor smiled at her, laughing lightly at what had to be a gobsmacked look on her face.

“You shouldn’t be so surprised, Maya, now… After all the work you and I did together, and more than that… The greatest advice my father ever gave me, when I was your age, he told me that a good working relationship was half the battle for success. You and I, we work great together, don’t you agree?”

“I do, yes,” Maya was not long for a reply.

“Then we keep going,” the professor beamed, holding out her hand. Maya shook it, and that was that. “Now, I need to go talk to Professor Medeiros. You go ahead and get back to your studies, you’ll have some peace and quiet here.”

“Thanks,” Maya told her, sitting up in her chair as the professor moved the other seat back to its place.

Before she would walk out the door however, Maya stopped her with a question.

“What do you do…” she started, then paused as Professor Robinson turned to look at her, her hand on the door handle. “… when you have a lot of work to do but… there’s something on your mind.” In that moment, the shared gaze between them, it felt like the momentary suspension of titles between them. For now, they weren’t Professor Robinson and Miss Hart, just Patty and Maya. Patty looked at her, waiting to let her speak. Maya breathed. She didn’t know why it felt so important, but she’d never actually said the words, never had to. Only she and Lucas knew. “My… mother had a miscarriage.”

Patty let out a breath, closed her eyes for a moment before moving to her desk and once again bringing the chair next to Maya’s desk. She sat down, and she looked at her, waiting for her to say what she needed to say. Maya didn’t know what it was about her that made it so easy to talk, to confide in her. Maybe it was her going around, as Sophie had once called it, being like the World’s Best Granny. Maya didn’t really have that in her life, but then there was her, and… it all just slipped out.

She told her professor about Halloween, the maybe baby, and how those lingering thoughts had been mingling with everything she’d been left to think about, her parents’ situation and all that.

“They didn’t want to tell me, not now. They didn’t want this to disrupt the end of my semester, but… I don’t need to be kept out. I wanted to be there for them, and I am, as much as possible. Only now I don’t know if everything they tried to keep me from isn’t happening anyway.”

“There’s really no way around this,” Patty told her after a few beats. “You know as well as I do that, as hard as we try not to think about something like that, all that will get us is this… giant, planted in our periphery, big and bright and unavoidable.” Maya let out a breath. That was pretty much what it felt like, wasn’t it? “It won’t be the same for everyone, but as far as I’m concerned… Trying to ignore it won’t do you any good. It doesn’t work anyway.”

“Sometimes I almost wish I didn’t know,” Maya admitted. “Just for a little while. Except _they_ don’t have a choice in that, and I don’t want to put myself in some other category apart from them.” Patty was quiet for a few seconds, looking for some solution. Eventually, all she could do was set Maya on the right path and hope she found what she needed.

“Find a way to keep them with you,” she told her student. Maya looked up at her. “You already do that, of course,” Patty nodded to the photos stuck on the wall above her desk. Her family in Austin, her family in New York, friends near and far, Lucas and her…

“I’m pretty sure those aren’t included in the material we’re allowed to bring into our finals,” Maya gave her a smile.

“I’ve seen students try to get away with worse,” Patty chuckled. “There are more subtle ways, simple ways.” She held up her hand, showing the bracelet around her wrist. “Bernie gave me this, oh… a year into our marriage. I’ve worn it ever since. Even though he’s no longer with us, he _is_ with me.” This made Maya smile, recalling…

“Years ago, I gave Lucas a pocket watch. His grandfather had one and he’d always loved it, so I gave him his own for Christmas. Whenever something happened and he knew he couldn’t be with me when I needed him, or I needed some courage, he would lend it to me, and I would hold on to it, like he was right there.”

Of course, it wasn’t Lucas who was far away from her at the moment. But as to her parents… They had given _her_ something, too, something that reminded her so much of them that she’d gone and bought similar items for her little sisters. And while she didn’t wear it every day, she _was_ wearing it today. She slipped her finger under the chain around her neck until she could pull the golden locket from inside her shirt. It rested in her palm now, and she closed her fingers around it.

Here they were, and here they would stay, and maybe she could pull through this, find her focus, the way she’d done before.

She didn’t know how much her talk with Professor Robinson had done her good until she met up with Lucas outside the library, the two of them heading in to join their friends for a study session. When she arrived, stopped and stood in front of him, he looked at her in what she could only describe as his thinking ‘there’s something different about you since I last saw you but I don’t know what it is.’

“Hey, guess what,” she smiled up at him.

“Yeah, I’m trying,” he replied. She laughed.

“No, not that, I’ll tell you about that later,” she promised. Instead, she told him about becoming a teaching assistant for Professor Robinson in the coming fall semester. Even without the massive grin to tell him she was Very Excited About This, he would have been just as happy for her as he was now. He promised her that they would celebrate this later, as they headed in to join the others.

Her news wasn’t immediately shared, fearing that some people within their group would not be able to control their reactions, which would not be ideal in the middle of a library. The reaction when she finally did tell them, on the way out, proved she’d been right in her assumption.

That night, Lucas told Maya to grab her things and meet him back at the car. Instead of eating at home with the others before heading upstairs for more studying, they made their way to the Nook, where they settled in and ate in honor of the new post. Studying here had become so much of a tradition that it felt like they always did some of their best work here. By the time they called it a night and headed back toward home, all they wanted was to get some much-earned sleep.

Maya told Lucas now about what she’d discussed with the professor, how she’d been using her parents’ locket in sort of the same way she sometimes used his pocket watch. It wasn’t going to be a patch on her whole situation, but the way she saw it… this was a start, and it was getting her through, allowing her to focus when she needed to. That was all she needed. When finals were over, when she’d get more chances to be with her family, to help them move forward whenever they needed her…

“Did she tell you she’s taking my grandfather with her on her lecture tour?” Lucas told her as they were turning on to their street.

“What?” Maya’s head turned toward him so fast. “Are you serious?”

“I am,” he nodded, willing himself not to look at her for fear that he might get distracted from driving.

“No, swear it, I don’t believe you.”

“I swear it on your head,” Lucas informed her, and she bit back her words, left with a small smile. Knowing he wasn’t lying was one thing; this was still unbelievable.

“She didn’t say a word to me.”

“I don’t know, I think she did that on purpose, like she knew it’d be funnier this way.”

“Yeah…” Maya blinked. “Yeah, she would do that.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	172. Their Rush For Growth

How Lucas wished Maya could have been in the room with him when he learned of his grandfather’s travel plans…

It had started early that day. He had taken himself a spot in the campus café, settling for a few hours of studying on his own, possibly joined by Bishop and a few other of his classmates, before going off to sit his first exam. He could have gone to the library, which he often did, but today he just knew that it wouldn’t do, that it would be too quiet, and he’d need a bit of noise to build his concentration. If he’d been at the library, with that silence only broken by whispers, the soft sound of laptop keys, of pages being turned, pens capped and uncapped… it would have been all too easy for his brain to deviate from the text sitting before him to the girl sitting off in Professor Robinson’s office.

The dark cloud pulled over Maya ever since she’d learned about her parents’ situation had started to clear, yes, but it was definitely still there, ready to swoop in and cast shadows at the most inappropriate times. It wasn’t as though he didn’t expect this. He’d known her long enough now to know just the ways her emotions could get the best of her sometimes, which came hand in hand with knowing there would be times where he wouldn’t be able to do anything to change it. Her parents would have known, too, which would explain their trying to keep it away from her awareness, for a little while, even though this had failed in the end.

If he hadn’t looked up at just the right moment, like his subconscious had picked up on a familiar sound without his conscious mind catching on, he might not have caught the eye of his uncle/professor as he walked by, in conversation with _his_ uncle and Lucas’ grandfather. Hank Hillard stopped when he saw him, tapping Pappy Joe’s arm and pointing in his direction. Pappy Joe saw him now and he beamed, the two men moving in his direction and, with the smallest nod of ascent from him, sitting at his table.

“Look at you, hard at work,” his grandfather spoke as his greeting, with a proud tip of the head.

“Morning,” his uncle’s greeting was more formal, though still with that ease to him which, especially when placed side by side with his once estranged uncle, only highlighted his resemblance to Joseph Friar.

“I didn’t know you were coming down here today,” Lucas looked to his grandfather, unable to hide his surprise. Hank said nothing, but his face had a distinct ‘that makes two of us’ look to it, which made Lucas smile.

“That tends be the way surprises work, Lucas,” his grandfather shrugged.

“You’re here to surprise…” he slowly asked, still confused.

“Oh, this isn’t _my_ handiwork, no, I’m the surprised here,” his grandfather chuckled, sitting forward. “Patty said she wanted to talk to me about something and she would try and drive out to Austin in a few days, but I said I’d be happy to make my way out here instead to see her, so I came, and we had our chat.” Lucas looked to his uncle, wondering if he had any better input. How did his grandfather being ‘the surprised’ prevent him from letting him know he was coming over? Hank just gave a look that said he didn’t know any better, and maybe he’d been hoping for more logic here on this retelling. Pappy Joe had developed this sort of unpredictability in the time since his fall down the stairs and his relocation to his son’s house, like his life had been forced to change with his mobility, and so he’d taken it even further. He wasn’t going to let himself be turned into ‘some shuffling old man,’ no he was not.

“What did she say?” Lucas finally asked, and here his grandfather’s smile was particularly bright, like he almost couldn’t believe his luck.

“Oh, well, she’s going to be travelling over the summer, doing lectures in and out of the country,” Pappy Joe told him. Lucas nodded; he knew already, of course, through Maya, though this was where his knowledge ended and discovery started, as his grandfather went on. “And she asked me to go with her.” He sat back, proud of himself, while Lucas was left to blink, surprised.

“Wha… uh… What did you say?” he finally managed to ask.

“Well, I said yes,” his grandfather nodded, like it was the most obvious answer. Lucas looked to his uncle, who by now was biting back a laugh.

“You’re going with her,” Lucas repeated. Another nod. “Aren’t there like… thirty-something cities?” The number escaped him, but his grandfather had the reply at the ready.

“Thirty-four,” he confirmed. “Imagine that, I have barely left Texas my whole life, much less the United States, and now I’ll be walking through places like France, and Japan, and Egypt. Let me get us something to drink, what would you two like?” he got up from the table. When he walked off toward the counter, where Dylan greeted him as he might greet his own grandfather, Lucas and Hank watched him go before turning back to one another.

“He’s really going?” Lucas asked his uncle.

“Have you ever known him to back out on a statement?” Hank chuckled.

“No,” Lucas had to admit. “But he still can’t walk too long before his leg starts troubling him, how’s he going to visit all those places?” There was no way that Patty Robinson, beyond her lectures, wouldn’t go and take in some sightseeing, a whole lot of museums… and his grandfather wasn’t about to sit back at a hotel and leave her to go on her own.

“He’s talking about getting himself one of those electric scooters,” Hank replied, and again Lucas was stunned. “I know,” his uncle laughed again, knowing as well as Lucas did just how much Pappy Joe had previously ranted over the sight of those things. “He says he’ll only use it ‘internationally,’” Hank added, and now Lucas had to laugh. “This will be good for him.”

“I know,” Lucas nodded. “I just never imagined him anywhere except here, like he’s part of the state, and anywhere outside of it he just comes off almost…”

“Out of place?” Hank guessed. Lucas nodded almost sheepishly. “No, I get it. When my family and I first left the state, I thought I stuck out like a drawling sore thumb. I don’t think I ever really lost that impression, though over time I definitely adjusted.”

This made him think of Maya, back when she’d first moved from New York to Austin. She definitely stood out, too, although unlike his uncle and his grandfather she had changed over time, to the point where people might believe she’d been born and raised here all her life. Maybe it was easier to shift into this place than out of it.

“I hope we didn’t bother you too much, coming over,” his uncle told him as he took in the various books and papers stacked and spread in front of him.

“It’s fine,” Lucas insisted, absently straightening up a few things, mindful of the incoming cups.

“How’s it looking?” Hank asked, his tone almost slipping back into professor mode.

“I just have a few things I need to focus on for this afternoon, and then one more run through the whole thing,” Lucas shrugged. His uncle nodded, taking in the books, seeing they were not for his own course’s final, which would take place the following morning. Lucas could see in his eyes how there was still some instinct in him to provide some assistance or another, but then to do so outside of office hours would have felt like special treatment for his nephew, and neither of them wanted that.

“You’ll be headed to Austin when all this is done?” Hank asked instead.

“Yeah, for a couple weeks, then Maya and I are going to New York to see her birth father and her siblings out there, then we’ll be back in Houston for the rest of the summer.” It felt good to finally have a plan, the schedule all set, for him and Maya and their friends and family, but also with the bookstore and the clinic. He was particularly looking forward to putting in more hours with his aunt Tanya, which he told his uncle about.

“She’s very happy about that, too,” Hank smiled. “You know, years ago, before she had the clinic, she was a professor, too.”

“She told me, yeah,” Lucas confirmed. She had taught at the school he’d be headed to, after his time in Houston was over.

“When the choice came along, where she could get the clinic and make that her full-time career, it took some consideration. She loved teaching, and she was excellent, but she also felt that she could bring something by getting the clinic going. That’s why she took you on out there. She still gets to pass on what she knows, gets to teach again.”

“She’s shown me so much already,” Lucas smiled.

It used to feel just a bit daunting, to go through four years here and then another four elsewhere, but Tanya Hillard had been an unexpected mentor, laying down just enough of groundwork that he felt he would be so ready for that transition, still two years from now…

Sometimes it still felt like it all had to be a dream. He had found his long-estranged uncle, entirely by chance, as his professor, and from there he’d gotten to meet his aunt, and work with her… It wasn’t the same, but it sort of allowed him to understand what it must have been like for Maya to meet her New York siblings and get to know them. He got to know his Hillard cousins, and the lot of them were really indispensable to him now, much as his aunt and uncle were. He was fortunate then that, even if they did return to Austin in two years, as they had every indication of doing, they would only be a couple of hours away by car.

“I’ll tell you what, when he gets back, we’ll leave you be,” Hank told him, stealing a look to the counter, where Pappy Joe was still in conversation with Dylan.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind, really. I kind of like that he’s here.”

“Well, I’ve already convinced him to stay the night at the house, so why don’t you and Maya drop by for breakfast in the morning,” Hank offered as compromise.

“Alright, fair enough,” Lucas was left to agree with a smile.

When his grandfather finally returned, with Dylan carrying the three cups for him, Lucas was given his and, with Hank convincing his uncle that they should let him study, Lucas said his goodbyes, promising again that he would be at the Hillard house with Maya the following morning. It took a few minutes before he could focus again on what he’d come here to do, but in time he got to it.

He had no idea whether Maya did or didn’t know about his grandfather and her professor’s summer plans, but he couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when he told her. He still hadn’t entirely processed the idea himself… especially his grandfather rolling along on one of those scooters… in ‘France, and Japan, and Egypt’ and every other place they’d be headed to. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised by now. From the moment his grandfather had met Patty Robinson, he’d been a changed man, entirely and brightly enthralled by the white-haired woman. The trip might be just the next step in their journey together.

TO BE CONTINUED


	173. Their Rush For Peace

The day of their last finals – affectionally called Final Finals Day – was concluded, for Lucas, with a shift down at the bookstore, which then brought him home in early evening. When he arrived, his search for Maya led him up to their room, where she lay curled up with Peanut on the bed. Maya was asleep, while the puppy was awake but quite content to sit there in her arms without making a sound. Trix and Lou were also on the bed, taking all the benefits of his not being on the empty side. They were also awake, and when he came into the room they stood up on the mattress and barked before he could do anything about it.

Lucas looked over and saw that Maya slept on, so he carefully led the dogs to leave the room, Peanut, too, before shutting the door and moving back to his girlfriend, who now appeared to be stirring. Taking a page from her book, he smirked before promptly launching himself on to his side of the bed. With a startled shout, Maya awoke, turning her head this way and that until she spotted Lucas there at her side, propped up on his elbow and grinning.

“Hey…”

“This is a dangerous game you’re playing here, Huckleberry,” she ‘threatened,’ “There could be consequences you’re not prepared for.”

“Bring it,” he confidently declared, which only got her to drop the ‘hard’ stare and smile, leaning over to kiss him. “As I was saying, hey,” he smiled along, kissing her back. “How was practice?” he asked. After _her_ ‘final final,’ Maya was to meet the girls from the band, putting in a session in preparation for the following night’s gig.

“Well,” she got up on her elbow much as he had done. “It was only Riley and Kayla and me at first, so it was coming off kind of like when we’d have substitute teachers, you know? Then Willow showed up with Zola, so that didn’t help with the focusing. Mostly it was the four of us sitting on the ground around the car seat and singing and signing at the baby. Then Rosa finally showed up, and Willow took Zola upstairs so we could get things done. We’ve got everything settled for tomorrow.”

“So, you being up here napping, should I take it as a sign that this is the extent of what you plan on doing for the rest of the evening, or…” Lucas asked. Maya’s eyebrow raised, curious. “Wanna go out with me?” he asked. She ‘pondered.’

“I don’t know… What will my hot boyfriend say?”

“I think he’ll be okay with it…” he smirked.

“He’s so understanding,” she nodded with a sigh. “Where are we going? Do I need to change?”

“I think we’re both a bit too tired to pull a capital-D Date, so it’s up to you on the clothes. As to where, we’d have just enough time to get to the theater and catch a movie, unless you think you’d fall asleep in the middle of it…”

“Candy, lots of action… you… I think I’ll be okay.”

So, with that, they were soon out of the house and walking off in the direction of the nearby movie theater. As they went, they relayed to one another how their last exams had gone, reflecting as they were prone to do lately, and now more than ever, that they were officially halfway through their time in Houston. It felt like only a moment ago they had been moving in, discovering the neighborhood… Now, in as much time as it had been since that day, they would be leaving this place. They’d spent so much time thinking about it by now that it sort of didn’t feel the same anymore. They were actually starting to make their peace with it. Besides, Sophie and Chiara would hold on to the place when they were gone, so the house would always be there, just different.

Tickets were bought, snacks and drinks, too, and they went into Theater 5, finding that their favored seats were available. They quickly went about settling in, with a few minutes to spare before the start of the movie.

“When Riley and I were little and her parents would take me along with them to see a movie, the two of us would try so hard not to eat anything before it started, and we kept getting warned that, once we finished those, we wouldn’t get more.”

“I’m guessing the success was… unsuccessful?”

“Oh, there was nothing left by the time the lights dimmed,” she confirmed, making him laugh. “And then Riley would get upset, and Mr. Matthews would get one look at her and give us more. It was kind of the best days ever. We were just sugar buckets by the time we got out of there, but hey…”

“I wish I could have seen it,” Lucas smiled. “Little you, all over the place.”

“Oh, it was only fun up until the moment where we either crashed or puked,” Maya was caught between smiling back at him and scrunching up her face at the memory.

“Still would have liked to be there,” he promised, and she thanked him by offering out her open bag of candy. He took one piece, and when she kept shaking it at him, insisting for him to take as much as he wanted, he took a few more. “So, tell me about this boyfriend of yours,” he started as he bit into a piece of candy.

“Oh, the hot one?” she asked, leaning back into her seat with a thoughtful look.

“Yeah, him,” Lucas did the same.

“What do you want to know? Like, specifics of his hotness?” she inquired.

“Sure,” he turned a bit sideways to face her.

“I don’t know…” she trailed off. “Is it appropriate, in this place?” she looked around. Save for a couple of old guys far off in the back, and a few people on their own dotted through the seats, and a small group almost in the first row, they were well on their own where they sat. “Maybe I should whisper it in your ear, just…” she held her finger to her lips.

“If you think that’s best,” he nodded. She crooked her finger at him, and he leaned over until she could whisper.

The ‘specifics’ left him certain that his ears might have been burning. When she pulled back to sit normally in her seat again, her expression betraying nothing as she took a sip of her drink, he slowly sat back, too, taking a sip of his own and looking back at her, finding her staring back at him with that misleadingly innocent look about her.

“Good to know,” he finally managed to say, sending her into a fit of giggles.

Finally, the movie started and – as promised – she did not fall asleep. There was a period somewhere in the middle of the show, they couldn’t say for sure how long, where they completely forgot to pay attention to the screen as they were more interested in paying attention to each other’s lips, but on the whole, it was a great movie, and they left the theater still talking about it. The candy and popcorn were all gone, and still they managed to stop over for ice cream, which they ate as they sat on a nearby bench. Maya sat sideways, facing him, with her knees folded and her feet on the bench.

“I talked to my mom earlier,” she spoke, digging a spoonful of her ice cream from the small bowl.

“How’s she doing?” he asked.

“She’s good,” Maya nodded, smiling. “Moving forward, like she says. They still want to try again, but they think they’ll wait a few months.”

“Sounds good,” Lucas nodded back. Looking at her, he could see, in a way, that just knowing her mother and father were moving forward was doing her some good, too. She had been putting the whole event behind her, too, and now this felt like the last part of it, shutting the folds on that box and storing it away. Now that it was over though, he knew she needed to address it one more time, just to really see that it was out of her system, and this had been her way of opening the subject.

“I still don’t get why it affected me this much sometimes…” she slowly stated.

“Well, it’s your mom, and…” Lucas started to say, but one look at her and he knew she hadn’t been speaking of her mother’s losing of one baby but of him and her thinking they were having one and then finding out they weren’t.

“It’s been more than half a year, there was never even… anything, and I…” she pushed out a breath and sat there for a while not saying anything, needing to collect herself. “I still feel like something was… lost… which feels so bad now, when _they’re_ actually…” She bowed her head, minding her ice cream in silence for a while.

“Maya…” he tried, but she shook her head.

“I know what you’re going to say,” she insisted, looking up at him. He waited. “You’ll say that… I got attached to it, even though I tried not to, same as you, and when we saw the tests and it said no… But half a year, Lucas, over something that wasn’t there, I just… I don’t know…” she sighed again. She set the cup down on the bench, not feeling the desire to eat any of it.

She was right, he _would_ have said what she said he would, but he also knew that her still being caught up in that old lingering feeling wasn’t easy. Truth be told, he was sort of there, too, even though he knew it didn’t present itself the same way for him as it did for her.

“Maybe…” he started, setting his cup down, too, trying to find the words to fit what he saw in his head, memories of the months gone by. “Maybe it has to do with Willow and Zola.” Maya looked at him, not following. “We just spent half a year watching Willow and Lion get ready to become parents, for Zola to be born, so it’s like… no matter what we did, we always had babies on the brain, the one that Willow was going to have… and the one we didn’t. And then your mom…”

Maya thought about this for a while. Maybe that was actually it, to a point. There they’d been, trying to put that moment behind them, knowing they had allowed themselves to get attached to something they never really had in the end, and at every turn they’d been shown pictures of unborn Zola in Willow’s belly, they’d felt her kick and move, they’d shopped with and for them, they’d helped with the apartment, been at the hospital. They’d held that little girl and loved her dearly. And now here, nearing on what would have been the time for their own maybe baby to come into the world, they’d found out instead that Katy and Shawn had lost one that would have been very real.

“You know…” she spoke after a beat, looking back at him. “All this time, I kept going on about that hot boyfriend of mine… Did I ever tell you about what a good guy he is?” she asked, smiling. He smiled back.

“You didn’t,” he confirmed. “But… I think I heard about that. The question is… did I ever tell _you_ about my hot girlfriend?” Her innocent shrug was sort of slow coming, as they were both moving that closed box of a subject well into the back of their minds now.

“I don’t think you did, but I’m very anxious to hear about her,” Maya smiled, taking up her ice cream again as he did the same.

“Oh, I _have_ to tell you about her.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	174. Their Rush For Sound

Maya awoke the next morning, feeling right down to her bones that this past night had been, without contest, the best night’s sleep she’d had in weeks. It would have been difficult to pinpoint any one particular reason why, all of a sudden, she had slept like a rock and awakened the next morning like a feather floating at ease. She’d just concluded her second year of college, she’d established… some form of peace with the months-long pull of the maybe baby situation… and she would soon get to spend a few weeks of unencumbered time with her family, both in Austin and New York. She had a show tonight with her TXNY girls _and_ the trio of Weaver Kings, and then, as ever, she had the guy sleeping at her side, her big Huckleberry spoon with his arms around her. Whatever the cause for her rested state, she wouldn’t fret about it; she was going to enjoy it.

First order of business was ‘payback’ for the wake-up call she’d been served the previous evening. Just because it had all been done in good fun and had been followed by a fantastic evening did not mean she couldn’t get her chuckles in.

Slipping smoothly out of Lucas’ hold, she went scrambling for the first bit of clothing handy and elected his discarded shirt as the winner. Once she had gained some coverage, she started looking around their room for inspiration. She grabbed her earbuds from her desk, moving quietly to go and tuck them into his ears, made easier by his having rolled on to his back once she’d been gone from the bed. Finding her phone, she rolled through her music there, turned the volume up somewhere safely between loud and deafening, closer to the former, and she hit play.

She didn’t know what was likelier to have woken up the others, his jolting awake and rolling to the floor, twisted up in the sheets, or her bursting out laughing at the sight of his reaction.

The story would reach many ears over the course of the day, from their roommates at breakfast, to the bandmates and the Aussie trio coming along after lunch for practice, and then to friends who came along for the show in the evening. It would also make the rounds to their friends in Boston and New York and some of their former basketball teammates. If Lucas wasn’t such a good sport over it – or possibly just ready to ridicule himself for the sake of Maya’s good mood – he might have argued over keeping said story between the two of them and no further.

Maya didn’t know how she’d pulled it off, but she’d gotten a new song written for the night’s show over the last few days. It was a chance she was taking, and if they couldn’t pull it together before that night then they would just hold on to it until whenever they got around to their next turn on the stage, but she was confident that they would get there in time to set it as the night’s opener. The bigger risk was that, without knowing it when she’d started putting the song together, this one was not meant for her to lead, and it wasn’t for Rosa either.

“You want me to go up there?” Willow asked, surprised, when Maya handed her the lyrics.

“Only to sing, and only if you feel up to it,” Maya assured her. “The more I worked on it, I just knew it wasn’t mine, and then I figured it out. This one’s yours.”

Willow of course had been singing on her own at the coffee shop where she used to work, long before she’d joined the band. Maya still remembered the day they’d been out there, the first time they’d heard her sing. And ever since she’d become part of TXNY, it wasn’t as though she’d been turned into a background singer, but she definitely hadn’t gotten to shine as much as she deserved to. Now, inspiration had given her a chance to do just that.

“I mean… I did say I would come back to do shows with the rest of you by September, and I still kind of want to keep to that,” Willow stated, and Maya nodded, understanding. “But…” Willow went on, making the songwriter smile, “That doesn’t mean I can’t cheat a little.”

“Right?” Maya grinned, holding her hand up for Willow to grasp.

Willow – with Zola – had been first to arrive that day, and Maya was all too pleased to entertain her goddaughter while Willow went about learning the song. Maya had the small girl tucked happily in her arms, moving along, and doing an improvised sort of little dance with her. Zola just kept staring up at her, giving little coos and smiles as they went. It was amazing how much she was growing already…

“Hey Zola, you want to hear a funny story about the pacifier man?” Maya whispered as she moved along. “You should have seen him this morning, all tangled up and looking around like this…”

Riley had left in Sophie’s car to go and pick up Kayla, and by the time the two of them returned, Willow was already familiarizing herself with the tune, as Maya accompanied her on the guitar. Lucas, ‘the pacifier man,’ had done his job, as little Zola now slept soundly in his arms. Willow was still amazed, while Maya was simply curious as to why it worked. To her recollection, he hadn’t had this ‘power’ back when MJ had been a newborn, or Nellie and Gracie either.

By the time they had Lily Weaver and the King twins getting their own go of practice, and then by the time Rosa arrived, still on the tail end of her senior year, Willow’s song was truly starting to take shape. Rosa was so worked up, telling the others about the hassle of getting her graduation tickets and confirming yet again that they would all be coming back to Houston for the day, so they could see her get her diploma ‘because if I’m going to have to walk around in that robe, then I might as well get seen by family…’ It took a while before she paused and looked back, listened to Willow as she sang, and realized this was something she hadn’t heard before.

“Did you…” she turned back to Maya, who gave her a nod. “Tonight?” she went on to ask Willow, who just smiled and kept on singing. Without another word, Rosa took a seat and listened, already shifting into band mode, knowing she’d be accompanying with her bass.

They hadn’t yet told Rosa about the offer they had for her. _That_ would be her graduation present. Not long after Maya had gotten the idea and discussed it with Lucas, they had put it to the rest of the house, one simple question. What did they think of Rosa moving in with them in the fall? To their credit, they saw the benefit of the move as much as Maya and Lucas had done. It may have been a short walk back to her mother’s house, but it also wasn’t about her mother’s house, it was a step into independence… with her friends. _Her family, she called us, and that’s what we are._

They were all up for it. The only thing they really needed to figure out was where she’d stay. All four of the bedrooms were occupied, one for Maya and Lucas, one for Sophie and Chiara, one for Riley, and one for Dylan. It was something of an unspoken eventuality that, sooner or later, Riley and Dylan would go and combine their worlds, at which point a room would be vacated. Until it _was_ spoken, Riley declared that Rosa should bunk with her. Maya and Lucas made a bet to see whether or not the move with Dylan would have occurred by the time Rosa became roommate number seven. This still hinged on whether or not she’d say yes but, going by the way she was talking of dorms and the likelihood of having to room with strangers, they felt confident she would jump at the chance.

In no time, they were on their way to the venue. Willow’s grandparents had picked up Zola from the house, so Lion would get to go, and watch Willow take the stage. They hadn’t told him about the new song, only that she would be ‘making a quick appearance’ at the start of the show, just to say hello and to personally thank their fans for all the kind messages and support they had given her following Zola’s birth, and she wanted him to be there for it, after which they could melt into the audience and watch the rest of the show, on what would be their first sort of date since before they’d become parents.

“Do I look okay?” Willow asked the others as they stood in wait to go up on stage. She hadn’t been expecting to go there when she’d left the apartment that morning, and even if she had, she wouldn’t have known what to wear. She’d borrowed something of Chiara’s.

“You look amazing, you look like you,” Riley told her with a grin, and Willow side-hugged her.

They got their intro, and the rush of cheers from the audience – that never got old – and then they walked out, the five of them together. There was a raise in those cheers when they saw Willow, who had been absent from their last few appearances. Somehow, they could still make out Lion’s voice among that crowd. It crushed whatever butterflies the new mom may have had in her about stepping into that spotlight that night, and soon the first notes of the new melody filled their ears, and Willow sang her song.

When it was over, she still did what she’d told Lion she was there to do, before moving off to find him, leaving Maya, Riley, Kayla, and Rosa to carry on with the rest of their set. Midway through, Weaver Kings came up and did their part, giving them a break in the process. By now, they had recruited themselves a band to back them up. While the others went and sat a while, Maya stayed watching in the wings. She’d written a few more songs for the trio since that first batch, and like the others these had been gaining popularity. It still made her heart feel a thrill whenever she got to stand and watch, to listen as Lily and Cat and Vic sang her songs, as the audience cheered…

TXNY went back up as Weaver Kings gave their bows, and then they played their last few songs. The trio came back up for the end, adding their voices to the others as they closed with a cover. When they all left the stage, buzzing with energy the lot of them, they were soon reunited with friends and friendlier friends… It was on this night that they learned of an ongoing sort of ‘situation’ developing between Franny and Catriona King. The best they could say on it, without prying, was that it was both surprising and unsurprising. By the time flirtation would advance into dating, near midsummer, Franny would declare herself to her friends as pansexual.

For now, with summer on its first day for some and still on the horizon for others, all they had ahead of them was a return to the house to spend the extra post-show energy coursing through them before they all went crashing for the night. In the morning, however early they managed to pull themselves out of bed, they’d have another event to prepare for. It wouldn’t be the end of a semester, of a year, without a party, would it?

TO BE CONTINUED


	175. Their Rush For Summer

Lucas was awakened the next morning, it really felt, much too early after the previous night’s show and their late turn-in. He didn’t wake up of his own accord either. Instead, he was prompted to wake by someone gently yet decisively patting at his face and quietly speaking near his ear.

“Wake up, come on,” the voice said, getting clearer as he got further away from sleep, until he could finally identify it as belonging to Maya. When he opened his eyes, her face was all of three inches away from his own, smiling with satisfaction when she saw that he was finally awake. “Hey…”

“What time is it? What’s wrong?” he mumbled.

“Nothing wrong, and it’s seven,” she reported. He grunted, closing his eyes. “Hey, hey,” she patted his cheeks again and he made a noise of refusal. A moment later, he felt her lips against his, and his eyes opened again. “Thought that might do it,” she smirked. “Get up, get dressed,” she scrambled out of reach and got on her feet. Lucas sat up, yawning.

“Where are we going?”

Once he finally followed her, both of them dressing quietly and leaving the house with care not to wake anyone, she informed him that they were on their way to the Nook to pick up breakfast for them and the others. When asked what had prompted this plan, Maya looked almost bashful all of a sudden.

“You didn’t notice, did you?” she asked.

“Notice what?” he asked back, trying to think what she might have been referring to.

“You didn’t see anything when we walked out of our room?” she prompted. By chance, they had just pulled to a red light, but still, as much as he tried to think, he couldn’t come up with an answer. When he shook his head, Maya hesitated a moment more before spelling it out for him. “Did you happen to notice Dylan’s door was open?” Lucas nodded. “Did you also notice his bed was made?”

Lucas started to nod again, then paused. For having lived the last two years across the hall from the guy, they were pretty familiar with his routine. He _would_ make his bed, but not until after breakfast. Except this morning… They hadn’t seen Dylan anywhere, upstairs, downstairs, and his bed being made suggested much more that it hadn’t been slept in than anything else, so where…

The impatient driver honking his horn at their backs was the sound that eventually broke Lucas out of that shock of understanding at what Maya was suggesting had happened the night before, with Dylan… and Riley. As they started to roll again, he could hear Maya laughing quietly at his surprise.

By the time they got to the restaurant, picked up their order for six, and made their way back to the house, the others were either just coming down the stairs or could be heard moving about upstairs. Specifically, Sophie and Chiara were making their way down, sounding immediately grateful when they caught the scent and sight of the food being carried in. By the faces they had upon being asked if the others were coming to join them, Maya and Lucas guessed the girls were also aware of the ‘development.’ And a minute later, as Riley and Dylan came along to complete the table, they looked at once like they were realizing that everyone had figured out a thing or two while also looking absolutely unbothered by it.

It wasn’t until later, after hours of house cleaning and decorating and other party preparations, as everyone was getting dressed up in anticipation of their friends and guests’ arrivals, that Riley cornered Maya for a quick talk. She’d been going around all day sort of dazed, like she was still realizing that the night before had really happened, and it was possibly one of the funniest things Maya had ever seen. And now here she was, wanting to talk it out with her best friend. It was to everyone’s benefit, seeing as Dylan was also one of her closest friends, that Riley wasn’t one to go into too many specific details beyond the lead up to it all.

She told Maya how, the night before, when they’d all been going up to bed, Riley and Dylan had been the last ones to go. They had been picking up around the living room, having volunteered for the task, and they were talking about the show, and summer, and when they’d gotten up the stairs, they’d kissed goodnight and parted ways at her door, as they would usually do… But then in one second, she’d known, and in the next she’d turned and called him back. She’d taken his hand, walked him into her room, shut the door, and then…

“Well… congratulations,” Maya nodded with a grin as Riley went digging through her earrings. When she held up a pair, Maya nodded, and she started to put them on. “So, is it a good time for me to let you know I sort of lied that one time?” Riley looked at her. “Junior year, you asked if Lucas and I had slept together, and I said no?” Maya reminded her with an innocent look. Riley clearly did remember, now prompted, and it took only a moment more for her to understand.

“Oh!”

“Yeah… It was a weird time, I wanted to keep it to myself a bit, I guess, and then the year after that, when there was that time where you showed up and…”

“Oh…” Riley now blushed, remembering _that_ day.

“Yeah,” Maya’s face scrunched up. “Anyway, I just… didn’t correct you when you assumed it was the first and… there it is…”

“I have so many questions…” Riley started, just as the doorbell rang.

“Later,” Maya nodded, nudging and ushering her friend out toward the stairs, where they climbed down to find out who had arrived.

Those first arrivals were Bishop and Leona, but then they had barely arrived when Franny, Kayla, and Kayla’s boyfriend, Will, arrived as well. After them came some of their classmates, those slightly more casual friends that the other roommates could only sort of vaguely identify after having seen their faces around, sometimes at one or the other of their Halloween parties… They hadn’t wanted _this_ party to be like Halloween, where the house got so crowded that things spilled out into the yard, but they wanted it to be a step up from just their closest friends, so here they were. By the time people would stop coming, there’d be somewhere between thirty and forty people spread between the living room and the kitchen.

The music was going strong, adding fuel to the group already unburdened by the end of the semester and the start of summer. Halloween was a mood all its own, but then it also involved costumes and makeup, whereas this… this was just ‘come as you are,’ and with summer looming it meant that everyone was well at their ease.

Lucas and Maya spent a vast portion of the night dancing. The music changed, the dancers came and went, and the two of them remained. It wasn’t by any design except that they’d be out there, and a song would end, another would start, and in that transition neither of them showed any desire to stop, so… they just kept going. They were having too much fun to stop, until finally they just _had_ to stop, for a little while, grabbing something to drink and ducking out to go and sit out in the yard, staring up at the darkening night sky. The stars were coming out, and it felt like the best place to stop, catch their breaths, give their feet a break… until they were ready to go back.

“Can we just sleep out here tonight?” Maya breathed, turning her head up to look at Lucas, the two of them sharing one of the long pool chairs ‘acquired’ from the Zvolensky house a few months back. “Stars now, sunrise later…”

“Do you really want to wake up that early tomorrow?” he pointed out. “We’re heading to Austin before long, it’ll be our last chance to sleep in without anyone coming crawling into bed with us for about a month.” She laughed, thinking as he would, about both the twins over in Austin and then about Wyatt up in New York.

“Alright, fair enough. But we can stay here a while then?”

“Long as you want,” he kissed the top of her head and she gave a satisfied smile, looking back up to the sky. “How’s the album going?” he went on to ask, which effectively made her forget the stars again as she sat up and turned to look at him.

“I’ve got all the pictures together, a few of the illustrations, too. Once I’ve got those finished, I’ll be able to start assembling everything. I just hope I get everything ready in time for the party.”

It wasn’t going to be one hundred percent a surprise. Her parents’ five-year wedding anniversary had passed just a few weeks ago and they hadn’t celebrated the milestone at the time. They had decided that it would be easier to hold off until the start of summer, but beyond that they’d left all planning out of their hands. They didn’t know _when_ the party would happen, only that it would come. Maya had been involved in much of the planning, though really the praise went for the most to Topanga Matthews, who’d done most of everything, especially once Maya had been on the verge of finishing her semester.

And then, really, the whole situation with her mother and the miscarriage had pushed the subject of the anniversary party far out of her mind, until she’d suddenly realized that the date both she and Topanga had agreed on together was fast approaching… and she hadn’t started on her present for them. She’d had ideas in her head for what she’d get them, and it could have been one of many things. In the end, she’d decided to use her own talents and make them something. As soon as the thought had passed through her mind, she’d known exactly what to do.

The album would gather photos from the day Katy Hart and Shawn Hunter had said ‘I do,’ all through to now. So much had happened in those years… Two pregnancies, three children, one high school graduation, a major house renovation… _A terrible car accident, a misunderstanding, a rift… a joy given and taken away…_ She didn’t want to pretend as though the darker periods hadn’t happened, but she wasn’t going to dwell on them too much either. She’d find a way to acknowledge it all, within those pages of the album she would fill with her drawings.

“Weird to think it’s been five years already,” Lucas remarked as they got up to head back into the house. “Although… if they’ve been married five years, then it means it’s been five years since we first said we loved each other,” he went on, turning a smile toward her and finding it immediately matched.

“It does,” she confirmed. “I just remember running to you, after I found out we were never moving back to New York and…” she shook her head. How much time she’d wasted feeling down when she could have just asked and been put out of her misery. Now, five years later, she could see maybe that things happening the way they’d done was just how they’d needed to happen. For her, and for her and Lucas.

They didn’t go back to dance after all. Instead, they ended up sat around the kitchen, packed shoulder to shoulder with friends and classmates in a game which soon had them all shouting and laughing near loud enough that they could have buried the music coming from the living room. By the time when the table finally started to empty out, it was because their guests were starting to leave. Several of them were hitting the road early in the morning, either heading back home or on a trip. Once people started to leave, it wasn’t long before the party dwindled down to the six roommates and a few last friends, in this case Franny, Kayla, and Lily and the King twins. The five girls helped in the post-party clean up, though it happened slowly, with the music still going and some of them drawn to a little more dancing here and a little more talking and laughing there.

“What’s it like in Italy? I’ve always wanted to go,” Victoria King sighed when she heard that Sophie and Chiara would be headed there over the summer, to see Chiara’s family as much as to celebrate Sophie’s transition into the police academy.

“It depends,” Chiara replied. “Do you want the opinion of a person who’s lived there all their life or…” she gestured to her girlfriend.

“You were going to call me a tourist, weren’t you?” Sophie stared back at her with an interrogative smile on her face.

“Ask me what Texas is like and then you answer the question,” Chiara challenged her, and Sophie only needed to bow her head to concede the point before going about telling Vic about her past trips.

The last of their friends soon departed, Maya was quick to return upstairs to her illustrations. As tired as they all were, she had a rise of energy in her that just wanted to set an image down before going to bed. Installed at her desk, she turned her eyes up when she spotted someone who sat on the edge of the bed and it wasn’t Lucas.

“Yes, Riley?” she asked, smiling and carrying on with her drawing.

“Do you think we should have waited more?” She set her pencil down and looked up again.

“You and Dylan?” Maya asked, as though she needed to. Riley nodded. “You guys have been dating for almost half a year now, it’s fine, I mean… All that matters is that you felt ready, both of you. You did, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Riley promised at once.

“Alright, then what are you worrying about?” Maya moved to go and sit with her friend.

“I don’t know…” Riley sighed. “I guess I’m overthinking it…”

“You?” Maya asked, the sarcasm bringing a smile to her friend’s face.

“I think maybe it’s just that… Dylan’s known he liked me for all this time, and… he was so patient, or… That’s not even the right word, it’s just…” she tried to find what she meant to say, but Maya assured her she understood. “I guess I got worried that… it would all… it would all have been for nothing.”

“Riley, hey,” Maya got her to look up at her. “I could fill… pages,” she gestured to the open book on her desk. “Pages of that guy looking at you like you’re the whole reason there’s sunshine and love in the world, and I saw plenty of those looks today, too. If you asked him right now, he would probably tell you all the ways you were _definitely_ worth the wait, and you know I don’t mean just because of last night, right?” she tacked on when she realized what it might have sounded like. Riley chuckled, nodding. “Good, okay,” she breathed.

“I should let you get back to your drawing,” Riley stood, sat again, and wrapped her arms around her best friend. “Thanks, Peaches…”

“Anytime, Honey…”

TO BE CONTINUED


	176. Their Game to Play

It felt strange somehow, two weeks later, to return from Austin with the others, knowing they would only be staying the time of a single night and the morning that followed, but that was how it had all lined up for them. They had an evening flight to New York, on the very same day where they were set to go watch Rosa get her high school diploma.

They had been out in Austin with their families, the six of them together, having left Houston the morning after the party. They might have waited until the following day except that there was something they really wanted to see, and that meant making the trip sooner rather than later. There wasn’t even been time for them to go and drop their bags off at each house, so they simply left everything at the Zvolensky house before taking off again, driving toward their old high school.

Every now and then they came down to watch their old teams’ games, whenever their schedules allowed, but today was The Big One, the finals, which managed to get scheduled both on the same day, here, as both the boys’ and girls’ teams had made it to this point. They were happy to see, as they climbed into the stands for the boys’ final, that they weren’t the only former players who made the trip. They ran into Mr. & Mrs. Shelby, along with Julianne and Allison and the younger Shelby kids, and they all ended up sitting together. Allison Shelby was more than happy to inform them all of how the season had been shaping up since the last time they’d attended a game.

It came down to a tie and, to their boys’ dismay, a narrow loss which left them in second place. Maya and Lucas and the others could all see the girls’ team further down in the stands, and their response to this result was clear: They were going to make damned sure they pulled a win when _their_ game came around, for themselves and for the guys, too.

As the second game started and the girls ran on to the court, Maya thought of her father, of Kermit. After he’d requested it, she’d gotten hold of some old game videos of hers and sent them to him. It was all new to him, of course, even seeing her play in any way. Whenever he’d watch another of the games, he would write to her and it would almost feel as though he had actually been there, that the game had just happened. The wins would be celebrated, the losses met with the insistence that she had played a great game. Often, he would watch these videos along with one or more of her siblings, out there with him.

She was always so happy to get those messages, though at the same time she would get this feeling like she was realizing, every time, that she and her birth father were actually on speaking terms, that it was all actually good. She tried not to go about it as though she still expected something to go wrong, for him to deceive her, and to some extent she didn’t feel that… not really… not anymore… But she remembered those feelings all the same.

Whether it was the boys’ loss earlier or simply that they were an outstanding team, the girls came away with a win, sealing their season with victory. The crowd, like the cluster made of the roommates and the Shelbys, went wild. Even two weeks later, the morning of Rosa’s graduation, they were still talking about it. Maya and Lucas were up in their room, ensuring that they had everything ready for their flight to New York later that day after they’d finished getting dressed for the ceremony.

“Sometimes it makes me wish I’d kept playing,” Maya sighed, browsing through her sketchbooks for the ones she meant to bring along. It had been a last-minute thought. “I mean, I made the right choice, I’m not doubting _that_ , it’s just…”

“I know,” Lucas told her. He was closing up the suitcase they’d opened to add a few items. “I kind of miss it, too. When we had the day at the beach, and all the lead up to that…”

“We could definitely get a team together, go and play somewhere sometimes, you know? Oh!” Maya exclaimed, as she found what she was looking for and brought it to her carry-on bag.

“That’d be great, yeah,” he agreed, turning back to her. “Done?” he asked.

“Done,” she confirmed, moving toward him for a kiss. Rather than to let her go, he held on for a beat.

“You’re still good with all this, yeah?” He didn’t have to specify any further, she knew what he meant. Going to New York, actually staying in the house, with Kermit and Abigail and the kids, for two weeks, being in close and continuous proximity to the man she’d struggled so many years to connect with… What if this bridge between them went and collapsed out from under them? He didn’t want to see her getting hurt, so he had to ask.

“Yes,” she promised him, stretching up to kiss him a second time and a third. “And no matter what, I’ll have you with me,” she went on to point out, and it made him smile. “Now, come on, we need to get going if we want to get our stuff in the car and reach the school in time.”

They were just pulling into the parking lot when Lucas’ phone – in Maya’s care while he drove – gave a chirp to notify him of a new message. Maya looked at the screen and smiled before looking out the window in search of…

“Look, the Hillards are here,” she pointed. Pulling into the space, Lucas stopped the car and followed her finger to spot the familiar car. Already, they were climbing out of the car, the whole family by the looks of it, Hank and Tanya, Joseph, Sarah, Evie, Henry, and Maggie. As they walked toward Lucas’ car, he got out, too, moving to meet them even as the others exited and followed.

“Did she get _all_ of you tickets?” Lucas asked, stunned. He knew Rosa and Joseph were friends now, best friends even, and Rosa spent loads of time at the Hillards’ house for it, but already they knew Rosa had to work hard to even swing getting tickets for her four bandmates, and him, and her mother, and Joseph, while anyone else who’d wanted to come was left to take what they could from the back.

“No, we just came to say hello, congratulations, and to give her these,” Tanya Hillard explained, holding up a gift bag overflowing with tissue paper and a few flowers held together with a matching ribbon. “Joseph’s promised to record everything for the rest of us,” she went on, tapping her son’s shoulder.

So, with that, they went in search of their graduate. They almost didn’t recognize her at first. Lucas spotted his boss, Tracy Coleman, pointing her out to the rest of them, but even he initially missed the fact that the girl standing across from her was their Rosa. Her raven hair, self-described as knowing nothing of volume for how it would tend to hang rod straight, had been taught the concept of curls, by the looks of it. Her face had been met with a generous helping of makeup, for one who never went anywhere near the stuff on any other day. And underneath the emerald green robe, they could see the rim of a skirt, possibly a dress, matched to stockings and high heeled shoes.

No wonder they couldn’t recognize her; even Rosa herself wouldn’t have picked herself out of a lineup, dressed as she was. Suddenly they were starting to understand what she’d really meant about ‘if I’m going to have to walk around in that robe,’ and how it was much more than a robe. Two years ago, when they’d first met the girl, they knew she would never have agreed to this, for anyone. But now… She’d done this for her mother, no doubt about it.

“Come on, get it over with,” Rosa sighed when her friends approached.

To their credit, none of them really knew what to say at first. Rosa, at her natural state, was a pretty girl, whether she cared for that or not. She didn’t, but it was still undeniable. And today, the way she’d allowed her mother to do her up… If they weren’t sure this was the last thing she wanted to hear, they’d be gushing, telling her… well, exactly what little Maggie Hillard declared as she stared up at her.

“Wow, you’re beautiful, Rosie!” the five-year-old proclaimed, one of the few among them who could get away with it. Rosa’s reaction, as she smiled and picked up the girl, was proof enough.

“Thanks, Mags,” she held up her hand and got a high five. “Wow, that stung,” she shook out her hand, and Maggie giggled.

The girl’s words did enough to break the ice, and while Rosa’s mother found herself chatting with Lucas’ uncle and aunt, Rosa’s friends gathered around her. She seemed particularly amused by the way Joseph couldn’t quite make himself look at her, like the temporary makeover had gone and shaken loose a few memories from when he’d had a crush on her, and he was trying to reassert the fact that they were friends and nothing more and he was genuinely okay with that.

“Isn’t it a bit hot for the stockings?” Maya asked, looking down at the bit of leg visible to them.

“It really is,” Rosa groaned. “But it was either that or a lot of cover-up for the bruises I got from practicing to walk in those things,” she shook her high-heeled foot around and almost lost her balance to prove a point. Lucas managed to steady her. “This is too much already,” she breathed, pointing to her face.

“Would a present make you feel better?” Sophie asked.

“Always,” Rosa replied, straight-faced, before smiling and holding out her hands.

“It’s not technically a thing,” Riley explained.

“Really won’t fit in a gift bag,” Dylan chimed in, looking to his girlfriend. Riley shook her head in agreement and laughed.

“Okay… what is it then?” Rosa asked, looking around at all of them. Chiara pulled an envelope from her pocket; she’d been selected to do the hand-off, the others claimed, as the most recent resident soon to be dethroned. “So, it _is_ a thing,” Rosa took it, further intrigued.

“Open it, read it,” Maya instructed, smirking. Rosa stared at all of them for a moment before opening the envelope and pulling out the graduation card, opening it to find a message written out in Maya’s hand, with six signatures underneath.

“Congratulations to you, Miss Valedictorian, try not to go too hard on them with your speech,” she started, pausing to look up at them with an almost devilish smirk. “Whether we’ll be close enough for you to see us or not as you stand up there, we want you to know we are so very proud of you, our Rosa, our friend, our sister,” her voice warbled just a bit here. She had to look up for a moment, to take a breath and try not to ruin all that makeup she’d let her mother painstakingly apply. “We are all looking forward to seeing what you do next as you start college in the fall,” she finally went on reading. They had all been privy to her long debate over what she intended to study, what she intended to become. In the end, she’d decided to start off undeclared and go from there. “Most importantly, we want to be front and center for all of it, with you living out at the house with us. So, what do you say, roomie?”

Her voice only grew more and more focused as she reached the end, and once she did, there was no need to ask for an answer. She reached out and soon found herself embraced by many arms, and that was all they needed to know.

TO BE CONTINUED


	177. Their Game to Celebrate

After the graduation ceremony had ended, Maya and Lucas had to quickly say their goodbyes to their friends, and to Rosa, of course. The girl of the hour had wasted no time whatsoever. As soon as she’d done her pass on the stage, giving her speech, getting her diploma, she had innocently disappeared. A few minutes later, she reappeared, face scrubbed clean, hair pulled into a bun, and heels swapped for her usual worn sneakers. There was nothing to be done for the dress at the moment, but with the robe on top she could pretend. She was mostly herself again, and she looked so much happier for it.

When they’d said all they had to say, they took off for the airport. There had been some debate as to what they’d do with regards to their parents. They wanted to say goodbye to them, too, but making a detour back to Austin again made no sense if they intended to catch their flight. In the end, the solution was simple enough: their parents would meet them at the airport and see them off.

It had been good, being with them the last couple weeks, as it always was, though special occasions always deserved note, and they’d had one of those here of course. They had gone and celebrated Katy and Shawn’s – belated – five-year wedding anniversary.

The morning of the party, Maya and Lucas were awakened – truly, for once – by the twins, as Nellie and Gracie came into the room and climbed on to the bed, crawling up to their big sister with a very important question. They had seen the dresses and the shoes they would wear that day, so they knew it was more proper than usual, and this had triggered a bell in their thoughts: Did this mean they got to wear their special lockets today?

“Yeah,” Maya laughed through her yawn, pulling the little ones into a pile hug, kissing one head and then the other as they giggled. “Special gets special,” she promised.

“Hold on, what do I get?” Lucas inquired from the other side, propped up on his elbow. The twins looked back at him, then back to their sister.

“Yeah, what does Lukey get?” Nellie asked.

“Yeah,” Lucas matched her tone, barely hiding his smirk, which had Maya teetering on the edge of bursting out laughing.

“ _You_ have a very special watch,” she reminded him before looking to her sisters. “You want to see it?” she asked, and they nodded. “Good, make him show you,” she released them, and at once they turned and pounced.

“Easy, okay, okay,” Lucas quickly reached to the nightstand, where he always put it at the end of the day, no matter which home they were in at the time. He held it out for the girls to see, and when Nellie was the one to reach out for it and carefully take it in her hands, he instructed her to press the small button at the top. When the cover opened and revealed the watch inside, both girls were briefly startled before shifting into amazement. This was so much more fun than a normal watch, they decided.

“What about MJ?” Gracie asked with a tone of great importance.

“What about him?” Maya asked.

“I have my necklace, Nellie has one, you have one, Lukey has a watch, Mommy and Daddy have… they have a ring,” she counted off, and both Maya and Lucas followed along with a nod at each drawn out statement. “What about MJ? He needs a special thing, too.”

“He’s a baby,” Nellie pointed out, in a voice that seemed to indicate ‘whereas we’re big girls who are able to be responsible about special things like that.’ Gracie would not be deterred. Whether or not he would be able to tell, she didn’t want him to be left out in any way.

“Tell you what,” Lucas suggested, looking to Maya for input all the while. “We’ve got time before the party starts, right?” She understood, and with a smile she carried on.

“Let’s go find him something special. We can go have breakfast at Ma Maggie’s first.”

That sold it, and soon Maya and Lucas left with all three of her siblings, leaving the anniversary couple a little time to themselves. After breakfast, they went off to the mall. With MJ in Lucas’ arms and the twins holding to either of their sister’s hands, they were quite the image.

“Hey, look,” Lucas nodded to the jewelry counter as they walked through the store. “Isn’t that…”

“Ainsley!” Maya called to the girl behind the counter as they approached. The salesgirl looked up at the sound of her name, smiling when she spotted them.

“Hey!” she came around the counter. “I haven’t seen you guys since…”

“Graduation,” Maya nodded to their former classmate. “I thought you were going to school in New York,” she recalled.

“Yeah, well, plans changed,” Ainsley shrugged. “Going to school here now.”

“What happened, didn’t you get a scholarship?” Lucas asked, recalling.

“I did,” Ainsley confirmed. “But then halfway through summer I found out I was pregnant, so yeah, plans changed,” she repeated. Her eyes shifted to the boy in Lucas’ arms and, knowing where her mind might be going, Maya made the introductions.

“These are my little sisters, Nellie and Gracie, and this is my little brother, MJ.” At the sound of his name, the boy reached out his hand with a squeal.

“Hey, MJ,” Ainsley beamed, taking the small hand, before crouching before the twins. “I remember you two, the last time I saw you though, you were about his age,” she told them, nodding up to the one-year-old. The girls looked up, like the concept was too wild to comprehend.

“We want a special thing for MJ,” Gracie informed Ainsley.

“You do?” she asked, and both twins nodded.

“It’s our parents’ anniversary, they get to wear their ‘special necklaces’ and they were hoping MJ could get something, too,” Maya explained.

“Oh, you know, I think I have just the thing,” Ainsley stood again, moving back behind the counter. Nellie and Gracie moved around to follow her from the other side, stretching as high on their toes as they could, until Lucas and Maya grabbed one and then the other and lifted them up. “What do you think?” Ainsley asked the girls, recognizing them as her shoppers, which made them happy. She showed them a small golden bracelet, with a rectangular bit in the middle where, as she told them, they could have his name engraved. She briefly looked to Maya, who gave an approving nod.

“It’ll be like your lockets,” Lucas told the twins, who didn’t understand what ‘engraved’ meant. “Where there’s a P and a G.” Now they understood, and they loved it.

“What should we put on it?” Maya asked, “MJ or Matthew?”

“No one says Matthew,” Nellie shook her head.

“They will, later, if he’s in trouble,” Lucas looked to the boy before turning to Maya and Ainsley, both of them biting back a laugh.

“MJ it is,” Maya finally decided.

Returning to the Hunter Hart house later on, they were met with a pair of very dressed up and ready to go parents, greeted with awe by their littler daughters, who went on to tell them all about their adventure to ensure that MJ would not be left out of having a special something on this day. The small bracelet was still in its box, not yet on their brother’s arm, the better to reduce the chances that it might get lost along the way. Now, it was time for everyone else to get ready for the party.

The reception hall had come courtesy of Diana Zvolensky. As for the guests, they had done their best to keep Shawn and Katy surprised as to who would or wouldn’t make the trip down to Texas for the occasion. When they arrived, the guests of honor learned that the answer was ‘pretty much everyone they knew and cared to see.’ It was a solid hour before they finished making the rounds, saying hello to everyone, chatting briefly and promising to chat more later. They’d be lucky if they got to sit quietly for very long.

“Did you give it to them yet?” Lucas asked, as he returned from the bar with two glasses and passed one to Maya, before sitting next to her. She was watching her father, dancing very ‘focused’ like, with Gracie stood on his feet and Nellie dangling on his back with her arms around his neck, while her mother sat nearby, talking with Amy Matthews, who held a sleeping MJ in her arms.

“Not yet,” Maya replied before taking a sip. “I’m really glad we did all this,” she spoke after a beat. “Look at all they did in those five years…” she smiled, as on the dance floor Shawn deftly managed both his cape and his passenger and went on dancing to the music, much to his partners’ delight.

The album would be given to Shawn and Katy later on, as the party was on its last leg, the better to allow them and Maya to have all the time they needed. Lucas would have left the three of them alone, but Katy just waved him back over. He was family, he deserved to be there.

Even now, as he and Maya unloaded the car and moved into the airport to find their families, he still remembered how they’d gone through the pages, all those photos… The illustrations were the stars, of course, especially the ones she did, showing the twins from her mother’s great belly, to newborn babes, up to now, as the toddlers currently sleeping nearby, on either side of their brother.

“There they are,” Maya pointed, and Lucas redirected their luggage cart in the direction of the cluster of parents and siblings. The twins both looked vaguely upset today, like they were happy to be here, to see their sister and her Lukey, but they also knew that the two of them were going away for a little while. It didn’t matter that they could go a few weeks without seeing each other in person for most of the year, they had drawn the line between their being two hours away and being much, much further away.

“Do you have everything?” was Melinda Friar’s greeting to her son and his girlfriend.

“Yes, Mom,” Lucas replied, with the annoyance-free habit of the patient son he had always been. “I checked; we both did.”

“Three times,” Maya chimed in. “Each.”

“Here,” Tom Friar approached his son and handed him an envelope.

“Dad…” he protested, but the man insisted.

“Just in case.” Lucas nodded, slipping the money in his bag.

“Can I get a hug?” Maya asked the twins, perched in their father’s arms. Nellie just kept clinging to Shawn’s neck with her mopey face, while Gracie reached out. Maya took her, soon gripped so tight she hardly had to hold. “You can call me every morning, remember?” she whispered at Gracie’s ear and got a muffled sound of confirmation.

“How about you, huh?” Shawn lightly jostled his moody daughter. “If you don’t do it now, you’ll regret it later.” With that, Nellie finally relented, reaching out until she was held by her big sister, while Gracie had gone on to give her parting embrace to Lucas.

“I’ll be back before you know it, Miss Penelope,” Maya smiled, seeing how Nellie’s determination to look sullen was challenged.

“Call me if there’s anything…” Katy told her eldest as they got their turn.

“I’ll be alright, Mom,” she assured her, knowing she couldn’t help but worry that this visit would end in another blow up between her daughter and Kermit. She might have said ‘and if I’m not, we’ll go stay with friends,’ but she didn’t want to fly out there with the assumption that things would go wrong. “I’ll see you in two weeks.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	178. Their Game to Fly

They had predicted they wouldn’t have time to change before getting on their flight, so one of the bags they carried on to the plane held a change of clothes for each of them. Once they boarded, once they took off and were allowed to move about, they took their turns heading into the small bathroom to go from ‘friend’s graduation’ mode to ‘flying to New York to be with family’ mode. Lucas was sent up first, as it would be faster for him. When he returned, Maya went, swapping her dress for a t-shirt and jeans, high heels for flats. The up-do was released, makeup lightened… Finally, she returned to her seat, stowing their bag overhead before settling in with a breath of relief.

“Better?” Lucas asked.

“For this, definitely,” Maya nodded. “I was trying really hard not to think about what might have happened if we’d both been in there at the same time instead of one after the other… I blame movies,” she turned a smirk to him, and he laughed.

Dinner was soon to come, and after the afternoon they’d had, all the runaround, they couldn’t have been happier to receive their small meals. As they ate, Lucas found himself thinking about Katy Hart, her concerns for her daughter as they were about to board. He knew it was only natural for her to be so protective of Maya, after everything the two of them had been through, and the fact that most of it hinged on the departure of the man they were just now flying to join. It wasn’t as though any of them had forgotten it, not Maya, not even Kermit.

He had seen how Maya dealt with this renewed tie to her birth father though. Over the last few months, it was as though the stain on his name, making it impossible for her to even mention him without showing instant apprehension or anger, had sort of gone and faded away. He knew this hadn’t been easy for her, but all the same… He knew how important it was to her, that this was actually working, not just for what it meant for her but also for her little siblings out there, who’d sort of been stuck in the middle all this time.

He also knew that, deep down, a tiny kernel of those same worries carried by her mother still existed in her. She had learned to hope, but that didn’t mean she had forgotten everything. And if _she_ had those worries in her somewhere, then so did he.

They spent most of the next three hours trying to watch a movie but always pausing because they wanted to bring up one part or another of Rosa’s graduation ceremony. For someone who had spent much of her elementary, junior, and high school career in near total anonymity, the last year had felt a lot as though her school suddenly realized she was there. This had to do in great part with her not just being _in_ TXNY but actually stepping up to the microphone more and more. She would laugh sometimes, recounting how she’d overhear people, passing her like they believed she couldn’t make out what they were saying. They couldn’t believe that quiet girl with the glasses and the permanent ‘what are you looking at me for?’ stance was the one people were talking about.

At the ceremony though, when she’d gone up to make her speech, there had been a few calls from her fellow students, and to realize they were cheers for her had momentarily thrown her off guard, forcing her to take a moment and remember her speech. She was too busy trying to control her smile.

Maya and Lucas gave up on their in-flight entertainment in the end, and when they were informed that the plane was about to land, they were almost surprised to realize they were already there.

Gathering their belongings, they soon followed the trail of passengers as they walked through and into the airport. They hardly had time to think about heading over for their luggage when they spotted a sign across the gate, waved by none other than Maya’s eldest siblings, Sam and Cara. As soon as Maya and Lucas were close enough that the girl could, there came Eliza, eight years old now, almost leaping into Maya’s arms.

“You’re here!” she declared with great giddiness. “Mom and Dad said I couldn’t come at first because it was late, but Sam convinced them, so I got to come! Wyatt had to stay home with Mom, he wasn’t happy,” she shook her head, then, in a lower voice, “I promised you guys would wake him up and say hi when we got home.” Maya leaned in, whispering back.

“Okay, we’ll do that then,” she smiled. Even as they moved back to join the others, Eliza didn’t let go of her hand. Sam and Cara had set down their sign, now that it had been seen, though it remained propped up against their legs until Maya and Lucas came up to meet them. It was startling – if not sweetly frustrating – to Maya, that both her brother and sister here were growing so fast. Sam was already taller than her, and Cara now matched her, though she would likely surpass her, too, before she was done growing. She managed to put those thoughts aside, seeing the smiles on their faces as they came and hugged her.

And then there was Kermit, her father, standing there, waiting patiently for his turn, looking on with that reserved smile Maya had learned to trust.

“Hey, Maya,” he greeted her, and to look at them as they reached out and hugged one another, anyone seeing them in that moment would have no idea how much of a change this was, how much of a victory, that they should have it in them to not only hug but to do it without the slightest hesitation, the slightest doubt as to whether or not it was what they wanted, what they should do.

“Thanks for coming to pick us up,” she told him.

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all,” he insisted as they pulled back.

They went and found their luggage, and soon after they were all packed in the car, leaving the airport on their way to Kermit and Abigail’s house. When they arrived, Abigail welcomed her guests with that great smile she’d passed on to more than one of her children, and she led them up to the guest room, where they’d be staying for the next two weeks. She apologized for the single bed, but both Maya and Lucas assured her it was no trouble. It remained unspoken that, in their habitual spooning, they barely filled half their own bed as it was.

As promised, they went in to see little Wyatt, waking him briefly before a lullaby set him right back to sleep. Soon after this, they were in the guest room again, settling in and getting changed for bed. It was still early, especially for them, even though the time difference was of all of an hour, but it had been a long day for all of them and they were glad to turn in.

“Just this night is going to be the longest time I’ve actually spent in this house,” Maya remarked as she folded her clothes. Turning to look at Lucas, she could just see the thought flit across his eyes. “Hey, it’s fine, really,” she promised.

“Can’t help it,” he shrugged.

“I know,” she smiled. “It’s kind of sweet,” she added, which made him laugh. “But you don’t have to keep it up the whole time we’ll be here. You’re on vacation, too, remember?”

He agreed, he understood, and as those first few days went by, he got to find a rhythm of being here as much as Maya did. They had both accepted, even before arriving, that there could be some level of awkwardness, especially in the beginning, but that went away before very long. They were good here. They spent most of their time with Maya’s brothers and sisters anyway, though this was by no means intended to keep Maya from having to spend too much time with Kermit. If that had been the intention, they would have spent their nights and mornings at a friend’s place.

They did a couple of outings, the whole family together along with their guests. They went to see a movie, and on what was to be a highlight of the vacation, they went to the water park. Another highlight, arguably one that would remain hard to dethrone for Maya, was when she and Cara and their father started sitting together, each with their guitars, playing and singing together. Both Lucas and Sam would stand around for those, recording the whole thing.

One night, a week into their stay, while Lucas was off to meet Asher, Joey, and Farkle, Maya sat in the guest room with her phone, watching one of those videos, smiling to herself. As much as she remembered the feeling of being in the moment, actually singing along with her father and her sister, watching it now from the outside felt like something else, something new and just as mesmerizing. It tapped into so much of her creative centers that she felt like she didn’t know which to serve, whether she wished to pick up a pencil to draw or a pen to write. What started to come together was almost like both at once.

“What are you working on?” She looked up, finding Kermit standing just outside the door.

“I don’t know, just… something that feels like coming out,” she shrugged, looking down to the page now filling up with small images and bits of words. Her father pointed, asking permission to come up and have a look. Maya sat up and held out her sketchbook. Kermit came in, pulling the chair from the corner and setting it across from the bed. He sat down and took the proffered book. “I was watching the videos from the other day,” she explained.

“I know, I heard,” he smiled up from the page. “This sounds like a song,” he pointed to the words.

“In time, hopefully,” Maya nodded.

When he handed the book back, he let out a breath, like he was thinking of something and it took him away from the moment. She’d seen this before, over the past week, sometimes when they’d talk over Skype… She’d never call him out on it or ask what was on his mind. She could sort of understand on her own. As much as she couldn’t completely forget how he’d made her feel for all those years, he had some of those thoughts of his own, too, only from his side of it, he was the one who’d done the leaving, the hurting, and it left him with too many regrets to know what to do.

“Maybe… you could help me turn it into something,” she held out her olive branch, and he received it with the smile that lit up every part of him that was also in her, everything he’d passed on to her.

“I’d like that very much, Maya,” he nodded.

“Okay,” she smiled back, setting the book down in front of herself on the mattress, turning to a new page and setting her pen down before stretching her arm out to grab her guitar and pull it on to her lap. She looked at the time, hesitating for a moment in case anyone might have been asleep already, but then she knew this song trying to work itself out of her head was not one that would seed disruption in her smaller siblings. “Right, this is what I’ve got for the melody so far…”

TO BE CONTINUED


	179. Their Game to Return

So many people had experienced their own form of concern over this trip up to New York, from Maya, to Lucas, to Maya’s parents… even the one who was the source of it all. It had not taken days, after their arrival, for both Maya _and_ Lucas to come to see just how much Kermit wanted for this visit to go well, for them to be able to leave at the end of those two weeks thinking ‘I can’t wait to do this again’ instead of ‘I am never setting foot in this house again.’ Maya in particular had done all she could in order to show her birth father that she was happy to be here. Most importantly to her, there had never been a time where this effort made her think anything like ‘Why should I make _him_ feel any better?’ She was happy to be here, and she wanted him to know he was part of it.

The closer they got to their day of departure however, as everyone started to get a little bummed at the thought of being separated, she couldn’t help but notice something felt… not ‘off’ exactly, but there was absolutely a feeling like Kermit was struggling with something.

“I don’t know what it is,” Maya told Lucas, as they settled into bed on the night before their flight back to Texas. “The last couple days, it’s like every time he sees me, there’s something going through his mind. It’s there for a few seconds, then he blinks, and it’s gone.” Lucas considered this. Now that she mentioned it, he could sort of see it in his head. “It’s like he’s trying to tell me something, but… he won’t.”

“Tell you what?” Lucas asked, but again she shook her head. She didn’t know.

Did he want to say he was sorry? He’d already done it, in more ways than one. He didn’t need to do it again, as far as she was concerned.

She woke up in the middle of the night, moving silently down the stairs to get a glass of water. As she moved past the basement door, she could just faintly hear sounds like… cheering… Stopping there, looking in, she could see the telltale moving lights of a television. Pulled by curiosity, she made her way down the first steps, until she could see who was there. It was Kermit, sitting on the couch. The laptop was connected to the television, she saw, in order to play the video that he was watching on a bigger screen.

It was one of her old basketball games. She recognized the cheers now. There was even Lucas, giving their call from the stands.

“Hey…” Maya spoke, and Kermit turned around, startled. “Sorry, I just…”

“No, it’s alright, please,” he motioned for her to come forward. She walked down the rest of the steps, moving around to take a seat next to him. “When I can’t sleep, I just…” he pointed to the screen. As they looked to it, her counterpart from a senior year game jumped, released the ball, and… _swish!_ As the audience in the video cheered again, Maya and Kermit smiled.

“I remember that game, it was intense,” Maya nodded.

“Don’t tell me how it ends,” Kermit requested, making her laugh.

“I won’t.”

“Couldn’t sleep either?” he asked, pausing the video.

“Kind of. I was thirsty, and…” She paused, sighed. _Now’s as good a time as any, right?_ “What is it that you’re not telling me?” she asked plainly. He looked back at her, surprised for a moment.

“It’s not…” he started, shaking his head. Even confronted with it, he looked like he couldn’t move forward.

“Is it something you think will make me angry with you?” He turned to her again, fiddling with the tiny remote.

“No,” he promised, and he looked honest enough about it that she felt she could trust his answer. Even then, he was hesitating. Maya might not have been able to read him too well, until a few weeks ago. But now, especially since she’d been living with the guy for the past two weeks, she got to feel like she knew him better, could interpret his expressions better, and this… what she saw now… She couldn’t even put a name on it, not at first. The longer the silence stretched though, a thought came to her that almost sent a crack crawling over her heart.

He didn’t want to tell her, whatever it was he hadn’t told her, because… he wasn’t sure she’d care, wasn’t sure he’d earned her caring.

“Tell me… please?” she quietly asked. He took a breath, let it out. There. He’d made up his mind.

“I need you to promise me you won’t talk about this with the kids. Only Sam knows, the younger ones…” She promised. “A couple years back, they were going to be visiting you in Texas over the holidays and it fell through, do you remember?”

“Yeah,” Maya frowned, unsure where this was going.

“I was sick, Maya,” he finally said. She blinked. “It got pretty bad for a while, Abby didn’t want to send the kids away, in case…” _In case I died._ She slowly sat back into the couch. “I got better for a while, then it went downhill again. When we sent the kids to you over the summer…” he shook his head slowly, remembering, “I didn’t want them to see me like that.”

Her heart felt like it wasn’t beating so much as vibrating… shaking… Of all the things she might have thought this was about, she had never imagined this. Thinking back about that look on his face now, she was left to ponder… If he had told her this, if she had found out about this, back when they were still not talking… How would she have felt? Would she have felt sad? Would she have felt anything? Hearing about it now, she felt… she felt… She couldn’t put it into words, not yet. It was too new, too big.

“And… and now?” she had to ask.

“All clear,” he assured her, his face blooming with sheer relief. Next thing she knew, Maya was sitting up and putting her arms around him. Kermit hugged her back, and they stayed this way for a while before pulling back. He kept looking at her, a bittersweet sort of smile on his face. “When I found out, I really started to… reflect… on a lot of things. I had done some of that work with myself over the time I was ill, but I thought I wouldn’t make it, and I didn’t want to… I didn’t want to cause more pain than I already…”

He paused. Maya reached to dab away an errant tear from her face.

“When I found out I was okay again, I… I made a vow. I was going to try and make things better between us. Maybe it wouldn’t work out, maybe you wouldn’t want it, and if that was the case then I’d just have to accept it. I made a mess of a lot of things, and I wasn’t allowed any more than what you would give me. I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to me that you and I get to sit here like this now… that I get to be a part of your life again.”

“Means a lot to me, too,” she smiled, then, “Thank you for telling me.”

She would tell Lucas about the conversation only after they had boarded their flight back to Houston. She ended up watching the rest of the game with Kermit before heading back up to the guest room. In the morning, after going out to breakfast with Kermit and Abigail and the kids, they returned, packing the last of their things before heading to the airport. After many hugs, and many return hugs, and some tears, Maya and Lucas said their goodbyes and got on the plane. Maya sat awaiting the takeoff with something of a heavy breath lodged in her lungs.

Finally, she told him the whole story, her trip down to the basement the night before, what she’d learned from Kermit. She had told him she wouldn’t tell Cara and the little ones, but she also asked if she could speak about it with Lucas, with her roommates… and with her mother. He had agreed on all counts.

When Lucas heard about it, he had a similar reaction to the one she’d had, like he’d just been handed a boulder and he could only sink under its weight. Because it was Lucas, of course, his immediate response was to look at her, to ask how she was doing.

“That’s kind of the big question,” she let out a breathy laugh, looking into nowhere for a beat. “I mean, he’s okay now, that’s the important part, isn’t it?” He said nothing, waited for her to go on. “Even when we weren’t talking, before things started to change for us, I didn’t… It wasn’t that I _hated_ him, I just… He was someone that I had loved, since before I knew what that meant. I depended on him, and I loved him, and he left… But if it wasn’t that some part of me had loved him and couldn’t _not_ love him, then he couldn’t have affected me the way he did, I know that.”

“Yeah,” Lucas slowly nodded. Maya sighed, fussing with the edge of the tray pulled down in front of her.

“Things are good now, they’re actually good now, and that’s… more than I could have ever expected. And when he told me about what had been going on without me knowing, I just… It knocked me over… Like after all this time, since the start of the year, I looked at him and I thought… _Dad…_ ” Lucas reached his hand over hers, and she locked her fingers around his.

Whenever she would get around to telling her mother about what Kermit had told her, she wasn’t in too much of a hurry. It would be a big conversation, and it would wait until they could actually see one another. As to her roommates, who were all just thrilled to welcome her and Lucas back, she would wait, too. There was only one person she needed to talk to right now, and she had to wait until he was alone.

“You guys got home okay?” Sam asked when their call connected.

“We did, yeah,” Maya nodded. “We watched the movie you told us to watch,” she smiled, and for a few minutes they talked about that. Finally, she took a breath. “He told me about what happened to him, Sam. About his illness.” Her brother’s face changed at this. It had been his secret to keep for so long, he hadn’t expected this. But now that he realized she knew, his expression settled in something like gladness. He had wanted to confide in his big sister for so long, and now he finally could. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to talk face to face before I had to leave… He only told me last night.”

“It’s okay,” Sam shrugged, then, “I wanted to tell you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Maya told him. “I wish you could have, but I think I get why he didn’t want me knowing before.”

“Me, too,” Sam admitted.

He told her everything he could, like the dam broke now that the path was open. By the time he heard a call from downstairs, telling him the others were returning, he looked truly… unburdened. They weren’t done, and they would have another talk as soon as they could, but this was a start, for the both of them. After they hung up, Maya sat on her own for a while. She reached into her bag, open at her feet, pulling out her sketchbook and flipping the pages until she reached the one containing her newest song, the one she and Kermit had worked on together. She could still hear his voice, their voices, together.

TO BE CONTINUED


	180. Their Game to Cheer

It was to be their third summer in Houston, counting the partial one which had been their first, and unlike that first summer, this one truly felt like the midway point that it was. They were in their element, and they knew their way… Now that they had this stretch of time without classes or assignments to worry over, they also got to enjoy some more of their city of two years. Nights off were hardly ever spent at the house, instead going out wherever they might. A club here, a festival there, visiting friends…

This particular summer was made ‘particular’ for a number of reasons. Of course, for Maya and Lucas, there had been the trip to New York, and the ongoing adventures of the traveling Pappy and Patty… They’d come home from visiting Maya’s siblings to find a couple of postcards already waiting, and while the images on the back did show where they had been sent from, these were not bought in some gift shop or another. Maya had been the one to show Patty Robinson how to print her photos and turn them into postcards. Now, weeks later, they had a few more of the cards, each one bringing words on one side, while the other featured the touring professor and her valued guest enjoying the sights.

“Hey, look, Warsaw,” Maya smiled, handing the newest card to Lucas.

He looked at the picture, where the professor stood next to his grandfather sitting on his scooter, before turning it over and reading what they had to say. His grandfather, as he would claim himself, was having the time of his life, and they could catch it in his words. He was also increasingly taken with the woman behind this trip. One look at the two of them in those pictures and they knew the feeling was mutual. The new card was stuck, picture out, next to the last one, the growing line of images trailing along the corner of the room, between the closet and bedroom doors.

Still, for all that, the summer’s biggest event came in the final days of June, as Willow and Lion tied the knot.

Even while Maya and Lucas were off in New York, they would pitch in on the preparations in what ways they could, with opinions and ideas where they were needed. Once they were back in Houston, they were immediately recruited into more active assistance, and they did not disappoint. There was so much to do, so much so that they almost ran out of time, which made for several late evenings in the week leading up to the big day where they were doing anything from writing out placement cards, to assembling floral arrangements… Up until the night before the wedding, everyone did their part.

Now, finally, the day had come. As early as they usually woke, both Maya and Lucas were awakened by the repeated chirps of one phone or the other as new messages would come in. A lot of it was Willow, fretting and wanting to ensure that everything went off as planned, but then Lion had a sizable share of the messages, too, expressing the same concerns.

“We have to go,” Maya mumbled, turning to look at Lucas as he stared at his phone with barely opened eyes. “She’ll send in the hounds after us if we’re late.”

“That’s okay,” Lucas yawned. “Dogs love us.” She smirked, sitting up on her knees to peer down at him and give him all the motivation he needed.

“I’ll finally let you see my dress…” she intoned. “And it’s really good.” She hadn’t allowed him to get even a peek at the color of her bridesmaid dress – apparently _not_ turquoise for once – on account that it would be bad luck.

“You’re not the one getting married, that’s not how it works,” he would protest, but that was no good. All the girls in the house were to be bridesmaids that day, and they had banded together to keep it all hushed up until today.

Maya had been absolutely right to hype it up. When she finally had her dress on and allowed him to look, he looked sufficiently dumbstruck, which made her smile.

“Isn’t it a little weird to go and upstage the bride like that?” he asked as she turned on the spot to give him the full effect.

“Oh, you think this is good, you haven’t even seen Willow’s dress,” she laughed as he came up to get an even better look at the blue dress. There had been some debate on what to call the shade, though Rosa had won out by claiming it was ‘TARDIS blue.’

It wasn’t until they left their room, and both Lucas and Dylan got to see the rest of the girls, that they realized that all of them were wearing different dresses, fitting their own styles, in a variety of blues.

On their brief hours of sleep, the group was nonetheless ready and out the door in a respectable amount of time. Before they knew it, they were at the venue, seeing the bride and groom through final preparations before their walk down the aisle.

“Do you know what, Zozo, I think you’re the one who might be pulling focus away from your mom today,” Maya beamed when she got around to holding her two month old goddaughter in her little blue dress. “But we’ll just say it’s a tie, deal?”

Little Zola would make her way along in the arms of her godmother, right through the ceremony and until the start of the reception, which was more than fine by Maya. She couldn’t get enough of her, and she was just in constant awe of how fast she was growing. Even just that two-week span where she was away in New York had felt like an eternity once they were reunited with their friends and their little daughter.

Willow came along on her grandfather’s arm, and the look on Lion’s face as he saw her was only matched by the look _she_ got when she saw _him_. No one else but them could really know what was going through their minds in that moment. It may have been equal parts taking in each other’s looks and realizing what the day represented, or it may have come to the point where they hardly noticed the dress, the suit, and instead felt their hearts going so fast at the thought of binding their lives even further than they already were, with the person who’d been their best and closest friend since they’d been children.

“Where’s your friend?” Lucas asked as he approached to find Maya’s arms now empty as everyone stood in wait to enter the reception.

“Off for a bottle and a nap with Great Gran Aileen,” Maya informed him with a smile. “Which means I am now all yours for the foreseeable future.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

Dinner wouldn’t be served for some time, so the reception started with the new husband and wife breaking in the dancefloor before being joined by family and friends. At one time, the five members of TXNY found themselves in something of a hopping huddle together, four of them in blue around their friend in white. Rosa would be heard saying that she intended to make the most of her own frilly number, and she absolutely did. Seeing her in her second dress in a few weeks, it solidified how their dress-despising friend in fact had two exceptions to this preference: costumes and favors for others.

_“Who do you think will be next?”_ Kayla asked Maya as they sat to dinner later on. Looking around the room, it wasn’t couples they were lacking. Maya had Lucas, Kayla had Will, and then there were Sophie and Chiara, and Riley and Dylan, Bishop and Leona, the still burgeoning Franny and Cat…

_“I don’t know, maybe we won’t see another one until after we’re all out of school,”_ Maya signed back. _Or halfway out maybe…_ She couldn’t help but think of herself and Lucas. Sure, she would be done with school in two years, but he still had six to go on the whole, plus residency… They both knew what they saw for themselves down the line, so when would they finally drop anchor and go for it?

When the dancing resumed, Lucas was quick to get a hold of his girlfriend so he could take her out there before she got snatched up by someone else, which left her beyond amused before just falling into the slow song and the swaying rhythm with him. For a little while, they could almost forget that they were at a wedding, or that there were any other people around except the two of them.

Eventually, of course, they had to remind themselves that they _were_ at a wedding, and there were all these guests there to celebrate Willow and Lion along with them, including Willow’s bandmates and their friends in Weaver Kings. They closed out the night with a small performance, which was in turn closed by what was coming to be a staple of their rehearsals, only with some tweaks to the lyrics, the better to fit them to the day’s festivities.

“That was so good, thank you… thank you so much, all of you,” Willow spoke as she went about hugging them all, before she and Lion could take off, already headed straight for a short honeymoon. They had wanted to take Zola with them, but it was already arranged that she would be looked after by her great grandparents and her uncle and her aunts, so her parents were free to take some time to themselves and enjoy their wedding. It took some convincing for them to go along with it, but finally they did. Whether or not they would actually be able to ‘unplug’ from Mom and Dad mode was anyone’s guess, though the guesses seemed to bend heavily toward their constantly checking in to see how their girl was doing while they were gone.

Returning home there was the collective clatter of shoes being shaken off the girls’ feet before they climbed up the steps like a weaving blue gradient, darkest to lightest, with the guys trailing behind. They split off after this, two by two by two.

“This is what I get for wearing these shoes…” Maya breathed, dropping on to the mattress with a deep sigh of relief. “They look great, and that is their only quality.”

“No complaints here,” Lucas told her as he undid his tie.

“No, I didn’t imagine there would be,” she hummed, propping herself up on her elbows. “Help me change? I just…” she waved her arm about, expressing deep and maybe exaggerated exhaustion.

“I wish I could but, you know…” he gave his own exaggeration, in his case presenting an overly sheepish look as he worked to unbutton his shirt. Maya raised an eyebrow.

“Well, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?”

Eventually, ‘somehow,’ she found the strength to get up and go about changing, too, getting herself into something a bit cozier for sleeping. Soon, they were settling in together. As he closed his arms around her in their usual spoon mode, she wiggled and turned herself over, the better to face him.

“Hey there,” she greeted him.

“Hey,” he smiled.

“I don’t really have anything to say, I just wanted to look at you,” she whispered.

“Sounds good to me, I get to do the same,” he whispered back. She laughed, burying her face in his arm to try and muffle the sound.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because we were at a wedding, but I’m feeling all lovey right now,” she told him, when she finally looked up again. He smiled at that, reaching up to stroke her cheek.

“It’s a good feeling,” he agreed. “Feeling it myself.”

“Right?” she smiled back, moving up to kiss him.

TO BE CONTINUED


	181. Their Game to Move

Summer would go on its merry way much as it had gone from the beginning. It breezed on by so smoothly that it really felt like none of them saw the time go by until, sooner or later, they would be made to pause, and look back, and realize how the weeks had gone by. That was just what happened when everyone in the house woke up, finding that somehow July had passed them by, and already August was ahead of them. It was the day of Rosa’s relocation. Today, she would be leaving her mother’s house and moving into theirs, soon to be hers, too.

Over the last few weeks, their new roommate had been sorting through her belongings, figuring out what she would bring with her. In a lot of ways, she’d have it much easier than they did. They had all moved from a different city, a different country in Chiara’s case, while she would be one short walk away from her old house, should she realize she’d left something behind. That was how they had seen it, at least, but the closer they got to moving day, the more they realized she really wouldn’t be leaving a whole lot behind back at her mother’s house. A lot of things had been thrown out, and others donated… By the time she’d leave her old room, it would be empty, save for the furniture she wasn’t taking with her.

“I’m moving out,” she shrugged. “I’m not just crashing at some friends’ house for a little while.” This new independence they had granted her really did mean so much to her, and they understood it now better than before.

Riley had been something like a self-appointed coordinator with this move. Rosa would not only be their roommate: she would be Riley’s ‘actual room roommate,’ so it was going to be up to the two of them to figure out how to divide the space.

“But she is going to move in with Dylan, no?” Chiara looked to Sophie and Maya as the three of them stood outside the house on the morning of the move. “Why go through the trouble instead of doing it now and letting Rosa have the room?”

“She’s a big sister,” Maya pointed out with a simple shrug. “I think she just wants to make sure Rosa settles in alright for a little while before ending up on her own.”

“What about when she and Dylan…” Sophie asked, making a gesture that left the others laughing.

“That… that is entirely up to them,” Maya waved the subject off. Thankfully, the others soon arrived to ensure she wouldn’t have to submit her imaginative mind to any more undesired images of two of her closest friends going at it…

They divided the task easily enough. Lucas, Dylan, and Riley went off to Tracy Coleman’s house and helped Rosa to carry her things into the rented moving trailer attached to the back of Lucas’ car. Once they got back here, it would be up to Maya, Sophie, and Chiara to assist Rosa in carrying everything in and setting it where she wanted it. Team ‘Moving Out’ would then be released to go and pick up lunch for the seven of them.

“We don’t mind unloading…” Lucas started to say as they got out of the car.

“You did your part, now all you need to worry about is pizza,” Maya shook her head. “See, look,” she nodded to where Sophie and Chiara had already disconnected the trailer from his car. “You are free to go,” she patted his shoulder.

“If I see one anchovy, I am braving the dorms!” Rosa called out as the car pulled away again, taking Lucas, Riley, and Dylan on their way to the pizza place.

“Come on, let’s get everything inside before they get back,” Sophie came to lead her toward the trailer. The four girls each grabbed a box or two and started toward the house.

“Wait!” Maya stalled them at the door, turning around to look at Rosa with a smile. “I know you’ve been here, loads of times, but this here will be the first time you go in when you are home,” she pointed out. Rosa smiled now, looking through the open door before crossing the threshold.

“Okay,” she breathed, nodded. “Now we can start.”

Within minutes, under the guidance of Sophie’s approach, they all sat on the ground in what was now Riley and Rosa’s room, surrounded by stacks of boxes that felt a lot like a small fort. Rosa didn’t have a bed as of yet. As far as the others knew of her plans with Riley, she would start out her time sharing the existing bed, until they managed to go and see about acquiring a new bed, as her old one really was overdue to be replaced anyway.

“You know, what this sounds like to me is more ‘we both know I won’t stay in this room long anyway, so you can _have_ my bed,’” Maya pointed out, as the absence of that second bed was brought up. Sophie and Chiara nodded in agreement.

“Actually, we’ve been talking about getting like a loft bed,” Rosa told them. “That way it’ll sort of be like we have bunk beds, and we both wished we had one of those growing up.”

“That’s true,” Maya admitted.

When the others returned with the pizzas, rather than heading down to their first meal all seven of them around the kitchen table, they ended up welcoming the trio to join them inside their ‘fort,’ and so they dove into the pizza boxes, sitting on the ground and plenty comfortable for it.

She didn’t know what led her to do it, after they had all been talking and eating and having fun, but this was the moment when Maya decided to tell her roommates about what she’d learned about her father back in New York.

In another display of time flying by, she couldn’t believe it had been well over a month since that night down in the Hart basement. In all that time, only she and Lucas knew about Kermit’s secret within the household. Up until a couple of weeks ago, the two of them had been the only ones who knew that secret in Houston _or_ Austin. But then, finally, Maya had shared the story with her mother and father.

It had not been the first time they’d seen one another since her return from New York, but it was the first time she’d been back to Austin. Her parents and her siblings had come to visit, along with the Friars, a few days after the two of them had returned, the better to hear more about their trip. Maya could have told her mother and father right then and there, but she’d chosen to wait. She didn’t want this to become a thing, knowing how they both had been so concerned about her even going out there in the first place. Sure, the thing she’d learned had nothing to do with all that, but she still couldn’t tell them.

When she and Lucas _had_ gone to Austin, he had gone to help his mother with something for a little while, leaving her alone with her parents, after the twins had been picked up by one of their friends’ father to go to a birthday party. MJ was napping, so it was just the three of them, and it had felt like she couldn’t ask for a better time. So, she’d told them everything Kermit had told her. The things she had learned through Sam, those she kept to herself, Already, the parts she could share were more than enough.

Her mother had looked just… stricken. Not unlike what Maya had had no choice but to realize, Kermit had been someone she’d loved, once upon a time, and his departure had affected her in the way only a loved one could affect another. Their history was so much different, of course, it had to be. Of all she knew, the two of them had met when they were fifteen, working at a mall. They went to different schools, but they’d see each other all the time, when they’d be working. They started seeing each other about a year after they’d met, though it had never been anything serious or steady, not until another year had gone by. Then they were seventeen, and they felt like it would be the two of them forever. A year after _that_ , a plus sign on a pregnancy test had made sure of it… for about seven years.

When Katy heard about all that had happened out there, it wasn’t the guy who left that she saw in her head. It was the boy who’d talked her into keeping their baby she couldn’t help but recall. She sat there, her head bowed in her hands, at a loss for words. Shawn, sitting at her side, reached one arm around her even as he held out the other so that Maya, across from them, would move forward and allow him to hold her, too.

Weeks later, when the story was shared among the roommates, it dropped a sudden silence within the room. Part of her wished she had waited, that they could all have had this happy day together without dredging up something that was technically speaking in the past already. But then the reason she’d decided to finally tell them was simply that it felt like the right time, somehow. This was their house of six becoming a house of seven, and it was something she had long been meaning to share, so here it was.

“Are you okay?” Riley asked.

“Yeah,” Maya nodded, smiling at her. “Really, I just…” she shrugged.

“And he’s better now?” Rosa asked next, sitting next to her.

“He is,” Maya nodded again. She could hear the relief in her voice, and she couldn’t express how glad it made her to find it there. Rosa smiled here, as though to say, ‘that’s great.’ “I just… wanted you guys to know.” On her other side, Lucas reached for her hand. He was glad she’d finally told them, too. She never did so well with holding things back and they both knew it.

When they were all done eating, they offered to help Rosa unpack, but she and Riley had it covered, as they informed them, so the others went on about their day. A few of them were working, others had chores to attend to around the house. They would wait a couple of weeks before folding Rosa into the roster.

At the end of the day, Lucas finished a shift at the bookstore and went to pick up Maya from the restaurant. Arriving back home, they found Riley, Dylan and Rosa all invested in a video game, though they paused, as Rosa wanted to know how the day had gone at the bookstore without her. She’d taken the day off to take care of the move, of course, though it left her thinking about her mother, wondering if she would be okay or if it would be weird. Their dog, Gideon, had been left with her mother, much as it had pained Rosa to do it. She didn’t want her mother to be left all alone in the house.

“She was good,” Lucas promised.

“Really?” Rosa pressed on.

“She’s happy for you,” Lucas elaborated, which seemed to carry exactly the unspoken truth she had hoped not to find. Yeah, she had moved out, and she was taking her first steps into independence and she was thrilled. But… But her mother was finding it difficult to see her go, which left her feeling like maybe she shouldn’t be so happy about it after all.

“Hey,” Maya got her attention, and Rosa looked to her. “Two minutes away,” she reminded her. Rosa let out a breath and nodded. It would be alright in the end. Everyone would adjust.

TO BE CONTINUED


	182. Their Game to the 101st

The ‘Pappy & Patty’s Journey’ exhibit up on their walls now counted many more postcard photos than they’d done on the day the Warsaw one had been added, which could only mean one thing. The journey, like summer, would soon draw to an end. Like any other summer, at least where the roommates were concerned, this meant that it was time to take the road that would get them to Austin and to the Babineaux family party.

The previous year’s party would be a tough act to follow, or so Zay’s great grandmother would tell any and all who would listen, but then again, the previous year’s party had been marked with the celebration of GiGi’s 100th birthday. This did not mean that she wanted it to be topped. She would have no fuss made over the fact that she had survived yet another year. She was not a miracle, she was merely keeping in shape, or so she’d say.

Now, with seven of them at the house, seven of them travelling, they had finally gotten to a point where they couldn’t all fit in a single car, not if they all wanted to go to the same place. There had been a running joke that it was time they traded in one of their cars for a minivan, but for the time being, their only solution was to split up and take both cars. At least, on this day, it did have some benefits.

While one car, holding Sophie, Chiara, Dylan, and Riley, went on toward the house to assist in the party set up, as they always did, the other, holding Lucas, Maya, and Rosa, was on its way to the airport to pick up Zay and Nadine. The two of them were flying in to spend the last little stretch of summer back in Austin with their families, just in time to surprise GiGi on the day of the party.

“Does she still make those cookies you guys were telling me about?” Rosa asked as they were waiting for the flight to come in.

“She does,” Lucas promised.

“She once told me that only she and her ghost would ever know the recipe,” Maya added with a smirk. They all loved going back to that house every summer, especially now that they were living out in Houston. While GiGi saw her continued existence as little more than good, clean living, the rest of them just thanked whoever or whatever was responsible that she was still with them. They couldn’t even think about the time when she wouldn’t be there anymore.

When the passengers began to emerge, the trio started scanning the faces, looking for their friends. It wasn’t long that they spotted Zay, but after a beat, they realized that something was missing, someone.

“Hey, where’s Nadine?” Maya asked when he walked up to them. There was a strange sort of faraway look on his face when she said the name, and a moment later they found out why.

“Boston,” Zay shrugged sort of distantly. “We, uh… We broke up.”

“What?” Lucas and Maya spoke at once, looking like they’d just been struck down.

“What happened? When… Really?” Maya asked. Zay looked like he had been dreading this conversation for the whole duration of his flight.

“Eight days ago,” he finally said. “At first, she said she’d come anyway, because she wanted to see everyone, but then she changed her mind, and _I_ couldn’t do that, so here I am,” he went on, sounding like being here was the last thing he wanted in that moment. It took any and all efforts out of his friends, from asking what had caused the two of them to split after all those years… Seven years, longer than any of them… all gone, or… None of them had the heart to ask if he thought that they’d get back together.

The ride from the airport to the party was not nearly as cheerful as they had all anticipated it to be. Instead, the four of them sat there in total silence. Maya couldn’t help it, after a while she pulled out her phone and sent out a text to Nadine. As much as she loved all her guy friends, Nadine had been her first girl friend in Austin after she’d moved, and then they’d been teammates on the girls’ basketball team. Nadine had been the cause of her working so hard to get into those advanced classes, she was a founding member of TXNY. The last two years, living so far apart from one another, she’d done her best for them not to lose track of one another, and now this… Eight days and she hadn’t said a word.

_Maya: We just picked up Zay from the airport, he told us why you didn’t come. Are you okay?_

She watched what felt like a wordless narration to what was going through her friend’s mind over the next couple of minutes. About a minute after she’d sent the message, she could see that it had been seen by Nadine. Another minute went by before the little bubble appeared to show that she was typing. It came and went a few times, like she was stopping and starting, trying to find the right words. Maya looked into the rear view mirror. Zay was staring out the window, though she doubted he was registering anything. Rosa was looking back at her in the mirror, like she didn’t know what to do. Lucas, sitting at her side in the driver’s seat, looked like he was doing everything he could to just focus on driving and not on this thing that was happening to two of his best friends.

_Nadine: I’m sorry I couldn’t come. I tried, I swear I did, but every time I started to think about packing, about being out there and everyone looking at me with questions in their eyes, I couldn’t make myself do it. I really wanted to see you and the girls, I just couldn’t._

It wasn’t specifically an answer to the question she’d been asked, but it answered it all the same. No, she wasn’t okay, no more than Zay was. She almost didn’t ask more, but no matter what she tried she just had to know.

_Maya: Why didn’t you write or call earlier?_

_Nadine: I wanted to._

The little bubble blinked again, and Maya never wished so much that she could just teleport out to Boston, to be with her friend, to comfort her and support her.

_Nadine: I didn’t know what to say. I still don’t._

_Maya: You don’t have to say anything. Whatever you’ve got, whatever you need, you don’t even have to ask. Day or night._

_Nadine: I know._

_Nadine: I miss you all so much…_

Maya could feel Lucas’ eyes on her as they sat stopped at a red light. She looked at him, her face feeling like it bore every sign of crying without the actual tears. She just couldn’t believe that this was happening; he felt the same way. Seven years… One more than them…

When they pulled up to the house, Maya and Lucas shared a look. Someone was going to have to go in there ahead of the others, to explain that Nadine wasn’t here and why. The last thing Zay needed was thirty-odd people coming up to him like they had back at the airport, wondering where Nadine was and forcing him to repeat again and again. Before they could decide, Rosa moved past them, giving a nod that said she had them covered.

It didn’t eliminate the questions, but it softened the initial blow. Beyond that, Zay had his friends there to try and redirect some of the inquiring relatives. He couldn’t redirect his parents, and he did end up talking to them for a while. He couldn’t redirect GiGi either. She called him over to where she sat and for a while the two of them talked. Much as Lucas and Maya and the others tried not to pry in any way, they couldn’t help but look over to where the one hundred and one-year-old woman and her great grandson sat.

He’d been off in his own distracted bubble since they’d picked him up at the airport, but here, slowly, the old woman seemed to work through and get him to open up some more. All they could see from where they stood was… sadness, confusion… loss. Whatever had been the cause of this breakup, neither Zay nor Nadine was ready to talk it out, and really, no matter where any of them stood, how long they had or hadn’t been in a relationship themselves, it didn’t matter. They understood this was something that had happened to the two of them, and it had affected them as deeply as anything could.

“What do we do?” Riley looked to all her roommates, but to the ones who’d known Zay and Nadine longer in particular. She looked to Maya, to Lucas, to Dylan. None of them seemed to know _what_ to do, but they definitely knew they had to do _something_ , to lift their friend’s spirits. They didn’t expect to make him all better all of a sudden, of course, but they couldn’t well sit back and leave him like this either.

“I’ll get the car,” Lucas spoke after a while. He got hold of Maya’s hand and she followed him until he’d told her his thought. The only remaining question was where, and when they got that figured out, she went back to the others.

Five minutes later, Lucas, Maya, Riley, Dylan, and Zay snuck out of the party, getting into Lucas’ car and driving off without a word. Their facilitator in bailing on the family gathering had not been Rosa, or Sophie or Chiara. Instead, Geraldine Babineaux had entrusted her great grandson to his friends, promising them that ‘she had things handled.’ They wouldn’t put it past her to fake a medical emergency. Once upon a time, Katy Hart had pegged Zay for an actor, but never let it be said that GiGi wasn’t the true thespian of the family.

Katy and Shawn had taken the kids and gone to the Matthews house for the evening so, when the car drove up to the Hunter Hart house, there was no one around. The five old friends went around the back, where Maya swiftly scooped up the orange ball from the ground and tossed it to Dylan. She might have tossed it to Zay but, with the way he was still going around on auto pilot, she half expected him not to even raise his hands and get clocked by the ball instead.

For a while, it was a two on two game. Lucas and Dylan paired up against Maya and Riley, while Zay sat in the grass and watched. No one called him on this or tried to insist that he play, too. Subconsciously they all felt as though they had made their teams the way they’d done, instead of going Lucas and Maya against Riley and Dylan, in the event that it would look too ‘couple versus couple’ with their heartbroken friend looking on. They just kept playing, after a while wondering if maybe they had chosen the wrong tactic.

“Sorry, sorry,” Riley told Maya, after a while, when she missed a shot. “See, this is why I never play,” she insisted. Maya smiled, tossing her the ball again and shaking her head to insist it was fine, but then…

“You can tag me in if you want.” They turned to look at Zay, who was now standing up. He looked to Riley, held out his hands to indicate she could throw the ball to him. She did, and he caught it, moving forward while Riley stepped out to the side. Zay looked to Maya, who smiled and held out a fist to him. He bumped it, and they turned to Lucas and Dylan. “Right, come on, new game. That was just embarrassing.” His voice still droned on a bit, but he hadn’t sounded so like himself all day, and it was good to hear it.

The new game started well enough, though it did feel like Zay was mostly going through the motions, banking on his own skills but having little as far as stakes where the result was concerned. Still, he kept playing, and the others did, too. It wasn’t until several minutes into it, when Maya tossed him the ball and he pulled off a fantastic shot, that it got to be that the reaction was stronger than him and he smiled, clasping his partner’s hand when she offered hers. After that, he seemed a lot more invested than he’d been before.

When the game ended – a last minute lock by Team Hartineaux – the five old friends went into the house, sitting themselves around the kitchen table with a round of drinks. All that was missing was Asher… and Nadine…

“Sometimes I wish we would have gone somewhere else,” Zay spoke after a while. “Not Boston, not on our own.” The others stayed silent, let him talk on. “We were fine out there for a while, but then…” he shook his head, looking for some explanation, looking like he’d been looking for eight days. “It’s like we never… like we never really made anything, just school, and work, and when there was time… us… We thought we had it for a while, but then it’s like we finally opened our eyes and we saw… We’d been fooling ourselves the whole time… And now… now we can’t even look at each other, like… I don’t know who she is anymore, and she doesn’t know who I am either… Do you know what it’s like to miss someone that’s right there in front of you?”

Again, the others didn’t speak, though now it was more that they weren’t sure what to say.

“I’m taking a semester off,” Zay went on, and they looked at him. “I’m going to New York, I… I don’t know if it’ll make things any better. I just know I need to make something happen and it’s not going to happen by staying in Boston.” He paused, the tremor of a stalled sob in his face. He was afraid, they could see it. He was afraid… and he missed Nadine. But his mind was made up, and they couldn’t change it for him.

By the time Katy and Shawn returned home, they had extra hands to help get the sleeping kids from the car and up to their rooms. Maya told her parents why they were here, and soon Zay was set up to spend the night on the couch, fast asleep within a minute. Dylan and Riley, bound for the Orlando house for the night, were promised an update in the morning before taking off. Maya and Lucas checked in with the others, back at the party. Rosa would be spending the night at the Zvolensky house along with Sophie and Chiara. The party had gone on well enough despite their absence. GiGi had abandoned the activities, too, retreating into the kitchen with the three girls, where they had mixed and frozen enough dough to send Zay back wherever he’d go with something to give him comfort when he needed it. She had made an equal amount to send Nadine’s way, too.

TO BE CONTINUED


	183. Their Start For Year Three

The end of summer had been somewhat marred by the revelation of Zay and Nadine’s breakup and his plan to relocate from Boston to New York for the foreseeable future. Already, he was in the process of packing up and was within days of making his way out to the apartment shared by the Garcia twins and their significant others, where he insisted that he’d only be crashing until he found an alternative, despite the fact that all four of his friends insisted he could stay as long as he wanted.

They had all been left to feel a bit helpless, being so far from all of those up there in Boston and New York. This just wasn’t one of those times where they could drop everything and take off to be with them, so all they had working in their favor were calls and messages, though this was of little help. Both of them were still avoiding the subject. Zay would say that he couldn’t get into anything, that he needed to organize his move, while Nadine claimed that she was swamped with work that needed to be done ahead of the new semester’s start.

So, it came down to picking up what little information they could through their other friends, who _had_ been able to make the trip from New York to Boston a couple of times since the bombshell had dropped. There had been some hope that this would all blow over sooner or later, but then after their first visit out, Asher had written to the Houston house.

_This is really happening, guys, he’s coming to live with us. Nadine’s been staying at a friend’s apartment since he got back from Austin. She doesn’t want to be around while he’s packing to leave. Saw her out there, saw him at their place, none of us know what to do. They’re not themselves right now, like they’re not just broken up, they’re broken. They’ll bounce back from this eventually, I know… I hope… Right now, I don’t even know._

Having seen Zay in those couple days while he was in Austin, they knew what Asher meant. It didn’t matter how many years went by, how much they were all growing up, rolling into their twenties and out of their teens, they were all still the same people they’d always been at heart, and Zay… Zay had always been just out there, outspoken, funny… Right now, he was so quiet, and that felt so wrong. As for Nadine, much as she’d try to cover, to act like she was just busy and couldn’t talk, she couldn’t cover with everyone. She couldn’t cover with her younger sister Michaela.

It had all trickled down from her, to August, and then to Riley and the house. Michaela had been feeling so sad and helpless, hearing about her sister’s situation while they were all so far away from one another, and August tried to be there for her, to make her feel better, but there was only so much he could do. This had led to Michaela talking with her sister’s friends.

“She didn’t want me to see it, but I know she’s been crying. She had to hang up the other day, she couldn’t hold it, and… I-I don’t know what to do, I’ve never seen her like this… She doesn’t want me to tell Mom and Dad, or Marley or Olivia, she says because they’ll say she should come back to Texas.” This much did not surprise them at least. As proud as Mr. & Mrs. Zhu were to know that the eldest of their four daughters had designs on being a doctor, they had not seen why it was necessary for her to go and do this so far from them and, even two years into her studies, they still brought up the possibility of her transferring to a closer school.

Much as they all wished they could present some solution to the second of the Zhu girls, they were as geographically helpless as she was, and all they could hope for was that those friends of theirs who were closer to both Nadine and Zay would be able to do something for them, something to see them through this.

Though the breakup did consume much of their summer’s end, there were some brighter spots near them, to remind them of the ongoing life beyond. There was a lot going on with the two of their roommates starting a new road this fall, from Sophie’s start at the police academy to Rosa’s first semester in college. Both girls were about as giddy as they could get, for their own reasons.

Much as Sophie had enjoyed the past two years’ studies, it had always been hard for her not to look at those like the means to an end, as she waited to be able to apply, to start working toward what she’d always intended to work toward. And now, finally, it was about to happen. And then Rosa… As devoted of a student as she’d always been, earning the title of valedictorian in the end, she had long confided in the fact that she always saw her success in high school as stemming from the fact that she was on her own for so much of it, so studying hard had just been her way of making it through and making it out. Now that this was over, she was looking at college like a way for her to hit reset, to maybe figure out who she was meant to become.

“We’re going to have to keep an eye on her, aren’t we?” Maya asked Lucas, the day they’d all gone to get their books, as they’d watched her zooming around with her list.

“Us and our kids, huh?” Lucas smirked at her, making Maya chuckle. That was always who they’d been, wasn’t it? The house parents, looking after all their roommates. It hadn’t been anyone’s intention; it had all just sort of happened that way. And now, with Rosa and her road to discovery…

“It’s a good thing she’s with us then.”

The day’s trip to the bookstore also brought them to run into the returned travelers, Professor Robinson and Pappy Joe. As surprised as they were to run into the professor, both Maya and Lucas had to work overtime not to show their surprise at seeing Lucas’ grandfather there, but then they guessed they needed to get used to seeing more of him around Houston…

The two of them had been back in Texas for a little under a week. The day after they arrived back, Pappy Joe called out to his grandson to invite him and his girlfriend to come to Austin for dinner, the better for him to tell them about his trip, as though they hadn’t gotten loads of information via the postcards. Upon arriving at the house there, they were not only met with Lucas’ parents and his grandfather, but also with his uncle and aunt and their children, as well as with Patty Robinson.

Much as the pictures painted an image of the pair’s trips from city to city and country to country, showing how they both had a wonderful time, in the city and also with one another, to see them now face to face showed just how much the summer’s adventures had tightened the bond between them. It was such that, by the time the day’s gathering would be over, the biggest takeaway wouldn’t be the story of one misadventure or another with the scooter, or the celebrities they had run into in London, or the food they’d had in this country or that one, no. The biggest takeaway would be that Pappy Joe was moving out of his son’s house in Austin and was moving in with his nephew in Houston, the better to be closer to his Patricia.

With the way the two of them announced this, both Maya and Lucas and Lucas’ parents turned to look at Hank and Tanya Hillard, on the off-chance that they hadn’t even been informed of their new lodger. Eventually they learned that he hadn’t needed to ask, that he’d spoken with his nephew, expressing how he and Patty were getting to a point where the commute was getting to be excessive, though they weren’t at a point yet where they would just go and live together, at which point Hank had offered for his uncle to move into their guest room. The last thing Pappy Joe wanted was to appear in anyway ungrateful to his son and his daughter-in-law, who had taken him in and tended to him after his fall, only he needed to follow his heart, as he said, reaching for the smiling professor’s hand. They could hardly fault him on that.

There wasn’t much for him to pack, and so he left the Friar house the very same day he made his announcement, taking up residence at the Hillard house in Houston, where he had been living now for the past few weeks. This led to several visits, many of them to take Lucas and Maya out to breakfast, with any of their roommates who might have wanted to tag along, and of course with Patty whenever she was available.

“Is it going to be weird now? I feel like it’s going to be weird,” Maya frowned, looking back to Lucas after the professor and his grandfather had left them, that day in the bookstore. Sure, they found themselves interacting with the woman outside of school from time to time, and Maya already worked for her, first with her book and soon as her TA. But now the fact that the woman was essentially one step closer to being a sort of new grandmother to Lucas was really where seeing her and being with her at school would start to reacquaint them with something they hadn’t experienced since back in the days where Cory Matthews had been their teacher.

They had one week left now before the start of classes, and as they awoke that morning, Maya remembered this at the very same time as she also remembered something that they’d been supposed to do this summer. She sat bolt upright when she realized they hadn’t done it yet, waking Lucas in the process, as his arms were forced away from their hold of her.

“What’s happening, what…” he mumbled, squinting against the sudden morning light.

“We forgot,” she declared, perched up on her knees, looking around the room.

“Forgot what?” Lucas asked, sitting up now as he rubbed at his eyes.

“We were going to redo the room over the summer, remember?” she turned back to him. He sat sort of zoned out for a few more seconds before frowning, as the memory worked itself loose in his mind.

“Oh… yeah…” He sat there for a moment, allowing his brain to wake up a bit more before finally nodding. “Alright, well let’s do it then. We’ve still got time.”

“Yeah?” she smiled.

“Yeah, I mean we’re not working this morning, so we can start…” He was cut off when she just about pounced at him, leaving him to catch her on reflex, smiling as he fell back, and she fell with him. She was kissing him now, and for a couple minutes the project was put aside, until she pulled away and rolled out of bed and to her feet, leaving him to grasp empty air.

“Are we painting the walls? Because a new color would definitely help to give the room a whole other look, you know?” she gestured around to their presently sort of minty green walls.

“You just want to go look at all the swatches,” he smirked, and she didn’t even pretend like he wasn’t more or less correct. “Who am I to deny you that pleasure?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	184. Their Start For Colors

What started as just a project between Maya and Lucas took little to no time to turn into something infinitely more involved throughout the house. All their roommates needed to hear was that they would be heading out to the hardware store to pick out a new color for their room, and suddenly everyone wanted in on a room refresher. And so, the seven of them took off shortly after breakfast, eager to get started.

“You know what we should do, we should just take one of each of those little cards and then go home again,” Dylan suggested as they walked into the store. “It might all look one way here, but we need to see it in the place where it’ll go, no?”

“You want to just take those and leave?” Lucas asked.

“What, that’s what they’re there for, isn’t it?” Dylan shrugged.

“Actually, if we do that, could I hang on to them when we’re done?” Maya chimed in, and one look at her suggested that she already knew exactly what she planned to do with them once they’d all been given over to her.

A few minutes later, they were getting back in the two cars and heading on home, carrying a few sizable stacks of the differently shaped cards with their gradient shades of color upon color. In his car, Lucas drove, all the while listening to the conversation happening in the back, between Maya, Riley, and Rosa. Much as they had sworn that they wouldn’t start looking through everything until after they’d arrived home, all it took was for just one card to be picked up from the top of the stack, and suddenly it was a free for all, comparing one shade to another, jumping from one grouping to another… Dylan, in the passenger seat, would turn around and point to one card or another that he liked, and Riley would happily pass it on to him. Lucas couldn’t help but notice they all seemed to pull toward purple tones.

The two cars had been going one behind the other the whole way, until Lucas noticed that the other car, with Sophie and Chiara inside it, had just started its turn light, indicating it was about to pull in a direction that was not at all headed for home. He frowned, opening his mouth to ask the others about this until he saw Sophie’s arm stretch out the window and spell something out in sign language. He might not have been able to tell from where he sat, but he could see very well, and that said P-I-Z-Z-A.

So, the rest of them continued on toward the house, where they climbed up to the second floor, only to sit in the hall of doors, surrounded by their bedrooms. Here, they started to divide out the cards. Reds here, oranges there, yellows, greens, and so on… They soon had ten piles.

“We’re waiting for them, right?” Lucas asked as he sat next to Maya. She looked back at him, her hand already floating over the pile of blues, coming off like a kid caught tearing corners of wrapping paper away from her Christmas presents.

“But… look at this one… It’s called Paris,” she pressed a card into his hand, pointing to a middling shade with a grin.

_“_ _Donc on peut seulement parler français dans notre chambre si on utilise cette couleur_ _?”_ he asked with a smile and an obvious relief over the fact that he’d remembered how to say all that. Maya laughed.

“No, we can talk whatever language we want, Paris or no Paris,” she promised him. He looked at the card again, knowing very well he was being pulled into some shenanigans, but by now there was no point resisting. So, the card was set between them and, with a victorious grin, she looked back to the swatches all over the floor like a broken-down rainbow.

A few minutes later, they heard the door and Sophie’s call that they had returned. They were directed up the stairs, where they came upon what had become of the neat piles, now spread, and slowly getting tangled in with their neighbors, as small stacks had grown between Lucas and Maya, between Rosa and Riley, and next to Dylan. There was even another stack, all on its own, which they were informed contained colors the rest of them thought the two of them might like.

“Right,” Chiara stepped up, pizza boxes in hand. “All of you, eat, keep hands away from the colors, and Sophie and I are able to catch up.”

This was received as a reasonable idea, so the top box was relieved of many slices, which soon attracted a trio of curious pups who came to be caught up in the laps of Maya, Rosa, and Dylan, while Sophie and Chiara inspected the messy piles of swatches, along with the pile their friends had collected for them. A few minutes later, they were all sitting and eating, showing one another the cards that they’d picked up. Whenever someone would see a color they liked in someone else’s pile, they would make a note on the back with the marker Riley had gone to get from her and Rosa’s room.

“Are we only doing the four rooms up here or the downstairs, too?” Lucas asked, turning to Maya, who had Trix in her lap and was feeding her little bits.

“I don’t know,” Maya replied, looking to the others. All around, they seemed to come to some agreement that it would be unnecessary, so that decided that. Four bedrooms, that would be all.

After they’d finished eating, putting away the leftovers and the trash and washing their hands, they split off into their rooms for a while. With their stack of selections in hand, they could start to figure out what color they really wanted. If ever they eliminated cards with someone else’s name on the back, they would take them over to the person in question.

“Here,” Maya handed a card over to Sophie before stopping to inspect the cards she and Chiara had propped up on their dresser, standing them against the currently sort of sandy colored walls. There didn’t seem to be a clear winner as far as colors, with some pulling on red, others on blue, or green. “Stuck?” she asked them.

“That obvious?” Sophie asked, while Chiara muttered something in Italian which made her girlfriend smile. “Fine, _she’s_ stuck, but we both have to agree on this, so _we’re_ stuck,” Sophie insisted, looking back at her. Chiara smiled.

“Alright, then I’ll let you get back to it,” Maya told them before heading off to hand off her other discarded card, off to Riley and Rosa’s room.

In their case, there seemed to be much less of a debate on which color family they would be selecting from, to the point where it felt as though the card Maya was bringing them would be discarded automatically. There were a series of cards lined up on the floor, with the two girls sitting side by side. Rosa still had Peanut in her lap. The puppy had been trailing her from the moment she’d moved in.

“That is a lot of gray,” Maya remarked.

“I was thinking something neutral would be good,” Rosa explained with a giddy look about her they were familiar with, if they’d ever seen her in the midst of creating her displays for her mother’s store. “It’ll make everything else stand out more, you know?”

“Right, sure, yeah,” Maya nodded, all the while looking to Riley, who’d been eyeing the card in her hand, which pulled more along the lines of a vibrant violet. This all seemed to line up to the idea that Riley already foresaw herself leaving the room entirely to Rosa’s use before long, so she was also leaving the choice of color to her, the better to make the room her own. “So, I guess you won’t need this then,” she held up the card to show them. Rosa turned to Riley to check what she thought, so perhaps she was not so aware of the nudging herself.

“Yeah… no… We’re all good, thanks,” Riley finally said.

“Alright, that’s fine,” Maya nodded. “Maybe I’ll go see what Dylan thinks of it,” she squinted to her best friend. Riley tried to answer this with a very casual shrug, regardless of how her eyes betrayed her. “I’ll let you guys get back to this,” she gestured to the cards on the floor before walking back out.

She didn’t actually bring the card to Dylan’s room in the end, although as she’d soon find out, she might as well have. While she had been taking the cards to the other girls, Lucas had walked across the hall to Dylan’s room. _He_ had set his chosen cards on his windowsill, and Lucas couldn’t help but notice the prevalence of various shades of purple. At present time, his walls were red, which made it hard to even picture the space in any other color, which might explain why he’d put the cards where he’d put them.

“Hey…” Lucas spoke, drawing his friend’s attention.

“Hey!” Dylan smiled back at him.

“Big change,” Lucas pointed to the window.

“Yeah, well I figured why not, right? Isn’t it the whole point?”

“It… It is, yeah,” Lucas walked up closer to inspect the colors along the window, all of them lit with the midday sunlight of the late summer day. “Any favorites?”

“Not sure yet. I think I’ll ask Riley which ones she likes best,” Dylan declared.

“Good idea,” Lucas smiled.

When he returned to the room across the hall, Maya had also returned. She now lay on the ground, propped up on her elbows as she stared to the various cards lined up before her. Across those cards, both Trix and Lou were almost imitating her. They watched her, looked down to the cards, followed her hands as she moved one here or there…

“What do they think?” Lucas asked as he came and sat next to Maya.

“Well, the consensus seems to be that we’re leaning into the blue section,” she pointed. Trix and Lou looked where she pointed. “What do you think?” she asked, turning her head to look up at him.

“Sounds good,” he nodded.

“Great,” she reached back and gathered all the non-blue cards, depositing them at her side.

This still left several cards before them, blues ranging in tones, some pulling toward purple, others pulling toward green, and gray… As tended to be the case, they would find themselves liking a lot of the darker, more pronounced colors, but they would tend to hesitate, wondering if it would look okay once it wasn’t just a tiny square and more along all the walls. The more they worked through process of elimination though, the more they would find themselves returning to the same card, and by the time they had two left, one of them holding their old friend Paris, it was the one next to it, the one they kept turning to, which won the day. After that, it didn’t take long to decide.

“You’re sure, too, right?” Maya had to ask. She knew full well his tendencies would be to let her select whatever she wanted. Lucas picked up the card again, held it up as he focused on the square marked ‘glass sapphire,’ and he gave a nod.

“I love it,” he told her. She smiled sitting up and reaching for the pups, who came to her at once and were rewarded with ear scratches. “Once everyone’s got their colors picked, we can go to the store and get what we need. That way, we can get started in the morning?”

“Yeah, good,” Maya gathered all the unselected cards and placed them on her desk.

“Dylan’s doing his room in purple by the way,” Lucas informed her as he came to join her. She turned, her face looking less surprised and more amused, knowing. Of course, he would…

TO BE CONTINUED


	185. Their Start For Changes

Lucas surprised himself the following morning with how he managed to wake up as early as he did. Truth be told, he would have much rather slept on a few solid hours more, but then he had known his girlfriend long enough, and he had lived with her, lived with most of his roommates, long enough to know what this morning would entail. Specifically, he knew how eager everyone would be to get started on their room redecoration project, and if he _wasn’t_ up early, he would be awakened by Maya attempting to very quietly move furniture away from the walls on her own, the better to start painting.

“Oh, good, you’re up,” Maya whispered, when he opened his eyes.

“How long have _you_ been…” he had to ask.

“Not long, like half an hour… forty-five minutes…”

“And the others?” In response, she held up her phone, where he could see she had been passing the time by texting with their roommates. He could see replies from Riley, and Rosa, and Chiara, which covered all four rooms by the fact that Riley had gone in with Dylan the night before.

“Dylan and Sophie are still asleep, but… Oh, wait, never mind, they’re up,” she passed him the phone again for him to see the latest messages. Already she was climbing out of bed and moving out into the hall. “I’ll go start breakfast, want to help?”

“Be right there,” he called after her, allowing the last vestiges of his sleep to peel away before he got up to follow her, careful to sidestep the paint cans sitting just inside the door along with other materials they’d picked up.

They had a plan, which was just as well. Four rooms, seven painters, it shouldn’t be too complicated. They’d tackle one room at a time, moving and covering the furniture and removing all wall hangings and coverings, etc., before getting the painting done. It had been so much easier the last time, of course, as there hadn’t been so many things in the way, but they’d get through it just fine here, too.

After breakfast, they went back up and met in the middle of the hall, where Rosa presented her roommates with a bowl containing a few scraps of paper.

“Pick a room, any room,” she called, and Riley raised her hand to be the one to pick the first strip. When she did, she opened it and showed: _Sophie & Chiara_.

“We already cleared the walls last night,” Sophie informed the others as they all headed into the room. “And we put away the fragile things. There are the shelves though…”

“Got it!” Maya and Lucas both spoke at once, making them smirk. They both remembered those old shelves they’d put up, the two of them together, in her old room in Austin. The first of several…

Soon they reached the stage where they could start the process, taking the walls from their old color to the new. They were soon able to divide, two to a wall, once their eighth painter showed up, in the form of Joseph Hillard. Rosa had recruited her best friend, for this very reason, to even things out, and Lucas’ cousin was all too happy to lend a hand.

They were all sitting, taking a break and angling for a snack, when Maya’s phone rang. When she saw who it was, she excused herself, moving down the stairs as she answered.

“Hey…” she spoke in a slow, hopefully supportive sounding enough to compensate for the long distance between herself and Nadine, all the way in Boston. After a beat, she had a flash, a memory. Today… Today was the day Zay was supposed to head off to New York. “Where are you?” Maya asked, moving to take a seat on the couch in the living room, but then, looking at herself, seeing the splashes of paint on her old clothes, she was left to decide against it, just in case, so she just set to pacing along.

“Back at the apartment,” Nadine replied, sounding small. “I… I came to help him load the truck, he just left… I thought maybe… I don’t know…”

“Maybe you guys would manage to fix things before he really went,” Maya filled in as the seconds stretched on. A few more seconds of silence stretched on, seconds where Nadine had to have been trying to get a hold of herself, because when she finally couldn’t do it anymore, Maya finally heard a small sob, and a shaky breath, and then Nadine was just crying. Maya could feel her own eyes stinging, out of helplessness for not being able to be with her friend, out of a shared sadness for this whole situation…

“I-I’m sorry, I… I shouldn’t…” Nadine spoke after a good half a minute of this, trying again to regain control of herself. She didn’t like to show herself to be slipping, breaking.

“It’s fine, it’s… well, not _fine_ , but you don’t have to hold back from me,” Maya shook her head. “You called me, probably for that reason, yeah?”

“Yeah…” Nadine admitted, sniffling.

“Is there anyone else there with you?” Maya inquired, as she looked up to find both Riley and Dylan planted on the landing, staring down at her with curiosity. She spelled out Nadine’s name with her fingers and they had that same look as she must have had, remembering today was Zay’s moving day. They all knew as well as she did that there was nothing much more to be done than what Maya was already trying to do, so after a minute they went back up the stairs.

“No, I… I kind of wanted it that way, right now… I need to get used to this.” Before they’d moved out there to Boston, Nadine had been telling Maya and the others how she’d always wondered what it would be like to live on her own, after having grown up with her mother and father and one, then two, then three little sisters, but at the same time she didn’t think that she would be able to be entirely alone, which was fine, because there’d be Zay, and possibly some roommates… But now it was just her, the first night she would ever spend all on her own in her entire life. And all Maya could think was _not now, not like this._

“Nadine, maybe you should have your friend come and spend a couple nights there with you, the one you were staying with? Just… I don’t know, just to make the transition a bit…”

“Easier?” Nadine was the one to fill in the blanks now, and Maya could guess what she thought of this ever being easy. Surely it would happen, somewhere down the road, but right now it was far enough away that it really couldn’t be seen at all. “You’re probably right…” Nadine went on eventually. “I’ll give her a call.”

“Do it now, I’ll wait. I’ll stay with you until she gets there, okay?”

“Yeah, okay, I will, I… thanks…”

“Sure,” Maya told her, closing her eyes for a moment. It wasn’t like she thought anything bad would happen to her if she was on her own, but it just didn’t seem right that, after all this, she’d have to sit on her own in the quiet, her life torn in half, with near on everyone who mattered most to her so far away.

Lucas was next to come down from above, soon followed by Sophie. Of course, they knew what was going on now, as Riley and Dylan would have told them who was on the line. They both had eyes that asked how things were going, and how could she possibly respond to this without words? The question must have appeared on her face; it said everything they needed to know.

“What are you guys doing today?” Nadine asked after coming back on with her, now that she’d talked to her friend and asked her to come over. Her voice sounded plainly as though all she wanted was to change the subject, not to dwell on her problems more than was necessary.

“Uh, well, we’re painting walls,” Maya shared.

“Oh, that’s today?” Nadine latched on. “How’s it going?”

“Well, we’re just about done with Sophie and Chiara’s room, we’re hoping to do all four rooms today so we can finish everything else as soon as possible, before school starts.”

“We can hang up now if you need to get back, I…”

“I’m staying until your friend shows up, remember?” Maya reiterated, and Nadine confirmed that she did, sounding thankful once again.

After Nadine’s friend arrived at the apartment, Nadine and Maya ended the call. Maya told Nadine that she could always write or call, as though she didn’t already know. Nadine thanked Maya for the conversation. After they hung up, Maya let out a breath, moving toward Lucas, who remained on the landing. She planted her face into his chest, and he closed an arm around her.

“I hate being far from them…” she mumbled.

“Me, too,” Lucas told her.

They went back to the task at hand, finding that the last of that first room had been dealt with, as much as they could do for now, so the bowl was retrieved again, and the next room that was to be tackled was shown to be Riley and Rosa’s. When they cracked open the first can of paint, all it took was Dylan making a single ‘One Shade of Gray’ joke, and then a fit of giggles started bouncing from one painter to the next. Right about then, it was a very welcome distraction, willing them all back into the rhythm of things.

The day showed no signs of wanting to slow down, but then neither did they. By the time they were through with the second room, they were calling in for takeout, their lunch considerably later than usual. This then led them into the third room, which ended up being Dylan’s den of purple. This took them well past sunset, so that by the time they hit the last room, Lucas and Maya’s room, and opened up the can of blue, everyone was really starting to feel the day in their bones, but at the same time there was only the one room left, and they were determined to get through it. So, they got to work. Suddenly, their early rise only seemed to hinder them.

For all that, they got through it, even if they could see the time was well past three in the morning by the time they were done. After that, the best they could do was to carefully change out of their paint splattered clothes and settle on to whatever surface they could find of the ground, where they’d set up sleeping bags, with all their beds so out of reach as they were. None of them seemed to mind one bit, too exhausted to bat an eye at their level of comfort.

Maya still woke up early, though not so early as the day before. Her body still ached, but then she just remained as she was, in Lucas’ hold as he slept on. His arm was around her waist, and she couldn’t help but set her hand over his, hold on to it, as she thought of Nadine back in Boston, of Zay, now in New York with their friends… _Seven years…_ Seven years the two of them had been together, seemingly so solid, and the thing Maya couldn’t stop focusing on was the number, and how she and Lucas had been together almost just as long. If they were so solid, and if their friends had been that way, too… No, no, she wasn’t even going to think like…

“Hey…” a mumbling made her blink, and she turned her head. “How long have you been awake?” Lucas asked, sleepily leaning in to kiss the side of her head.

“Not long,” she told him, smiling before kissing him back. “Go back to sleep.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	186. Their Start For Dreams

The house awoke to many achy and exhausted people the following morning, and still there was a lot of motivation in them, as they were looking forward to finishing out their room redecorating, enough to start picking themselves out of their sleeping bags. Breakfast was had, and then all they had to do was decide how to tackle the second part of the task. Those of them who had their rooms painted latest still wanted to wait a while longer before they started to move anything, so they offered their services to help the others.

Dylan went to help Riley and Rosa, as expected, so Lucas and Maya went to lend a hand to Sophie and Chiara. The two of them had been talking away all through breakfast, and now their pair of assistants discovered that step one would not take them upstairs but rather to the mall. They wanted to replace their bedding, as the current one no longer matched now that they’d repainted.

“Send pictures!” they heard shouted from upstairs as they let the others know they were headed out, from both Riley and Rosa. They didn’t need further words to know that they didn’t want pictures of Sophie and Chiara’s options but instead of any potential sets that might fit their beds, in their room.

“So, something for the gray room, and something for the purple room, yeah?” Maya asked Lucas with a smile. “Should we do ours, too?” she wondered. Their old bedding did still sort of fit with the new color, but at the same time… This was about making a new turn, wasn’t it?

On the car ride to the mall, Maya sent off a text to Nadine, wanting to know how she was doing, a day after Zay’s departure.

_Nadine: I’ve been talking with Layla, she’s been looking for a roommate, can’t keep her apartment on her own anymore. She’s going to move in here with me instead._

This was the best they could have hoped for, really. From all she’d heard of Layla, who was in med school with her, she was the best friend Nadine had made since moving to Boston. Layla herself was originally from London, so while the shift from Texas to Boston wasn’t so drastic as the one from England, they had bonded in being brand-new to the city. With the way she’d been looking after Nadine through this whole breakup situation, Maya felt wholly thankful to the young woman she’d never had the chance to meet or really speak to up to now, because she was out there doing what Maya and the rest of them here only wished they could do.

When she told the girls in the back of the car about Layla moving into the apartment with Nadine, she expected them to have the same reaction she had. Instead, Sophie and Chiara shared a look of wordless conversation, which Maya spotted in the rearview mirror.

“What is it?” she asked, turning to look at them. They shrugged and played it off, but it was plain over their faces how something about the news left them hesitant. “Come on, you can’t have that look and expect me to pretend like it’s nothing, what’s wrong with Nadine’s friend moving in with her so she’s not on her own.”

“Nothing, nothing,” Sophie insisted, though Chiara cleared her throat and shook her head at her. “Well… maybe nothing, it’s just… Nadine’s just had this major break, and she’s still so vulnerable, and…”

“And wha- oh…” Maya’s voice stalled even as she understood what they were getting at. “And Layla, is she…”

“Oh, yeah,” Sophie nodded.

“But she doesn’t… with Nadine, I mean…”

“It is obvious,” Chiara shook her head. “The girl looks at her with the eyes, you know, the eyes,” she gave a demonstration.

“One vulnerable girl plus one devoted girl…” Sophie extended one hand and then the other before shrugging. _Rebound…_

“What’s going on?” Lucas asked. He hadn’t exactly been paying attention to the conversation, but he got the feeling maybe he should have.

“Layla, Nadine’s friend, she’s moving into the apartment.”

“Oh, yeah, she… Oh…” Lucas’ face changed. Maya blinked.

“Wait, you knew? How did _you_ know?”

“I just… I don’t know,” he shrugged.

There was nothing to be done for it, they knew. Whatever happened out in Boston, it would be Nadine’s choice, and they could do nothing but support her. Still, it nagged at the back of their minds, which they guessed was natural. They were friends with both halves of the recently parted couple, and they didn’t want either of them to be hurt any more than they’d already been. What seemed to come back the most, as Maya thought about it, was that, as Nadine had said, Layla was the one who’d been looking for a roommate, and yet it was Layla who was moving, which meant that Nadine retained the apartment she’d shared with Zay. All this seemed to indicate to her was that Nadine wasn’t ready to let go of the place just yet, of what it represented, and of the possibility that she and Zay might come to patch things up.

The best they could do for now was to get back to what they had set out to do, which was to find a load of new sheets and covers. They soon came to find a number of options, for their own rooms as well as the others’, which then led to many pictures being taken and sent off to the trio back at the house. As they waited for responses, they kept on browsing for themselves.

“It sounds so bad to even say it,” Sophie started, absently inspecting the pattern on the set she and Chiara had selected, “But with everything that’s happening with Nadine and Zay out there, I’m just… I don’t know, relieved, I guess, that Chiara’s here in Texas with us.” Maya looked at her, unsure of what she meant. “It was just like… I really needed to be able to feel that she was close, to hold her hand, to know… we were okay.”

“I get it,” Maya finally nodded, looking off to where Lucas was still scanning the shelves, in case they had missed anything. “I keep getting stuck on the fact that he and I have been together for so long, that we’re solid, but then _they_ were that, too, and they’d been together a year more than us.”

“Yeah…” Sophie sighed.

She had been with Chiara, in some way or another, long distance or not, for two years now, since the summer they’d all gone to Europe and, in their passage through Italy, she’d come face to face with someone she’d been growing closer to, from across a screen and through so many written messages. The two of them had been left to start off, an ocean apart from one another, save for those two days they’d spent together, and they had done well enough, though they had struggled, wanting so much more. And then the process of even getting Chiara over to them in person, to end up living with them, going to school with them… Now she’d been part of the house all this time, and they couldn’t even think of her not being one of their seven.

“We’ve talked about the future a bunch of times,” Sophie went on, looking to her girlfriend, who was now inspecting pillows. “With the house, and having kids someday… Now, all I can think about is I want to be married to her someday, I want… I want her to know that I want to spend all my life with her. I know I can just say it, but…” she shrugged.

“I know,” Maya smiled at her, and Sophie smiled back. “As a past crush, I approve,” she gave Sophie a look, and the redhead laughed.

“Never going to let me live that one down, are you?”

“Why would I do that?” Maya grinned.

When they finally got replies about the others’ choices, Maya, Lucas, Sophie, and Chiara left the store, each of them lugging a large bag belonging in one each of the four bedrooms. They fit them all in the trunk of Lucas’ car, and then they were off, headed home.

It had all really gotten to feel like they had ended up in some bubble of happy coupledom, most of their friends matched up and happy, some of them already married, one pair of them now the parents of a precious Zola… Now with this break, it felt like a needle scratch on a record, like they were forced to realize that it could all come to an end so fast, without their ever realizing it. Everyone seemed a little bit unsettled, and they grasped desperately to ensure they still had a hand to hold. Maybe it wasn’t just that it was two of their friends, but also that they were the ones who’d been together the longest, out of any of them, and that felt monumental.

“Bedding, come and get it!” Lucas called to the second floor when they arrived. A rumble at the stairs brought in Riley, Dylan, and Rosa, who quickly snatched up one bag and then another.

“I was starting to have second doubts and I almost called you guys to go with the other one, but this is actually better than on the pictures,” Riley smiled.

“Here, I’ll take it,” Dylan offered, and he and Riley went back up the stairs. Rosa watched them go before turning to the others.

“Guess what happened while you were gone.”

“You all started watching cat videos and nothing was done,” Sophie guessed.

“You did not eat the thing, did you?” Chiara stared Rosa down, thinking of the cake for Sophie’s starting of the academy.

“Nope and nope,” Rosa shook her head.

“They finally made up their minds, didn’t they?” Maya finally asked, and Rosa nodded.

“I now have a room all to myself,” she declared. “I also have a spare bed, so I guess I also double up as a guest room. Everyone is welcome to the Hotel Del Vecchio,” she laughed. “Good thing I now have brand new sheets and everything,” she hefted up the bag containing two sets of single bedding. “Although I might end up switching things up depending on the night,” she pondered to herself as she carried her bag up the stairs.

The others followed, leaving their own bags just inside their rooms before turning about to see what the others had been up to in their absence. This didn’t really get to happen though, as both doors were closed, and each one refused them admittance.

“Fine, be that way,” Maya gave a mock frown before looking back to Sophie and Chiara. “Need a hand?”

So, Maya and Lucas helped the girls move their furniture around, figuring out how best to set it all up, in a way that was as practical as it was different from the way things were before. The final touch was of course to put the new bedding over the mattress. When they were done, they all stood back and inspected their handiwork.

“All good?” Maya asked. Sophie and Chiara both nodded, smiling wide. “Final touch: the after photo.” The taking of the before photos had been a very important first step on the previous day, at least to her, and in the end, it became one to all of them. Now, they all crowded around her camera to compare the before and after for Sophie and Chiara’s room. Both versions were neat and great and all that, but the new setup really stood out for being, well, new…

“Do you want to start on your room now?” Chiara asked Maya and Lucas.

“It’s almost lunch already,” Lucas shrugged.

“And maybe we will finally be allowed to see what’s going on in the other rooms,” Maya added, moving into the hall to see if either door had been opened. They had not. “Come on, we’ll smoke them out with food.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	187. Their Start For Steps

When they had first moved in, the five of them at the time, they would sometimes go and try to tease one another out of their rooms by depositing a plate on the landing and allowing the smells to waft up in search of takers. After the dogs had been brought into the house, they had quickly learned not to use that tactic anymore, as it only led to Trix and Lou climbing their way over to an easy meal.

Luckily for them - if unluckily for the dogs - they could count on the food scent to travel all the way up the stairs and into the rooms, whether their doors were opened or closed as they were now. On the menu today, Chiara had taken the lead by bringing out some of her 'Italian Italian' recipes, as Riley would call them. They would all lovingly refer to her as Nonna Chiara when those days came. It was always the best that they ate. Today was no exception, and soon they could hear feet pounding down the steps.

"Yes..." Rosa breathed, mumbling something to her fellow Italian they guessed to be high praise and gratitude. Chiara greeted it with a grin.

"You two," Maya raised her leg from where she sat at the kitchen table, blocking Riley and Dylan's path until they looked at her, her chin planted in her palm and a curious look on her face. "Anything you'd like to share with the class?" she asked. They never looked so perfectly matched as when they would echo one another's smiles. These ones came presently with the tinge of a blush. "That was so sneaky of you, waiting until we were gone?" Maya shook her head.

"It sort of happened out of the blue," Dylan insisted.

"Out of the purple, you mean?" Sophie piped in, assisting Chiara at the stove. That got a chuckle out of a few of them, with thumbs up from Maya.

"Into it," Chiara corrected.

"So, we're neighbors across now," Maya told Riley, lowering her leg again, only to pull at her friend's arm until she came and dropped into her lap, which made Riley laugh.

They had started out neither sideways nor across from one another when the five of them had moved into the house. Then, when Chiara had moved in with them, with Sophie, Riley had swapped rooms with Sophie, bringing her next door to Maya and Lucas. But now... Now she would be with Dylan, across from them.

"We always wanted to live across from each other when we were growing up," Riley turned to Dylan, now sitting with them.

"Which means we have a lot of time to make up," Maya beamed.

"What, like two cans on a string?" Lucas joked, only to get two pairs of eyes turned on him with new intrigue. "Right..." he bowed his head, making the girls laugh together.

"Come on," Riley climbed back to her feet before pulling Maya to her feet and up the stairs again, Dylan following while Rosa looked like she was aiming to get her hands on whatever Chiara and Sophie were up to making.

What up until that morning had been Dylan's room alone, as it had been for two years, was now so different as to be unrecognizable. The change in color counted for much of that of course, but still it wasn't as though they had turned it into a space that only reflected Riley's tastes. The prominent touch of the room, which had started out being his thing alone and now counted a sizable section that was also hers, was the comic bookshelf. There were the books themselves, single issues as well, a few figurines... There was the drawing Riley had commissioned from Maya for Valentine's Day, where Dylan appeared as a Green Lantern, while Riley appeared as a member of the X-Men. The crossing of these two worlds really just fit the two of them, already dating for two thirds of a year. It was almost impossible to think it had been that long since that day so soon after New Year's.

"It all looks great," Maya declared, taking it all in, down to the new bed spread. The room really felt like it was both of theirs, and to see them smiling as they did, both Riley and Dylan seemed very aware of this fact. They were just as aware that this wasn't just a matter of moving their belongings around. This was a step forward for the two of them. If the future was kind to them, then this would be how they lived from this day forward, sharing a space, a bed, day to night and day again and so forth. The rest of their roommates, save for Rosa, had all taken that step, and now this was them, joining in.

"I'm going to see if we're missing anything for lunch," Dylan told the girls before heading out of the room, leaving the old friends on their own.

"So, everything okay there?" Maya asked, reaching to touch the bed spread. They'd checked the texture at the store, knowing Riley would definitely take issue if it was too ticklish or rough or anything like that.

"Yeah, it's perfect, thanks," Riley smiled.

"I'll be the judge of that," Maya declared before dropping to sit on the bed and tipping back. Soon, Riley was at her side. "Feels cozy," Maya declared.

"Isadora called while you guys were out," Riley told her, and Maya turned her head at once, feeling like this was surely really good news or really bad. "She and Farkle went out to the apartment today," Riley went on, and she didn't have to specify which apartment this was. Asher and Ray and Joey and Rebecca... And now Zay.

"How's he doing?" Maya asked.

"They offered to help him unpack, but he didn't want to do it yet, so he's just got a bunch of boxes and bags in the corner of the room, she said," Riley reported. "They tried to get him to go to the park with them to toss the ball around, but he didn't want to go, so they all stayed at the apartment so they could be with him. They mostly just sat and watched whatever they could find on television."

It wasn't coming to feel any better, was it? On the one hand, they had Nadine already with a new roommate about to move in, and on the other, there was Zay just... not being himself, like he didn't know how to be that for now. Did he think maybe something would change again, that he'd be headed back to Boston before long?

When Maya told Riley about Layla moving into Nadine's apartment, her old friend took this much as some of them had done at first. This was good, she wouldn't be alone now. Adding now the fact that Layla was attracted to Nadine, Riley gulped her optimism back down, seeing the potential for trouble as they'd been left to see it, too. Someone could get hurt in all this, more than one probably.

"Should we tell Zay?" she hesitantly asked. Maya tipped her head, feeling very much like this would be a bad idea. "What if he finds out on his own though?" Riley added, and Maya sighed, squeezing her eyes shut. There was no side where this was good. Nothing had happened between Nadine and Layla, and in all likelihood nothing would, but in a situation like this, did it even need to? All it would take would be a possibility and then... And then it could all fall apart.

"I don't know," Maya frowned. Riley looped her arm with hers, leaned her head to her shoulder.

"I wish we could all be in the same city when things like this happen."

"Me, too," Maya breathed out, her legs moving up and down as they would do, the two of them, back in those days, wishing they could live across from one another. Back then, they had both been left so dependent to the fact that they were small children who didn't live that near to one another, despite the fact that Maya took no issue wandering about, or climbing in a stranger's window...

"Think they'll all come back to Texas when they're done with school?"

"Don't think so, I mean... Joey's got the whole Broadway thing now, so that's him and Rebecca both for New York. I think Asher and Ray might come back, but they might not. Farkle and Isadora were never here to come back to, but I don't know, I could see them relocating... To Texas, or somewhere else... And Nadine and..."

She stopped herself, catching herself in the habit of saying two names together who were now separate... Even unsaid, the slip was caught, and Riley looked over to her.

"I don't know... I don't know..." Maya slowly replied, leaving them to lie there in silence for a while.

Zay would be through with school much sooner than Nadine ever would, much like Maya would be done before Lucas by a long while. In two years' time, who knew what he would do, while Nadine was locked for Boston, probably, for as long as she'd still be studying...

"You smell that?" Riley asked after a while. Maya smiled.

"I do. But your new bed is so nice," she settled herself deeper. Riley looked at her as though to say 'but... food...' "Alright, fine," Maya sighed over-dramatically before they got up and headed down the stairs and into the kitchen, taking their seats between Lucas and Dylan.

Maya was just really happy for her friends, for how they had finally come to merge their worlds. She would look to Lucas at her side and she could see he felt the same. Dylan had been a part of his world about as long as Riley had been a part of hers, had been one of those who had seen him through his suspension and how much it had changed his life. He would do all he could to aid in his happiness.

After lunch was through, the body aches of the previous day and present day's morning, coupled with the meal they'd just had, brought their exhaustion deeper into their bones until it took a while before any of them was ready or willing to move. Some of them had to in the end. Sophie and Riley were both working that afternoon, so they went off to get changed before Dylan could drive them out.

As the others set themselves to clearing the table and cleaning the dishes, Maya found herself sharing what Riley had told her about Isadora and the call. The feeling of confusion and helplessness which the girls had felt, up in Riley and Dylan's room, was felt just as deeply here, and the result was the same. They knew that no matter what they did or didn't do, something would go wrong.

"I think they will come through this," Chiara declared. The others looked at her. "They have not let go of one another," she insisted. "That is love, and if there is love, true love, there is trust. Mistakes... Mistakes might happen, yes, but they might not... All we can do is wait, so..." she shrugged.

Her words were unexpectedly reassuring. The distance complicated things, but then they had to remember that Zay and Nadine were their friends, that they knew them. They might not have spent near as much time with each other in the past two years, but they knew each other. Chiara was ready to be hopeful, so maybe they could do the same.

"You guys need a hand with your room?" Rosa asked Maya and Lucas when they were done with the kitchen.

"Sure," Maya smiled. "First, can we see yours?"

TO BE CONTINUED


	188. Their Start For One

They had been to Rosa's house countless times by now, had been in her room just as many times, and always the impression they were left with was that she didn't use this space of hers to put herself, her life, and her accomplishments on display. More than anything, it was the space where she could contemplate and practice all the things that she liked best. Her bass guitar was well on display, near a cushy seat where she could sit and play. The top of her dresser was a mountain of movies and tv shows, and her closet was much less about her clothing - of which there was a surprisingly small amount - and more about stocking books, which would have seemed silly only if one managed to miss the wall lined with four very stocked bookshelves. Her bed would hardly ever be made, like there were so many better things to do, though on the whole she kept a neat room.

Since moving into the house with them, into the room she had briefly shared with Riley, she hadn't really unpacked, almost like she knew to wait until her 'room roomie' moved herself across the hall where she was already planning to go. Many of her things, including the shelves, remained stored in the basement. When she had been packing up at her house, she'd looked uncertain about being able to take it all with her at first, like it felt like too much.

"You're not a guest, Rosa, it's going to be your house, too. You bring all you want," Riley had told her. So that was what she did.

Now that she found herself the sole resident of the room next door to Maya and Lucas, everything had been brought up, slowly but surely, enabling her to recreate her space, or rather to create what she wanted for herself as she moved forward from living in her mother's house to her first home away from her.

Whatever they might have imagined, Maya, Lucas, all of them, as they'd get their chance to see, their first impression was that this was Rosa really exploring new possibilities, like her old room had just grown out of constant evolutions and now she had cleared the board for the first time in forever, and she had started from a blank canvas.

Of course, she hadn't changed so much that her book collection was no longer the focal point of her room. These weren't her old shelves though, no. These were brand new, bigger, taller, so they'd be able to hold the perilous piles from her closet, too. They had been a graduation present from her mother, and to see how excited Rosa had been to get them, there was no doubt this was exactly what she had wanted.

She hadn't finished loading the shelves, from what Maya and Lucas discovered when she brought them in. There were several small boxes stacked around the newly assembled shelves, five of them now, two on one side of the room, three on the other. She was in the process of working out what would go where, which looked like an endeavor that would occupy the most of several hours, long into the evening, by the way she was going on about it, but she looked happy to be caught up in that chaos.

Yet another, slimmer bookcase had also come into play, this one to hold her DVDs, and it was along the side panel of this unit that they spotted what had never been a part of the old room. Pictures. As it sat between the loft bed and Rosa's desk, she had it turned so that the open sides could be reached from her desk or her bed - top or bottom. This left the side plain, so she had filled it with snapshots of her friends. Many showed her with the rest of TXNY, others with Lucas and Pete at the store, or with Joseph Hillard, with her mother...

"Is that..." Maya asked, crouching as she spotted pictures of a small girl near the bottom of the panel, as raven haired as Rosa, perched on the shoulder of a man looking up at her with such a smile as it matched hers, even as his hair matched hers. There was little doubt who they had to be, but it was as they saw the picture... pictures, actually... that they realized how in all the time they had known her, they had never seen pictures of Rosa's childhood, or of her father. But there he was.

"Yeah, that's him, that's... Ludovico Del Vecchio, my dad..."

"You look so much like him," Lucas stated, crouching to look, too. "You didn't have these up before," he pointed out, which was a better way to inquire as to why she didn't show these back when she lived with her mother.

They had always known the situation with Rosa and her parents, of course, at least as far as she or her mother would volunteer. One day, he had flown off back to Italy on his own, to visit old friends, as he'd told his wife and daughter. He was meant to be gone a week, he'd been calling, keeping in touch all through those days... Then on the sixth day he didn't call. The next day, the day he was meant to fly home, they didn't hear from him either.

For a time, it had been believed that he had gone missing, that something had happened to him, maybe he'd been hurt, or... Tracy Coleman, Tracy Del Vecchio at the time, had done her best to shield her young daughter from this, saying that Papa was just not able to get to a phone, that there were issues with the lines, which worked fine at first, but after a week, two weeks, a month... Rosa knew something had to be wrong, but surely if it was really bad her mother would say something.

And then, he had called.

The call had been short, and all Tracy had been able to get was that her husband was alive, and he wasn't coming home. There had not been any more than that, and after weeks of worrying over her husband, this news had hit Rosa's mother like such a blow that, when Rosa had dared to ask about her father, she'd been told her father was gone, that he'd left them, in a blunt way Tracy Coleman would later admit to not recall. But from there on the subject of Ludovico Del Vecchio was one the mother would despise, and the daughter evaded.

But now here he was, in pictures that showed him as a love and a light in his young daughter's life. They could guess how she might not have displayed him at home, but even here, what did it even mean? He had left Rosa, too, of course, and their initial awareness of her feelings toward him seemed to track with her mother's, but then one song in the middle of a TXNY practice had enlightened Maya to the truth that Rosa might not have crossed off her father so neatly as her mother had done. If anyone could understand that, especially now, it was Maya, but to their knowledge, Rosa had not established contact with him again.

"I took them out of our albums years ago," Rosa told them before admitting, "I was scared she might throw them out or burn them or something."

The more they looked around her new room, it did feel like she had set it upon herself to take ownership of both her parents again. She had her mother in their shared love for books, of course, the one thing which had sustained them even in the years where they would come to clash, but now she reclaimed her father in other details, like the photos of him and her, and a few careworn trinkets and wall hangings which highlighted her Italian heritage, something she'd seemed content to display in little more than her surname for a time but now grew increasingly attached to.

"The room looks great, Rosa," Maya finally declared, and the smile on the younger girl's face showed how much her approval meant to her. If they were like family to her, then Maya was the older sister she'd never had to look up to. "Is it going to be okay when your mother comes and sees it?" she had to ask.

"I think so, I... It's complicated, but it's not the same as it used to be," she insisted with a nod.

On her desk, they saw her textbooks had already found their space, unlike the many novels and other books destined for the tall shelves. They knew she was excited to start college, though this priority given to the placement of those particular books seemed to show she might have been looking forward to it even more than they realized. She remained undecided and thus undeclared, but that didn't look to be slowing her down.

"You already identified them and everything," Lucas stated. The girls turned to him.

"Is that a bad thing? I don't care if they think I'm a nerd because of it," Rosa shrugged.

"He probably means more because Sophie usually does this for all of us," Maya clarified, and Rosa's face shifted into understanding followed by hesitation. Maybe she shouldn't have done it, let Sophie do it? "It's fine, it'll be fine, just, you know... I mean you did a great job on those... Probably shouldn't tell her that..."

"Hey, Maya?" Rosa spoke as she and Lucas were about to leave the room, a couple minutes later. Maya turned back. "Do you think maybe you could help me with something for the band?" Rosa asked, looking a new kind of shy.

"Sure, what is it?" Maya asked. Rosa hesitated for a moment before moving to retrieve a piece of paper she'd tucked between two of her new textbooks. She brought it over, slowly handing it out to Maya, who took it with curiosity. One quick look at the structure of the text on the page and she figured out what it was. "You wrote a song?" Maya smiled back up at her.

"It's not done, far from that, I just started working on it the other night. I've never written anything like this before so I figured you might be able to..." she gestured.

"Happy to," Maya promised, moving to sit on the bed for a moment, reading over the words, scribbled over and over in places, replacing scratched out others.

"It's for Riley," Rosa revealed as she came and sat, too. "To sing, I mean. Kind of like you wrote ones for me, and for Willow... It's sort of meant to be a way to say thanks for what she did, taking me into the room, giving it to me... Only if I can make it into something good, I mean I'm not..."

"Hey, I wasn't the one writing the songs in the beginning, you know?" Maya shook her head. "I'll take a look and then you tell me what..."

They paused and looked up when Lucas appeared in the doorway.

"We should get started in our room if we want to be done before we have to go to work later, yeah?" he asked, pointing back toward their room. Maya and Rosa both got up.

"Can I..." Maya held up the sheet and Rosa nodded. "Great, come on," she led Rosa out and over to hers and Lucas' room.

Their blue room was all set, just waiting to be made into something more than furniture and other belongings sitting in the middle of the room, out of reach of the paint. So, the three roommates got to work, soon aided by Chiara.

TO BE CONTINUED


	189. Their Start For Here & Now

“This is going to sound so weird, especially after all this, but…”

“You’re going to miss the way it was before?”

“Kinda, yeah… But I love this way, too…”

Flipping over from her back on to her stomach, Maya propped herself up on her elbows to look at Lucas. They were exhausted, which would make both their jobs a bit harder once they clocked in for the evening, but it was the kind of exhausted that came along after accomplishing something huge, so it didn’t feel so bad as it could.

“What about you?” she asked him.

“How do I feel about it?” he wondered, and she nodded. “I feel like… we did exactly what we’d set out to do,” he told her. “To make this space feel brand-new all over again before we start the… back half of our time here. We did that. I love that, no matter how we make this room look, it still feels like us, you know?” She responded merely by looking at him, planting her face in the palm of her hand. “See, you’re giving me that ‘you are such a nerd’ look,” he pointed at her, which made her break into a laugh.

“Well, you are though,” she shrugged. “But that’s another thing I love, so…”

“Right,” he smiled.

It wasn’t as though they had twenty-two boxes of books to unpack, as Rosa did, but it did get to be something of a sizable task to look at their room and decide how they wanted to organize things in a way that would be notably different from the old set up but at the same time remaining entirely functional, practical… Saving themselves any extraneous efforts, Maya and Lucas had set about drawing a plan before moving any one thing or another.

They would move around their collected possessions, pushed together in the middle of the room, and covered up to prevent splashes while they’d been painting. Maya would have her notepad and pencil, scribbling about, while Lucas would follow her with his measuring tape at the ready, to get any dimensions checked where necessary, with the aid of Rosa or Chiara.

“Right, I think that’s it, that’s everything, yeah?” Maya had finally shown them her completed plan.

Slowly but surely, everything had been taken to its new place according to the plan. It had been calculated a lot better than they might have expected, and once they were completely done, what they were left to say was that the room was just as they could want it. Thanks to a strategically positioned shelf, just under the window, they had then set their desks at either end, putting them back to back to one another in such a way that the whole thing felt U-shaped, not unlike the couch downstairs, and they could turn and meet in the middle, but also keep focused and not distract one another.

They had set the bed in a corner, though not exactly _in_ the corner, more turned so that both sides remained accessible. Maya particularly felt as though this enabled a certain sense of cosiness, as they’d furnished ‘the night corner.’ Lucas could still see Maya’s mind working, inspecting the possibility of installing some kind of curtain or canopy to further isolate the space, like some nagging little thought that wouldn’t go away.

When they had moved in, already their room here showed plenty of who they had been before, who they had grown to be from the time they had come into one another’s lives, all the way through finishing high school and ending up here, in Houston. Over the last two years, they had added plenty of their new lives to the room, to the walls, the displays growing in such an organic way that it had felt almost sacrilegious to take it all down and put it back in any way that might be overly organized instead, but there was no way to be organic on purpose and have it come off that way either. What they ended up with in the end was simply what the entire room revamp had been about, to note the passing of time and gear up for the second half of those four years with renewed vigor.

After the last of it had been done, and Rosa and Chiara had gone and left them on their own, Maya and Lucas had ended up here, sat on their bed, looking around, getting used to the new view… It would take some getting used to, sure, but they’d both expected it, so now here they were.

“Do you even remember what it was like to _not_ live together?” Maya asked. Lucas considered this for a moment, really genuinely gave it some thought, even as she expressed her thoughts on her own question. “It all sort of feels like… I have memories, so many of them, but I’m sort of detached from all of them, you know? Like, I remember when my arm was broken, I remember having to wear that clunky cast for all those weeks and how complicated it was to do things with it, but… I don’t remember the feeling of it anymore.”

“I wish we didn’t have to remember that whole situation at all,” Lucas frowned to himself. He hadn’t been the one with the cast, but oh he remembered how he felt whenever he saw it on her arm, like that old pain had been packed away long ago but was always willing and able to pop back up again at a moment’s notice.

“Alright, maybe that was a bad example,” Maya frowned apologetically, taking his hand in hers and pressing a kiss into his palm. “But you get what I’m saying.”

“I do,” Lucas nodded. “I don’t remember too much of being on my own anymore, I don’t miss it either,” he added, making her smile. “I remember sort of… really wanting _not_ to be on my own anymore,” he looked at her after a beat. Her smile melted into laughter, which only really got him going along with her. “I remember… the first morning I got to wake up next to you.”

“I remember that, too,” she beamed. “The guest room at Sophie’s. I remember the night, too, getting into that bed, feeling like I was being all grown up and bold…” she intoned dramatically, to which he gave an approving nod. “It wasn’t the same though, not that one, or all the ones when we were in Europe, or after the trip, at my parents’ house or yours… The first one we spent up here, in this room, that was different, it was… resetting all the counters down to one and then starting. I know that, the first night we spend, wherever we end up after this, when we have a place of our own… It’s going to be just as memorable.”

The last few days of summer went by in the blink of an eye after the whole room revamp project was officially done. Each day that ended felt like it had only just started, and then they’d be starting all over again. But finally, the morning came, and the thing that they were looking forward to was class.

“You hear that?” Maya asked Lucas when he was awake along with her.

“Mmm?”

“Rosa’s downstairs already, pretty sure she’s making breakfast… And she was already awake for a while when _I_ woke up.”

“Losing your touch?” he smirked.

“She’s just excited for today,” Maya frowned at him, only so long as she could manage before the smile won out. “I hope it goes alright for her…” Rosa was never exactly what one would call a social butterfly, and she’d spent a good chunk of her time in high school keeping to herself. Eventually she had made a couple of friends, but that had not lasted so long, and then there’d been Joseph, so it just figured that when she finally made a friendship that lasted, it would be with someone younger than her who was still in high school now that she’d moved on.

“Maybe she’ll meet some fans and make friend with them,” Lucas suggested with optimism.

“Is that really the best idea? What if they’re not really…” she started to say, only to be cut off.

“Sophie, Franny, Kayla…” he counted off on his fingers.

“Alright, well they’re special, that’s not the same,” she protested, to which he smirked. “But I’ve dealt with those people who wanted to be my ‘friends,’ right up until I saw through what they really wanted, and then they lost interest real quick. Rosa might not see through them like that, and I don’t want her getting hurt, especially not when she’s so looking forward to all of it.”

“She’ll get through it,” Lucas assured her. “I know she’s like all of our little sister but she’s not a kid.” Maya sighed, seeing in her mind’s eye the girl’s room, next door to theirs, the books now on display, along with all those personal touches, the very signs of her growth. It was so easy for them to want to protect her, when in truth she didn’t need them to do it.

So, they went down the stairs, Trix and Lou trailing on their heels. They found the third of the dogs down in the kitchen along with their chef for the morning. Peanut had really taken to Rosa from the day she’d moved in, to the point where he felt much more _her_ dog than anyone else’s. The transfer had happened so effortlessly that it couldn’t be denied.

“Hey! Good morning!” Rosa beamed when she saw them. “Sit, I made coffee.”

“How many of it did you already have?” Maya asked curiously.

“Only a little,” Rosa promised, though they doubted her definition of ‘a little.’ There could really be a whole debate as to whether her buzz was carried on the merits of caffeine or her own giddiness over the start of the semester… possibly it was both. “Waffles or eggs? Unless you want something else, I can make something else.”

“Here, why don’t you sit, I’ve got it,” Lucas stepped up. When Rosa moved to protest, insisting she didn’t mind doing it, he bypassed this by pointing out that it was a special day for her, so this would be like their celebration of sorts. So, finally, she went and sat at the table with Maya, pulling Peanut on to her lap.

“By the way, I won’t be driving in with you guys this morning,” Rosa told Maya, who received this news with clear surprise, to which Rosa quickly went about responding. “Well, it’s just you know Joseph’s friend, Clint? His older sibling Leigh is starting today, too. We’ve hung out a few times at the Hillards’ and all that, so we figured we’d go in together today, back each other up. Anyway, they’re picking me up.”

Maya could practically see the smirk on Lucas’ face, back turned or not, as they saw her concerns over Rosa, being out there on her own, suddenly allowed to vanish. At the very least, it allowed her to shake off this sort of mom vibe that seemed to creep up on her at times, where Rosa was involved.

The kitchen table soon filled out with its humans in their seats and the dogs underfoot. With Sophie not following them to school anymore, and Rosa having her own ride, it left five of them to go in together, four students and one Dylan, which in itself solved the potential issue of one or two too many for a single car, so long as it continued to be that way.

“Don’t look at me like that, you know you wanted to drive her, too,” Maya told Lucas, catching the look on his face as he looked at her, after Leigh had come to pick up Rosa.

As far as the two of them were concerned, they both had class early on that first day, both of them were locked solid for most of the morning, in fact. But then after all that was behind them, they also both had a sizable enough break that they could meet up and have a normal, non-rushed lunch together before carrying on with the rest of their days. This would lead to another class, and then work for both of them, so really the lunch break was something they knew they’d be looking forward to whenever Mondays rolled around.

“How was _your_ morning?” Maya asked, when he and Bishop came out of class and found her waiting. Lucas smiled and kissed her hello.

“I’ll just shake your hand or something,” Bishop smiled as they parted.

“Please, we’re huggers and you know it,” Maya moved up to hug him. He was so tall and imposing, while she was so small and not, and they both recognized and appreciated the visual to anyone else who’d see them embrace. “Feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“You saw him like a week ago,” Lucas pointed out.

“Please, I see most of my friends every day on account of we live together. Anything more than five hours feels like an eternity.”

Once they parted ways with Bishop, with him and Maya playing up the split with the drama entailed by her previous comment, Lucas locked hands with his girlfriend.

“Classes were good, first one is going to be rough early on the first day after weekends, then I had Uncle Hank, he says hello, and I think it’s going to be my favorite class of the semester again,” he rattled off, then, off her look, “I just know you had your first class as TA this morning and I want to hear about it. I’m sure you want to talk about it, too.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I want to hear about your morning in detail as much as you want to hear about mine,” she smiled.

“Sorry, I know,” he nodded.

“Since you asked, this morning went great. I mean it was sort of nerve-wracking, but in a good way.”

She’d met a few times with Professor Robinson in the last few weeks, in preparation for the start of the semester, the start of her taking up the position as teacher’s assistant, and Maya had been absolutely dedicated to going in from the start and being what the professor required of her. Even so, there had been that layer of the unknown, no way around that, and Lucas was well aware of it. A few times, he had volunteered himself for a bit of roleplay, to allow her to get the unknown out of her system, although that never lasted very long. She’d be fine with actual students, but with him it always sooner or later degenerated into giggles and certain activities she most certainly wouldn’t be using in the context of the job…

“Good,” Lucas smiled that smile she was so happy to recognize, that ‘I knew you’d do great, I’m so proud of you’ look. It never got old. “Tell me more.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	190. Her Rhythm of Days

Much as that first day of the semester felt all important and huge, sooner or later it did as all the other days had to do. It ended, and then a new day started, and another, and another, until finally they were through with the Friday of the third week and another weekend was coming along. By now, the new semester had found its legs and knew how to walk, to run. They no longer had to think about where they had to go every day or when... In some ways, it was a lot like the whole not remembering how it felt to live apart thing. As far as they were concerned, it was as though they had been following this schedule for ages.

Lucas was almost sad to have to go back to those minimal hours down at the clinic now that he was in school again. Over the summer, he'd been there almost every day, further proving to himself and anyone else who would watch and listen to him that he was right where he was meant to be. Maya had taken noted pleasure of pointing out how he would be, whenever he got home from the clinic, going around with such joy in him as couldn't be denied.

"You know I'm not making fun of you, right?" she once asked, looking up at him as though she dared him to say otherwise. There was no need for that. He knew her face better than to think anything but that she was thrilled for him.

Maya had been in a good place, too, in this time, which made for compounded happiness whenever the two of them were together. The TA job was much different than what she had been doing with the professor over the previous year, but it was no less motivating. And it put her in the position to test the waters, to put herself in the position of teacher for a little while, whether or not the context was the same or even close at all. She knew Professor Robinson enough now that she only needed to look at her to know whether she was satisfied about something or not, and she was very much satisfied about the appointment of her new TA, which made Maya happier than she expected it would.

Of course, she was seeing more and more of Patty Robinson now that Pappy Joe was living out in Houston with the Hillards. He had instituted weekly dinners, where Lucas and Maya would head over to the house, and more often than not, Patty would be there, too, another guest. Other times, either Lucas or Maya or both of them together would find themselves having lunch with the pair on campus, whenever Pappy Joe came to visit his traveling friend. It was almost impossible to resist teasingly crooning that Patty was his ‘giiiirlfriend’ whenever he was out of earshot.

They had another one of those dinners at the Hillards’ the following night, but they would spend most of the day leading up to it going through chores and a bit of schoolwork, where they still had anything to do. They would also spend it with a ‘special guest’ in the house.

“Thank you, really,” Willow breathed as she set Zola’s car seat on the ground between herself and Maya as she arrived to drop her off. The diaper bag was set down next, along with another containing a few bottles. “I know it’s your day off…”

“You know no one in this house is ever going to refuse the chance to babysit this girl,” Maya promised.

“I know,” Willow smiled. “We’ll be back to get her before dinner time.”

“Got it,” Maya told her. Willow crouched to say goodbye to the five-month-old before rising to hug her friend and bandmate and scurry back to the car where Lion waited.

Soon, Maya had the babe out of her seat and in her arms. Zola was an easy baby to love, and all the same, when she was with someone she knew, someone she felt at ease with, she would be all smiles and giddy noises. Maya went up the stairs with her, taking her to the room where Lucas was presently doing some reading for his uncle’s class. When he heard the creak of a floorboard, he turned his head and saw them there.

“Do you need me to keep her downstairs or…” Maya asked.

“No, it’s fine,” Lucas assured her, smiling.

So, Maya sat on the bed, setting Zola securely before her and reaching for her sketchbook and pencil. Lately, she had been feeling as though she had not been doing nearly as much of drawing just for the sake of it, and she’d been looking for opportunities to remedy that. Immortalizing the little one before her felt as good of a cause as any. Then again, it was hard to make much progress when the subject was cute beyond words and kept making equally cute faces up at you. Before long, the sketchbook and pencil were set aside in favor of leaning forward, catching one tiny hand between each of her thumbs and index fingers, and speaking sweetly with the tiny girl as though she had any means of responding.

At the sound of a snort, Maya turned her eyes up to find that Lucas, even though he gave every semblance of being deep in concentration over his reading, had a smirk on her face.

“Are you mocking me, sir?” she asked, in the same voice she’d been using with Zola. He didn’t respond, scrunching his face as though in additional levels of concentration. This only declared the challenge activated where Maya was concerned, so she got up from the bed, scooping up the baby in her arms before moving to go and sit in her own desk chair, facing the turned back for a moment before reaching out her foot and deftly forcing him to turn. “Try and pretend to this,” she dared, turning Zola about until he could see her face.

“You know, I hadn’t noticed before, but she really has Willow’s eyes, doesn’t she?” he replied, smiling, making a face that made the baby coo. Maya looked down at her, and she knew he was right. In those last few months, her features had absolutely gone and started defining themselves. Lion kept telling them how Zola had clear ‘Obi ears’ on her. The rest seemed up for debate.

“You’re just trying to dodge,” Maya looked back up to Lucas, who gave a casual shrug. “Fine, then we’re going to take our business elsewhere. Come on, Zozo,” she got up and carried herself and the little one out of the room, on the lookout for anyone else who might not be busy. “No Uncle Dylan or Aunt Riley over here,” she looked to the room across the hall before going down the hall.

Peeking into Rosa’s room, she could see the girl laid out on her bed – the bottom one – belly down, raised up on her elbows as she wrote away in one of her notebooks, constantly looking over to the open textbook in front of her. From the fact that she hadn’t looked up – and from the large headphones planted over her ears – Maya guessed it was best not to disturb her, so she moved on.

The initial giddiness over starting college had somewhat worn off over the past three weeks, as far as Rosa was concerned, though it didn’t in any way mean that she’d lost her drive. Though she remained undeclared, she absolutely loved the classes she had picked, and she was just thriving. The more days and weeks went by, with Rosa living away from home, living here in the house, her own life by her own rules, the more it felt to everyone else that she was coming further into her own. She was discovering parts of herself she had not been able to express before. It wasn’t that her mother had stood in the way of any of it, more like Rosa herself had been the gated and the gate, because she somehow felt she had to be.

Turning to the open door across the hall, Maya found Chiara sitting at her desk, headphones on as she watched a video from her family back in Italy, while Sophie sat on their bed with a large textbook open in her lap. The moment either of them noticed their roommate – and the baby girl in her arms – they dropped what they were doing and came up like two aunties descending upon little Zola. In no time, she was in Chiara’s arm, being spoken to in Italian, as the girl insisted that she would pick up on it quickly, while Sophie grasped a dangling little foot and shook it gently.

It was still strange, not having Sophie with them at school. It wasn’t like they usually saw so much of each other, though they always managed to have one if not two classes with their roommates over one semester or another. Still, it wasn’t long before they genuinely got to feel that absence. Chiara, especially, had found it hard not to have her girlfriend around, her truest touchstone at the school, and the rest of them had really taken to rally around her to try and make things a bit easier.

Sophie, meanwhile, was picking up the pace over at the academy. It was rough, as she’d quickly learned, though it had taken her about a week to admit it to the rest of them. She wasn’t giving up, not at all, but she needed to adjust herself, to figure out how she would get through it all, to get to the other end and finally become what she’d known all this time she was meant to become. After that admission to the others, it _had_ gotten to feel like she could finally breathe, move forward, and it was just what she needed.

“She is growing up so fast, I do not understand it,” Chiara breathed, shaking her head at the babe. Zola’s eyes seemed to follow her wherever her head turned, which made Chiara laugh.

“It was the same way with my siblings, I still can’t believe my sisters are four now, I…” Maya was saying, when she heard her name called up from downstairs. The fretful tone was so familiar to her that she hardly needed to tell herself that the voice belonged to Riley. “Be right back,” she told her roommates, absently touching Zola’s head as she left her in Chiara’s arms and hurried down the stairs, only to meet Riley – Dylan right behind – at the landing.

“Woah, hey, what’s up, you look like…” Maya started, only to be cut off.

“We were out walking the dogs, stopped at the park, you know,” Riley started off, sounding as though they might have run right back, from the park by the breathlessness of her voice. “And then my mom called to say that she and Dad and August were all driving over to visit today.”

“Take a breath,” Maya insisted. “I don’t see what the…” She paused. “Wait… You still haven’t told them, have you?” She hadn’t realized it at first, which had led to a near slip of the tongue on their last visit to Austin to see their families, but she’d figured out then that Riley hadn’t told her parents about how she and Dylan were now living in the same room. And now, by the way she was reacting to the upcoming visit, she was making a new realization, which was that things had not changed since then.

“I meant to, I did,” Riley told her. “And then I just… didn’t… But now they’re definitely going to know, and I don’t know why I’m freaking out, but I am freaking out…” Maya turned to look at Dylan who, as ever, took his lead from his girlfriend.

“Alright, well it’s fine, I mean it’s not a big deal, they were going to know sooner or later, right?” Maya tried to be optimistic. It didn’t seem to help a whole lot. “It’ll be fine,” Maya promised again. “I swear,” she bowed her head, as though to ask if she’d ever let Riley down. This, at least, seemed to do the trick. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	191. Her Rhythm of Work

It was not the first time they’d had to ready themselves and the house for an unexpected parental visit since they’d moved to Houston. Actually, it had happened so many times by now that they had long lost the count. Always, they found out, if they hadn’t been in the room to hear it was happening, by the calling of the same words.

“Clocking two!” Riley shouted, cutting around Maya to go up the rest of the stairs. Translation: We have a minimum of two hours to make things happen. “Guys! My family’s on its way, we… hey!” her tone softened immediately when Sophie and Chiara came stepping out of their room and she spotted Zola, now in Sophie’s arms.

“What do you need?” Sophie asked.

“I can make something,” Chiara offered.

“Oh, would you?” Riley breathed with a new relief. Sophie passed her the baby, the better to go help her girlfriend. No sooner had she gotten a proper hold of Zola did Maya take Willow and Lion’s daughter from her.

“You have things to do, and you won’t be able to do much of it if you’re going around with her. Go on, I’ll let Rosa know,” Maya told her, tapping her ear to indicate why she’d have to do it, even as Lucas joined them in the hall. “Can you…” she nodded after Riley and Dylan, who’d gone into their room. Translation: Can you help them/make sure they don’t go off the rails?

“Yeah,” he nodded, agreeing that this was definitely a possibility, before going after their friends.

“Of all the days, right?” Maya looked down to Zola, who stretched up her little hand and grasped on to her bottom lip. “Yeah, I know,” Maya mumbled under the ‘strong’ grip before moving into Rosa’s room. She had to reach down and wave her hand somewhere in the girl’s line of sight before she’d startle and look up, pulling her headphones down around her neck.

“Hey, what’s…” she started to ask, a smile blooming on her face at the sight of Willow’s girl.

“Clocking two for Riley,” Maya cut her off.

“What?” Rosa frowned.

“Oh, right, you’ve never had one of these,” Maya sighed, shaking her head to herself. “Her parents are on their way, we need to get everything ready, if you can help…”

“Oh!” Rosa got up at once, closing her books and bringing them to rest neatly on her desk. “What do you need?”

“Chiara and Sophie are handling the food, want to see if they need an extra pair of hands?” Maya suggested. At once, Rosa hurried past her and down the stairs. “Now you, Miss Z, you are looking super cute already, don’t get me wrong, but I just so happen to have a couple new things I saw the other day, and I’d been meaning to give them to your mom and dad. What do you think? Want to try them on, see what Mr. & Mrs. Matthews say when they see you? They haven’t even met you yet, but they know all about you. Yeah, they do,” she smiled, walking back down the hall to her room. “They’ve seen a bunch of pictures, and videos. You’re like a star. Zola Obi, second of her name, first of her kind.”

Getting Zola changed was a breeze, though even once it was done and she looked even cuter than she’d done before – if such a thing was possible – it was hard for Maya do pull herself away from just looking at her and playing around with her when she really was needed elsewhere, helping the others get ready. Finally, she had to go and see where she might be needed, which started a bit of a chain of hand-offs, with Zola as the ball, passed from one holder to another.

Joining Lucas, Riley, and Dylan, Maya found that they were starting their usual ‘parental check’ upstairs, before working their way downstairs. As ever, the house was actually clean, nothing much left out of place, so it shouldn’t be taking too long, but then there were just those times when they had to go the extra mile. They had all had one of those, when they felt they really needed to impress, so they were never left without sympathetic assistance.

“I’m gonna go see how it’s going down there,” Maya told the others, Zola back in her arms, as they were attempting to wrangle the dogs to give them a bath in the basement bathroom. To be sure, Trix, Lou, and Peanut all actually really liked having their baths… maybe a bit too much. If they didn’t watch the door, they’d have a bunch of wet dogs running all over the place in no time.

She only had to approach the kitchen to start getting a sense of how it was going in there. In short, it was smelling wonderful.

“How did you do all that already?” Maya blinked.

“I imagine I am on one of those cooking competition shows,” Chiara smiled proudly. “The ticking of the clock.”

“Are you missing anything, I can run to the store,” Maya offered.

“I think we’re okay, right?” Sophie turned to Chiara, who was absolutely the boss in the kitchen today, like many other days.

“Actually, maybe a few things,” Chiara inspected the containers on the counter.

A few minutes later, Maya was heading out with Rosa in tow. Zola had been left to the attention of Pacifier Guy. Even as they left, Maya wasn’t sure why Rosa had come, seeing as she really didn’t need any help to go and acquire three things that would easily and lightly fit in a single bag, but then she figured there could only be one reason: the enabling of private conversation.

“So?” she asked, looking to Rosa expectantly. The girl reached in her pocket, pulling out a small case containing her earbuds. She connected them to her phone and handed one bud to Maya, setting the other in her own ear. She tapped at her screen, and a moment later a very bare acoustic song began. Maya recognized her bandmate’s playing even before she heard her voice.

She didn’t have to ask what this was. As soon as Rosa had gone for the earbuds, Maya knew what this would be. Riley’s song.

This whole time, all she knew was that Rosa was working on it, refining it. It had been meant as a token of gratitude for all that Riley had done in sharing her room for the first little while that Rosa had lived with them. But it was also her first attempt at writing a song, and she wanted to get it perfect before she showed it to anyone. Maya knew as much, and she respected it. She had been aware of the slow progress, of course. She was the only one in the house who even knew that Rosa was doing this, so even though she wouldn’t actually tell anyone about it, she would tell Maya about how she would be stuck at one point, or that she’d had a breakthrough at another… She had shown that one sheet to Maya at first, and Maya had given her opinion, some pointers… After that, Rosa wanted to keep going on her own.

The completed product was so far from what Maya had been handed that first day. Still, it had something to it that was at once so truly Rosa and at the same time just fit Riley perfectly. By the time it was done, she was speechless, something that Rosa took in with hesitation, thinking maybe she didn’t like it and was now looking for a way to let her down easy.

“I-I just thought, I know Riley’s nervous today, with her parents coming. I don’t think she even told them about her moving in with Dylan…”

“She didn’t,” Maya confirmed.

“Right, so… I thought it would be a good time for her to get the song, either before or after, I don’t know yet…”

“That’s a good idea,” Maya smiled before taking hold of her bandmate’s arm. “Rosa, that was so good.” Her smile bloomed up from the depths.

“It was?” Rosa asked.

“Yeah,” Maya laughed. “Are you kidding right now? She is going to flip,” she promised, imitating her best friend’s excited face. Now Rosa laughed, too.

They spent the rest of the walk to and from the store discussing how they might break down the song, what instrument Willow should go with for this one… They hadn’t had one yet, but the new mother had recently told them that, whichever show they did next, she would make her return to the stage. After nearly half a year of looking after Zola, she was finally ready.

“Don’t tell anyone, right?” Rosa asked Maya when they returned. Maya handed her the bag from the grocery store.

“You got it,” she promised. Once inside, Rosa headed back to the kitchen, while Maya went to see how the others had fared with Operation Dog Bath.

Standing at the top of the basement stairs, she could hear voices and barks and splashes from downstairs to suggest that things were very much in progress. She went upstairs to her room, looking to get herself changed, only to find Lucas back at his desk, and his reading, all the while holding the sleeping Zola to his chest.

“Want to sit there for a while so I can sketch this?” Maya joked in a whisper. He looked up.

“I’m all for being a patron of the arts, but I think our friends need us to help,” he whispered back. “I’m only here because…” he indicated Zola.

“That much left to do?” Maya asked, doubtful.

“Depends how things end up with the dogs, I guess.”

“Definitely don’t go down there for that, you’ll probably need a shower afterward. Riley and Dylan definitely will.”

“We’re saving water,” Lucas suggested, and she bit back a laugh for Zola’s sake.

“Exactly.”

Maya changed to welcome the Matthews family. Once she was done, Lucas passed Zola carefully over to her and did the same. Maya was more than happy to hold the girl right then. There was something special about holding the sleeping child, she couldn’t explain it. She’d felt it with Zola, with MJ, the twins…

As predicted, Riley and Dylan emerged from the basement in serious need of a shower of their own. The trio of pups came along looking and smelling refreshed, straight out of some canine spa, but the others not so much. So, the house’s newest couple disappeared up the stairs. Riley called back, inquiring to the state of this thing or that thing as she went, especially as she checked her phone to find that her mother had texted to tell her they’d be there in twenty minutes… fifteen minutes ago.

“What do we do?” Dylan asked, looking as startled as his girlfriend.

“You go upstairs and get cleaned up now, we’ll stall if we have to,” Maya pointed up at them. “Go!” They went.

“How about you?” Lucas looked to the kitchen. Sophie, Chiara and Rosa all emerged and started for the stairs.

“Everything is ready, kept warm until it is time to eat,” Chiara reported.

“And now it’s just us,” Maya breathed, just as Zola woke up and gave a good cry. “Oh, hey, what’s the matter, do you…” she raised her up to get a sniff. “Diaper seems okay, you hungry? Okay, let’s go,” she moved to the kitchen.

They were always glad to have their families over, they were, but in times like these it was so much of a rush that they were only really looking forward to their guests being gone again, the better to sit and breathe. It also made them feel part of any active stress, and today of course there was some of that going on, with Riley and Dylan and the secret left to be shared. They had to breathe. All would be well.

TO BE CONTINUED


	192. Her Rhythm of Home

“Hey, there’s your parents out there, too,” Lucas called back, a moment after informing Maya that the Matthews’ car was pulling up. She came scurrying up to the window.

“What?” It was just as he said it. Coming up just behind the first car, there was her parents’ car, and as they approached, both Maya and Lucas could see the twins in the back, and a bit of MJ’s car seat. “I didn’t… Do we have enough to… Chiara!” she turned to shout up the stairs, doing her best to cover Zola’s ears. When the girl appeared on the landing, Maya informed her of their unexpected extra guests and asked if what she and Sophie and Rosa had prepared would be enough.

“I…” Chiara hesitated, pausing to make some kind of quick count in her head. “I will figure something out,” she promised before calling after Sophie in Italian, asking her to come down into the kitchen. Rosa followed right behind.

“We are going to have a serious conversation about surprises today, yes we are,” Maya sighed, looking down to Zola for a moment before turning to Lucas. “Can you…” she started, but he seemed to get what she was thinking, as he ran up to the second floor. They had to see what was the status of Riley and Dylan’s getting ready after they’d dealt with the dogs. When the doorbell rang, Zola gave off a small cry. “I know, I got you, Zozo,” she lightly kissed the girl’s head before moving to answer the door.

If anything, the prominence of the tiny babe nestled in Maya’s arm was about as good of an ice breaker as they could ask for. It also ate up several needed minutes for the pair getting ready upstairs, and for the trio working away in the kitchen to compensate for their extra guests. For her part, Maya was caught up in the chaos of incoming parents, incoming siblings, the introduction of Zola… The spell finally broke, and Maya was able to ask the all-consuming question as to why no one had informed them that it would be Riley’s family and Maya’s, too.

When this was met with vagueness and a suggestion that they only felt like seeing her, too, Maya was instantly suspicious. No, no, something was going on, and she had to know.

“Where is everyone?” August inquired, the first one to actually stop and realize that they had only seen two of the house’s seven residents in all this time.

“Uh, there was a thing with the dogs, Riley and Dylan took care of that, so they’ll be down in a few minutes, I think,” Maya replied with a confident nod, all the while attempting not to lose her balance as her sisters crowded on her legs. “And the others are finishing things up in the kitchen for lunch,” she pointed, yelping as she almost tripped, only to find her footing again, clamping her arms around the four-year-olds.

“Look!” Nellie demanded before giving her head a shake that sent her newly cut hair shaking about. All their lives, she and Gracie had had their hair the same, because they were little, so it made sense. But then a few days back, they had gone in with their mother, and the idea of a change was introduced. More than that, it was a choice.

Their hair had always had something of a curl in it, so it never appeared as long as it had really gotten, and it was getting fairly long. Gracie had not wanted to get hers cut at all, and had only conceded to a light trim on the ends. Nellie, on the other hand, had wanted ‘not so much hair,’ pointing to the woman who usually gave them their trims with a decisive nod that said plainly this was as much hair as she wanted, just brushing at her shoulders where, before that, it had reached halfway down her back. Katy had been certain this would be met with fretful doubt from her youngest girl, as the twins had always matched one another, willingly and preferably so. But Gracie seemed to agree, so Nellie got what she’d wanted.

“I see it,” Maya grinned, running her fingers through her sister’s shortened hair. “I love it, do you love it?” she asked, like she didn’t know the answer.

“Yes!” both Nellie and Gracie replied.

“His hair is getting long, too,” Gracie pointed to their little brother. MJ, nearing age two, was definitely showing what Shawn maintained was his gift to his son. On the whole, he looked a lot like Katy, but the hair was all Hunter…

Before this whole hair discussion could run its course, Riley and Dylan finally came bounding down the stairs, cleaned and refreshed. Riley greeted her parents, her brother, all before it finally clicked that the Hunter Harts were here, too, as though they were such a familiar sight that she had just registered their presence like it was expected, when it clearly wasn’t. She got the same sort of answer, and Maya couldn’t help but turn a look to Lucas as though to say ‘I am not buying a word of this, are you?’ He shrugged.

She looked to her father, who had swept MJ up in his arms, looked to her mother, who had Zola in her arms and was talking at her, all smiles, and then something occurred to her. What if… Oh… Oh, what if…

Almost on cue, like she wanted to help her godmother get to the bottom of this, Zola started to cry, this time for a diaper situation. Katy was more than happy to see to it, and Maya went with her up the stairs to show her where they had her things. As she watched her mother work, the deft motions practiced with three infants in the last four years, Maya had a choice to make, to try and pull the truth out or to just go right ahead, no preamble…

“Mom, are you guys having another baby, is that why?” she just went right ahead.

Katy straightened up at this, taken by surprise for a moment, which seemed to confirm her daughter’s belief, but then she shook her head, chuckling.

“Not this time, no, I’m not the…” She clamped up now, closing her eyes in the telltale way of someone who’d said something more than what they were supposed to. Maya frowned, not sure she got what this was about, until it all came together, so fast it nearly bowled her over.

“Wait… Wait, wait…” she shook her head, eyes wide, mouth gaping. Her mother had a face on like she was hoping to look innocent, in case Maya hadn’t put the right pieces together. She didn’t even have to say it though, and Katy could see that. Maya had already figured out it wasn’t _her_ parents who were coming to announce an impending new addition…

“Not a word,” Katy insisted, passing her Zola when she was done changing her.

“Better not take too long to say it, that’s all I’m saying,” Maya shook her head, still not used to the revelation about her former teacher and his wife. Oh, but Riley would be so surprised. Back when August had been born, the girls had been small, and Riley hadn’t been too thrilled about having a brother for a while. Once she had seen Auggie though, once he had become a part of her life, she had wished maybe for another sibling. When they had grown and it hadn’t happened, she had just accepted that this was how it would be, but now…

Suddenly, remembering another revelation that was meant to happen today, she didn’t know who would be more shocked, or how the whole thing would unfold…

“So, they told you and Dad only?”

“Actually, your father doesn’t know… And Cory doesn’t know that I know either.”

“So, when Dad said you guys just wanted to see me…”

“That’s why we’re here, as far as he knows,” Katy nodded, and Maya smiled for a moment, knowing that her father had told the truth. She felt a little bad for having been frustrated over the addition now.

They stayed in the room for a few moments, as this was Katy’s first time seeing it in person since the change. Maybe it was because of this that, as they stepped back out into the hall, Maya’s mother noticed the changes in the opposite room, too, the purple walls, the new comforter on the bed. For a moment she thought Riley had switched rooms, but after closer inspection, she realized that wasn’t exactly it. She hadn’t replaced the previous occupant: she had joined him.

“Oh!” she blinked, looking back to her daughter.

“What, it’s no big deal,” Maya shrugged. She knew that was true, and she knew her mother would agree, but at the same time… it didn’t have to be a big deal to feel like one. And now, with the Matthews about to be parents again, seeing the progress of their first born at this moment… that would change the whole perspective, wouldn’t it?

Almost to prove as much, it was at that moment that they heard a surprised tandem of voices from below, telling Maya and Katy that Riley had just dropped her own bombshell. They moved to head back down the stairs to find them all in the living room, including the trio from the kitchen.

Riley stood almost entirely in front of Dylan, like she expected someone – her father, of course – to try and lunge at him, while her mother looked like she was about to cry, something that would have seemed another exaggeration if not for what Maya and Katy knew. The others didn’t have that luxury of course, so it made the whole scene come off that much weirder.

“Lunch, let’s have lunch, yeah?” Maya suggested as she and her mother came to join them. “Chiara and the others, they made a lot of great food for you guys, come on,” she ushered them toward the kitchen before turning to Lucas.

“What’s going on?” he whispered.

“Dinner and a show,” she whispered back, passing him Zola so she could get her seat set up.

Once everyone was finally sat around the table, service was made, and they all dug in. As came to be expected when Chiara was cooking, the moods seemed to lift a little easier, almost by magic, which couldn’t have come at a better time. There was wine to be had, and Topanga’s refusal didn’t raise many flags as Shawn did the same, both of them taken to restrain due to their need to drive later on. Even then, it didn’t take long for Riley’s mother to figure out that Maya knew her secret. Silently, the pact had been reached, vowing that she wouldn’t say a thing until the moment came.

The meal went off very well, all things considered. Cory and Topanga both seemed to adjust to the change in their daughter’s living situation, and Dylan looked less and less like he expected to be killed. By the time dessert was served, all was back on track, which only left Maya to feel her anticipation mounting. She just wanted it to be out there, wanted to see how everyone would take it. As stressful as secrets could be, it was a whole other feeling when it was somebody else’s secret…

“You want to come up and see our room?” Riley asked tentatively as they were finishing up.

“Not yet, Riley,” her mother told her, looking to her husband. “There’s something else we need to discuss first.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	193. Her Rhythm of Family

“Are we moving again?” was Riley’s initial response, quickly followed – once the reflex wore off and she remembered that she no longer lived at home, no longer followed where they went – by “Are _you_ moving again?”

“No, honey, we’re not moving,” her father quickly reassured her with a shake of the head. Watching him, now that she knew what was about to be dropped on all of them, Maya could barely contain her smirk. You would hardly have known a thing up to now. He and Topanga had been playing it remarkably close to the vest all this time, not showing the slightest hint. But now, as they prepared to share the news, she could see – on both of the couple’s faces – something like a loosening of the strings, allowing this feeling hidden inside them some space to breathe, and grow, until Maya could start to see how they were feeling.

With a daughter midway through college and a son off in middle school, the prospect of a newborn must have felt a lot like nearing the end of a very long marathon, only to discover yourself nearing a starting point all over again. She could see just a bit of that sense of shock, while at the same time… she saw joy, the kind that came from being ready to see one’s family grow, no matter the circumstances. She didn’t know how long exactly they had been aware of this, but they had evidently had the chance to adjust before they got to this day.

“Then what is it?” Riley asked, and by now the whole table seemed to be looking to Cory and Topanga, sensing without knowing the answer that it would be a big one. Maybe sensing that the longer they allowed that feeling to expand unchecked, the more likely it would be that the ideas they would all make for themselves would get more and more outlandish, Topanga went right on ahead and dropped their bombshell: they were having a baby.

For a few seconds, the kitchen was pin drop silent as far as the humans were concerned, leaving the only sound to be the dogs, sniffing underfoot for any scraps of food. In those seconds, Maya took in everyone’s initial reaction, from her roommates’ general surprise, to Shawn’s sudden smile that seemed to suggest he’d had a sneaking suspicion, to Riley and August’s complete gobsmacked shock… The twins and MJ were silent, too, almost out of sensing something in the air that invited even the three of them to stay quiet.

The parents-to-be were the ones who broke that silence first, like they couldn’t bear it, by explaining a few things. As was to be expected, this had not been planned at all, though now that it _was_ happening, they couldn’t have been more thrilled. The pregnancy was just about two months along, and the baby was due to be born in April of the following year. They were already making plans to turn what had once been August’s room – before he’d moved into Riley’s vacated room – into a nursery.

Shawn was the first to congratulate his old friends, though Maya could sense just a bit of something in him, not exactly sadness but just… thoughts of what might have been, if he and Katy had not lost what would have been their fourth just a few months back. They could have been new parents together.

“I don’t want to change diapers,” August declared when he got up.

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Topanga promised her son with a smirk. “Not about this,” she amended, the lawyer and mother in her cutting out any twisting of interpretation before they could happen. With a nod of agreement, the boy hugged his mother, who looked taken with a new emotion now, hugging the boy who had been accepted to be her youngest, her baby, for the rest of their lives, and now realizing he wouldn’t be for much longer. He was getting so tall already, and she had a new baby to see grow, just months away.

Riley, finally squeezing her way half out of the shock, though she reserved the right to fall right back into it, seemed to have decided at last that this would be A Very Good Thing, and she beamed, hugging both her parents. The fact that they had suddenly forgotten about the whole ‘living with her boyfriend’ thing, well…

The rest of the families’ visit was spent with much more conversation, no more tension holding them down. Riley showed her parents her new room, praising Dylan’s choice of color. In just a few weeks, the space had gone from that special kind of clean where everything had just been placed, into something a bit more lived in, and it benefited immensely from this.

When it came time for the families to hit the road and return to Austin, there were a lot more hugs, and promises to keep the kids updated of any progress, and then they were gone, leaving the roommates – and Zola - on their own again. Now that the whirlwind of the day was done, it felt strange to think that only hours ago they had expected a simple day of studying, chores, and babysitting.

They had barely finished cleaning up the kitchen when Willow and Lion came to pick up their daughter. When they heard about the visit, and about the news, they were just as surprised. Once they saw that Riley was happy about it, they congratulated her on her upcoming new sibling.

It wasn’t until after their friends had been gone again, with Sophie and Chiara heading up to get ready for a date night, and Lucas going back to his reading, that Rosa caught up her ‘room roomie’ of a few weeks and requested that they head in the basement, just the two of them and Maya.

“Mind if I’m down there, too?” Dylan asked. “Not the music room, just… the bathroom down there is still kind of a mess from the dog baths.”

While Dylan went to deal with the boys’ basement bathroom, the three girls headed into the music room, shutting the door on their way in, mostly to cut out any wet dog smell lingering.

“What’s going on?” Riley asked, as Rosa went and connected her phone to the speakers.

“Got a new song for TXNY,” she informed her. When Riley turned to Maya, the usual songwriter shook her head, indicating their newest roommate with a smile.

“You wrote a song?” Riley’s eyes widened, now smiling, too. Before she would start it, Rosa turned back around.

“I wrote it for you,” she revealed. “To thank you for everything you did, helping me move in here, getting comfortable, finding my place.” Riley looked like she might cry, shaking her head as though to say it hadn’t been necessary. Maya, sensing that her old friend wasn’t grasping exactly what Rosa meant by saying she’d written it for her, spoke up to clarify.

“You’ve got the lead on this one.” Riley reached peak wide eye here, looking immediately nervous, baffled… She shook her head, speechless, doubtful of her own abilities. Neither Maya nor Rosa were ready to let that be believed. “You’ve got this,” Maya nodded.

“Just listen, okay?” Rosa told her before starting up the song, the bare recording filling the room.

Maya couldn’t help but just look at her best friend as she listened to her song. In all the time they had been a band, first them and Nadine and Isadora, now them and Rosa and Kayla and Willow, Riley had been content with her position, playing the keyboard, singing along with the rest of them. At no time had she shown herself in any way displeased with her lot or wanting to advance into the spotlight, and maybe for that it had been easy to accept that this was all it was. Now though, it left Maya with the impression that all this time she’d been satisfied because it meant she didn’t have to try and become something bigger than she’d been. Did she not believe she could do it?

Now as she listened to the song Rosa had written for her, it did seem that way. Maya could see that she liked the song, actually really loved it, and she could just see her imagining herself playing it up on stage, but then all of a sudden, she would pull back that feeling… like she’d remembered she would be the one singing it and didn’t want to show herself in any way eager. When it was over, she must have realized she’d be expected to say something. She looked stuck, looking from one to the other of her bandmates.

“It’s a… It’s a great song… Rosa… You did so good,” she smiled up at her, and Rosa smiled back. “I’m just not sure, I…”

“Riley, come on,” Maya reached out, taking her friend’s hands in both of hers. “You are not shy, you have never been, or… not for so long now. You can do this. You have fans, you know? Genuine, love-the-hell-out-of-you fans, and they want to hear more from you. You know it, you’ve seen it. This is your chance. They are going to flip out. Remember how it was when Rosa had her first lead? And Willow? This is your moment.” Riley looked up at her, teetering on the edge of convinced. “Imagine someday, your new brother or sister will get to say, ‘That’s my big sister singing that!’ They’ll love it.”

“I don’t know why it freaks me out like that, but it kind of does,” Riley admitted, emboldened by the idea of her new sibling enough that she could speak out this way.

“When you stand up there, like really at the microphone, the first time…” Rosa spoke now, recalling her first experience. “I was scared, too. I don’t know how you do it every time,” she looked to Maya at this.

“I just start playing my guitar, I listen to you guys, and I sing,” she shrugged. “Even if part of me is nervous, once I start it’s like it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“That’s sort of what it was like for me, too, I guess,” Rosa nodded. “It can be like that for you, too,” she turned to Riley again.

“Look, we have practice tomorrow morning, yeah?” Maya looked to her, and Riley nodded. “We try it, see how it feels. Next time we have a show, whenever that is, we’ll just plant Dylan right in the middle of the front row, and you look at him. You look at him until you don’t need to anymore and you’ve found your nerves.” That made Riley laugh, and finally she gave a nod. She would try it.

“Guys, I’m going to have another brother or sister…” she stated, like it was sinking in again.

“Lucky kid,” Rosa grinned, catching her in a hug that sent them both toppling with laughs.

“Can I let Dylan hear it?” Riley finally asked as they all stood and collected themselves. “Or is it supposed to stay a surprise?” Maya looked to Rosa. She’d written it, so it was her choice as far as she was concerned. For Rosa though, it had always been Riley’s song to her, and it showed again as she simply said:

“Your song, your rule.” In a moment, she was scampering off with Rosa’s phone, and they could hear the recording again. Riley may not have believed it yet, but they knew she’d get through it great.

“Man, that smell…” Maya breathed and regretted it immediately. “Those pups are cute but that is really not…”

“We better get out of here and shut the door before it gets in,” Rosa agreed with a cringing smile.

TO BE CONTINUED


	194. Her Rhythm of Friends

Maya swore she had been having a good dream, the kind you tried to hold on to and remember once you were awake. But the way she woke on Sunday morning, the dream went and popped away, there one second and gone the next.

"Geez!" she flinched, just managing to keep her reaction quiet when she opened her eyes and found Riley standing inches from her face.

"Meet me in the basement, okay?" she whispered before moving quietly out of the room and down the hall.

Maya sank her face into her pillow to muffle a groan, only to feel the arms around her tighten and release again, as they would when Lucas would start to wake.

"What?" he mumbled, nuzzling at the back of her neck.

"I've been summoned," she sighed, turning about to look at him. "Hide me," she pleaded in a whisper. With a smirk, he tugged the covers over her head, holding her close. When she giggled, he shushed her.

"You'll reveal yourself," he reminded her, even as she worked to pull him down until he was with her beneath their new sheets.

"Better," she smiled before kissing him.

They kept at this for a few minutes before Maya finally left their hiding spot to go and find her other best friend down below. First, she made a stop at the next door, leaning over the sleeping Rosa and giving her shoulder a good shake until she finally woke up with a start and opened her eyes.

"What the..."

"Get up, I'm up at this crazy hour on a Sunday because of you, so you are coming with me." Rosa frowned, burrowing her head under her pillow. "I will sing that song you hate, I will sing it off key, until you come with me."

"Fine, fine," Rosa sighed. "You play dirty..."

"The earlier, the dirtier," Maya declared, pausing as Rosa bit back a laugh. "Forget I said that, just..." she hooked her thumb out the door.

So, the reluctantly awake duo made their way down to the basement, led there by the tinkling of piano keys. Maya knew this as the little song Riley would play whenever she'd be stuck waiting for the rest of them to get started, and by the sound of it, she had been playing it ever since she'd left Maya and Lucas' room minutes ago.

"Not gonna lie, I half expected to show up and find Kayla and Willow down here," Rosa declared as they walked into the music room. Riley turned and looked at them. Maya blinked.

"Tell me you didn't call them? It's like... What time is it?" Maya looked around.

"Early, so early," Rosa sighed.

"I didn't call them," Riley shook her head. Maya raised her hand, so to say 'wait for it.' "I wrote them and said to get here as fast as they could."

"And you mentioned this was about practice, right?" Rosa asked. Before Riley could reply, they heard the doorbell from upstairs. All three girls looked up before looking to each other.

"Context?" Riley cringed as they heard the dogs barking.

"Context," Maya and Rosa replied before they all hurried up the stairs. Even as they got to the top, they could see a disheveled Chiara on the landing from the second floor even as Sophie approached the door with caution. Trix, Lou, and Peanut were all gathered at the door, scratching and barking.

"It's a friendly," Maya called to her. Sophie frowned, turning to look at the door again when the bell rang a second time. By the time she got the door open, trying to hold the dogs back, the boys had made their way down, too.

There was little sense to be made of the flurry of gestures out of Kayla's hands except the occasional word, but overall it built up enough of a picture for them to grasp that she had seen that text from Riley and indeed assumed the worst, so she'd thrown on what clothes she got her hands on first and hurried over.

It came down to Maya to reveal to her that she had been brought over on the wings of a misleading text. Kayla looked to Riley, signing to ask if she was okay, and Riley nodded before apologizing for the confusion.

_"No, I guess it's my fault for not writing back,"_ Kayla declared before making her way to the kitchen and helping herself to starting the coffee machine.

"I should check to see if Willow wrote," Riley moved toward the basement door.

"Write her back anyway," Maya called after her.

A minute later, Riley came back up the stairs, phone in hand, to report that, unlike Kayla, Willow had taken a moment to consider the situation. She had texted back, saying that she would do her best to show up soon. When Riley had written to explain her mishap, she had gotten a prompt reply, informing her that Willow was already on her way, and she was picking up donuts.

"Starting to come around to your methods there, Matthews," Maya tapped her shoulder. "So, this whole wake up call this morning, guessing it has to do with your song?" she asked, adjusting her tap into a hold, leading her friend toward the kitchen, where everyone was gravitating in order to grab some coffee. Riley nodded. "And now you woke up the whole house, so you get to have your very own cheering section," Maya went on with a grin. Riley looked hesitant. "You'll do great," Maya whispered at her ear, kissing her cheek.

Willow soon arrived with two boxes stacked atop one another. She didn't exactly look rested, but she definitely didn't look like she'd been startled awake by Riley's message either.

"I was already up," she told her friends, who were now digging into the boxes open on the kitchen table. "Zola kept waking up last night, so I sort of gave up on sleep after a while. So, new song, huh?" she looked to Riley, to Rosa. Both girls tried to speak though, with a mouth full of donut, they paused again, looking to one another like they were trying to decide who should go first.

"It's so good," Dylan spoke first, showing less hesitation over talking through his bite. The others looked at him.

"You heard it?" Chiara asked him. Dylan turned his head to look at his girlfriend, smiling.

"I was looking at the lyrics last night," Riley explained. "I started humming without knowing, then when I saw he was looking at me... He asked to hear the whole thing, so I gave it a shot."

"More than a shot," Dylan promised, beaming with pride for his girlfriend. Riley's cheeks looked a few shades pinker than usual, and she diverted by taking another bite of donut.

The 'civilians' were forced to remain upstairs for a while as the band made its way down into the basement, to let their two visitors get their first taste of the new song, by means of the recording, the lyrics, and whatever Kayla would need to get the proper feel of the whole thing as much as her own part on the drums. It was always one of their favorite parts, to get to work up new songs together, and this right here was the thing that would make it feel that way, the moment where the pieces would start and fall into place, the instruments, the voices...

Riley was still shy about it, but she'd have Maya's voice, and Rosa's, and Willow's, all three coming to wrap themselves around her like some harmony scarf, and it seemed after a while that it did its job, as Riley's voice came to grow in confidence. She wasn't exactly throwing caution to the wind, but it was finally coming to a point where it was clearer who was meant to be the lead voice here.

"Are you ready to let the others in?" Maya asked Riley when they paused. The brunette's face seemed to shrink in again. "Still?" Riley took a breath, let it out.

"No," she finally said. "Let them in," she nodded.

"You sure?" Willow asked.

"As I'll ever be," Riley nodded.

The others came down the stairs. Lucas, Dylan, Sophie and Chiara had been upstairs all this time, waiting, trying to keep from crawling back up to their beds. Despite the coffee and the donuts, it was barely seven in the morning by the time Maya came up to get them, and sleep felt like the thing to do. Now they were lined up on the couch, waiting for the music. Dylan sat at the ready, his great grin feeling like Riley only needed to focus on him if she felt in any way shaky about what she was about to do.

_"It won't be so bad, it's only four people and they all love you,"_ Kayla told Riley.

"What about when we do shows?" Riley slowly asked.

"Picture them in their underwear? That's what people are supposed to do, right?" Rosa asked, even though she didn't sound particularly interested in doing any of that.

"Forget that, imagine they're zombies in a video game," Maya smirked, especially seeing the spark at the back of Riley's gaze. "Just don't kill them for real or anything."

The girls took up their positions as their audience of four gave as good as they had in them. Maya came up briefly, giving her usual intro, as she'd given on those first times where they had someone new stepping up to the microphone. She turned a grin to her oldest friend before stepping back with her guitar. Riley looked forward, stole a look to Dylan, who was all smiles, and they were off.

As much as the song had been coming together, this was the first time it really got to feel like what it would end up sounding like.

"Take a bow!" Dylan shouted, the first on his feet and clapping as the song ended, making the others laugh even as Riley humored him before moving up to kiss him.

"You really liked it?" they could hear her ask him.

"Really, really," Dylan promised, and from him that was all they needed to hear.

This was much earlier of a practice than had been intended, but they carried it out to its end. The others stuck around the whole time, too, and were more than welcome to it. They all finally left the basement a little after nine in the morning, with Kayla and Willow heading home, while Sophie and Chiara both had work to get ready for.

"How do you feel about an early morning nap?" Maya breathed out as she and Lucas ended up back in their room.

"I feel pretty good about it," Lucas told her, and she smiled. Quickly they ended up curled over their unmade bed, the little spoon turned toward her big spoon rather than turning her back.

"This was so not how I saw my morning going," she sighed. "But hey, we're here now, practice is done, so that means we get to spend some time together before we really need to start doing anything."

"Part of me feels like I should be saying that it's ideal for us to do more instead of less, but that part is not the one lying here with you, so I'm not listening to that part."

"I always thought you were a smart boy," Maya gave a smirk while he nodded. "Now, less talking, more sleeping?"

"I don't know if I can actually sleep, between the coffee and the donuts," he admitted.

"Yeah, probably same here. That's okay though, this is plenty good for me." He kissed the top of her head, pulling her closer still before pulling the covers up to hide them again, making her laugh.

"Same here," he whispered.

TO BE CONTINUED


	195. Her Rhythm of Surprise

Having a new song to play with was certain to get them all feeling a sort of buzz of creativity. It made them want to do more. And now, between Willow’s return to ‘active duty’ and Riley’s song, and the fact that they actually hadn’t done this in so long, there was really only one thing for them to do. They were going to film some new videos to put out there for their followers to see. Friday, after all of them were out of class, they would meet up at the house and get started. Kayla and Willow would spend the night, the better to allow them even more time to do what they wanted to do. Well, Kayla and Willow, and Lion and Zola, too. Willow had never been away from her daughter for a night and she wasn’t ready to start, so this was an easy compromise, especially as Lion was excellent with a camera.

Every once in a while, they would end up scrolling back to those very first videos, the ones done in the days where they still had the original lineup of four. It didn’t seem so long ago, it really didn’t, up until they actually watched those videos and suddenly would be faced with how much younger they looked. They would laugh, feigning embarrassment but overall feeling like, even then, they had done a really good job, all things considered. They had benefited greatly from Katy Hart’s theater access, borrowing props from time to time… The thing that stayed with them however was that, regardless of physical changes brought on by growing up, on the whole, they were very much those same girls today as they had been back then. Everything that had happened, the fans near and far, it hadn’t changed them at all.

The first one they were setting out to do today was shaping up to be something a bit different, but not so much that it no longer resembled them. They were in the process of doing themselves up as something like an alternate mirror image. They had actually been running a poll over the past week, vaguely asking their followers to put in their choices, not knowing what it would be for. The winning looks were now being done up on the girls for the video.

_“I thought it would all be a mess, but it actually fits well together,”_ Kayla commented. Rosa looked at her, despite Maya’s protests as she attempted to do her makeup.

_“Easy for you to say, you look amazing before we put a single thing on you,”_ she told her, and Kayla tried not to grin too much though the compliment had touched her. Maya bit back a laugh, too. She remembered so well the impression she’d gotten of her, that first day in class, before she’d recalled their basketball days. Tall, lean Kayla had the effortless beauty about her that so many people worked so hard to achieve, without realizing they were completely missing the mark. It was all in who she was as a person.

“Just be glad Zola isn’t in this video, she would steal the show,” Maya smirked, looking to where Willow sat with her daughter laid over her folded legs. She’d already gotten her makeup done, and now Zola would stare up at her with this mystified look about her, like she wasn’t scared but she wasn’t sure it was her mother either. Lion was moving around them with the camera, taking pictures.

The longer it took for all five of them to be done, the more it led to those of them who were done just running around and acting silly, jumping out at the others in the house, dancing about… But then, eventually, it was time to get started shooting the video, the parts done as their mirror images at least. When they were done, they crowded around the camera to see what it looked like, each one pointing out this thing or another.

“Maya?” She turned, finding Lucas at the top of the stairs. He held up his hand to indicate she had a call.

“Be right back,” she detached from the huddle and climbed up to join her boyfriend. “Who…” she asked, even as he handed her the phone. “Hello?”

A few minutes later, Maya returned to the basement to find the others were already in the process of shedding their mirror personas, so they could carry on with the next part of their shoot. She debated waiting until later to bring up the call, but then it just wasn’t something they could do. This was sort of time sensitive.

“Right, so, change of plans,” she spoke up. The others looked at her. “We won’t be able to work on the videos tonight.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” Willow asked.

“Nothing wrong, no, it’s just… we have a show,” she revealed, which immediately led to a flurry of surprised noises. “I just got a call, they need someone for tonight, it’s last minute, but they’re offering it to us, and we couldn’t pass this up, so I said yes.”

“What do you mean we couldn’t pass…” Riley started to ask, then, “Wait, is it at the…”

“Yeah,” Maya nodded quickly. The others looked at her now, stunned to silence for a few beats.

“Didn’t they say they wouldn’t have an opening for us for ages?” Rosa asked.

“Unless something came through,” Maya nodded again. “And something came through… now…”

_“When do we have to be there?”_ Kayla asked. Maya looked at her phone, at the time.

“Three hours, tops.”

About two of those hours zipped by before they really had the chance to realize. They were so busy trying to decide what they would wear, which songs they would do, pack up their equipment, everything they needed to do before the show, that it wasn’t until they were brought dinner that they finally stopped and breathed and thought about the fact that they were suddenly about to take the stage. Not only that, but they would be doing so in a venue that was brand new to them, bigger than they’d ever had as far as indoors, one they had been looking forward to for so long… and it would be Willow’s first show back… and then there was the new song, Riley’s song…

“I don’t know if we should do it tonight,” she shook her head, the doubt reasserting itself momentarily. Maya gave her a look. “I know, I know, okay, it’s just this all happened so fast, and I don’t know if I can…”

“Zombies,” Rosa reminded her.

_“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, just ask yourself what you’ll regret more when the show is over, trying or not trying,”_ Kayla offered, and while Rosa’s word had made her smile, Kayla’s made Riley stop and think.

“We can prepare one way or the other, and when the time comes then you can choose,” Willow followed.

“That could work,” Riley finally agreed with a slow nod.

“Great,” Maya smiled at her.

As they worked to load up their equipment and finally took off for the venue, Maya sat at the wheel, thinking about all of this… the band, these girls sitting in the car with her… A couple years back, when she and Riley had moved to Houston, when Nadine had gone up to Boston, the band had come so close to ceasing to exist, and it would have been so easy to let it fade away like that, except… They couldn’t, they wouldn’t, and instead they had found others to help it thrive again. Now, after all this time, after everything they had seen and experienced, they couldn’t imagine a world without TXNY.

Even so, it was about so much more than the music, and the shows, the fans, all of that… Take it all away, and what they’d have left would be… exactly what was in this car now. Riley, Rosa, Kayla, Willow, and her. Not to suggest she wouldn’t do anything for all of her friends, but there was something special about getting to be around those girls. All those hours they’d spent together, practicing… meaning to practice but just messing around… singing, playing, dancing around… fighting against sweaty heat, and that deep exhaustion, the exhilaration after a show… No one knew it all as much as they did.

“Uh, guys? Just so you know, when we get out of the car, I am hugging each and everyone of you, don’t freak out, okay?” she called to the trio in the back, turning a look to Riley in the passenger seat, and if it didn’t embody the full weight of her belief in her best friend’s ability to rock her song, then she had nothing left. Riley did smile back, looking as though she might have felt it, too.

“Look!” Rosa was the first to see it as they approached, tapping Kayla’s arm at her side, and pointing. As the car drove up to the night’s venue, they could see it, too, how could they not, when it was up there, the letters tall and bright on the screen? None of them could have collected themselves enough to speak or sign a single word. If the letters weren’t enough, there was one of their pictures from the site, their faces rendered up there for all to see, side by side with the other acts performing that night.

“Did we die? Is that what happened?” Maya finally managed to speak. “Riley?” she extended her arm and her best friend prodded it. “And this isn’t the first of April?”

“September… Pretty sure it was September this morning,” Rosa breathed.

“Maybe we’re in that mirror world,” Willow was the first to crack an actual joke, and the girls looked to one another. They smiled, knowing that this was real, that it was actually happening.

“How much time before we have to be in there?” Riley asked.

“Twenty minutes, give or take,” Willow looked at her phone, shortly after taking a picture of the display out front. Once the car had pulled into the lot, being seen through by security, they came to a stop and formed about as close to a circle as they could make within the vehicle.

“How am I supposed to not freak out about this?” Riley blurted out now like she’d been holding down the words from the moment she’d seen the sign out front.

“Admittedly, it’s… a lot,” Maya had to agree. She could feel her heart stamping away inside her chest even now. “But, you know, it always feels that way before, and it always goes away sooner or later… This is just another one of those.”

“It’s an opportunity, a big one,” Willow agreed. “It’s a miracle we’re even here.”

_“Not a miracle,”_ Kayla shook her head. _“We worked for this. We made it happen, that and… a last-minute cancellation… But they chose us.”_

“They did,” Rosa chimed in with a nod. For having been so nervous in past big ‘band firsts,’ she looked so collected now, determined, and it spoke volumes. “We’re going to show them they made the right call, yeah?” she looked around, and there were echoes of agreement all around, from Willow, and Kayla, and Maya, and without holding out all that long, Riley was agreeing with them, too.

“Right, out we go,” Maya declared, opening her door, and climbing out. As she had ‘warned’ them ahead of time, she pulled one bandmate and another into her arms, until she had them all, a huddle in a parking lot as they took a moment to acknowledge this time before it became their present, before it grew into a memory. As much as it felt like a genuine turning point for them, one more along the road started years ago in Zay’s aunt’s backyard, it was first and foremost an experience they were about to live, the five of them together on that stage.

TO BE CONTINUED


	196. Her Rhythm of Time

It had been up to Lucas and the other ‘civilians’ to see about letting their friends know about the unplanned show. Beyond that, he had reached out to the girls’ families, here in Houston and back in Austin. There was no telling at first how much space there would be left, but a quick check online had shown that they were very close to sold out, so if any of them were able to make it out, they had to hurry and jump on this. It was important, to Lucas and the others, that they be there, because they felt it, too. Tonight, was going to be a big one.

If they needed any more proof, they got it when they arrived and saw how packed the place was. Sure, that didn’t mean this was all for TXNY. It wasn’t, it couldn’t be, when up until a few hours ago they hadn’t been meant to be there, but that didn’t matter. All these people were here tonight, and whether or not they knew about the band already, by the end of the night, they would absolutely know.

All of them who showed up that night did so while sporting one of the band’s shirts. They would be spread out throughout the room, landed in what seats they could get their hands on, but they were there and that was all that mattered. Lucas, Dylan, Sophie, Chiara, Lion, and Will were all sitting together. Somewhere out there, Bishop and Leona were present, too, and somewhere else would be Franny and the girls from Weaver Kings. Fresh from the long drive out of Austin, Katy Hart and Shawn Hunter had come to support their eldest along with Cory Matthews.

Topanga had bowed out, left too exhausted by the early throes of pregnancy to see herself enduring the noise and the crowded feeling of the concert. Her husband had valiantly promised to recount the whole thing. Just in case, he’d also brought August, along with Michaela Zhu. They hadn’t been able to get five seats together, so the kids were a few rows ahead, sworn by either of their parents to stay where they could be seen.

It was always strange, finding himself out here, knowing that, somewhere backstage, Maya and the others were getting ready to step up there. For that brief period of time, it was like she belonged to a whole other world, and he got to await her arrival, to see her take that stage… He couldn’t even find the words for how much pride he would feel, seeing her up there, knowing she was right where she belonged. There were so many things that made her who she was. Art, basketball, family, music… Tonight, her musical side was the one in the spotlight, literally and figuratively.

There were three acts taking the stage that night, the first two opening for the third. TXNY would be going up in the middle. It had been hard to sit through the first part and not look impatient about it coming to an end, but then finally the moment came, and when the band was announced, it was hard to know whether everyone cheered for them specifically, or simply because it was expected of them, but it didn’t matter. Hearing hundreds of people clamoring for the arrival of TXNY gave them chills, the friends and family in the audience, and the five girls preparing to take their places. All that was for certain was how, the moment she heard the noise, Riley Matthews got this look about her. She was going to do her song tonight, and they all knew it.

It genuinely felt for a moment as though they blinked and the whole thing was over. One second, they were picking up their instruments, starting their first song, and in the next they had finished their last song, Riley’s song, and the crowd was going wild. It hadn’t been one second, of course, and as the moment would settle in them the memories would come along with it, but still… They had done it, and if someone had asked them, they could have kept right on going.

They sailed that high right through the main act, which they got to watch from backstage. It was hard not to feel a little impressed, being out here, walking the same stage, on the same night, as a band they all knew, who were known worldwide in ways they had yet to be known. And they had known TXNY, they had. More than likely, upon hearing of the change in lineup, they had somehow been familiarized with the new opening act, but they couldn’t say. Either way, they got to talk for a little while as the first opening act was on stage, and the conversation felt like it had been pinned at the back of their minds for the time of the show, a subject to return to, later.

When the show was nearly over, Maya was called back on stage, to sing with the main act’s lead singer. The girls stood there, stunned, when they were informed, but then they snapped out of it again, and the other four urged her onward. She looked back at them, uneasy with her getting singled out over them, but all she found were smiles. They wanted this for her. So, she went, and somewhere in that raucous noise from the audience, she swore she could hear a familiar call breaking through it all.

By the time when the girls of TXNY were reunited with their friends and families, which also included Sheryl and Joanna Obi and their older sister Kimi, all here to support their sister-in-law, the energy of the night still coursed through them. Maya and Riley both were emotionally surprised to find their families here, to know they’d come from Austin to see them perform.

Rosa surrendered her room to Shawn and Katy and Cory, with Riley’s father all too giddily taking up the bunk bed. She would take the couch downstairs, all the while keeping an eye on August and Michaela. The fact that she was considered the responsible watcher in this scenario would amuse her to no end. Before all that though, before the night was officially over, the displaced Rosa, with the rest of her bandmates and roommates and friends, would spend out the post-show energy they were all feeling with a bit of a dance off crowding into the basement’s music room.

It was well into Saturday morning, closer to noon, by the time Maya and her bandmates slowly emerged into wakefulness again. The house felt quiet enough to suggest that their Austin guests had already started back for home while the five of them slept on. As for the others, most of their friends had gone on home when they had all started heading to bed. This included Lion, who left Willow with the others while he went to see to Zola, who’d been left with her godfather for the night. Chiara was off to study at the library, Sophie was working at the bakery, Dylan was off doing the groceries, and Lucas was out walking the dogs, which left only the Sleeping Beauties of TXNY.

Maya was the first to come down, hair feeling huge, ears still ringing some, bare feet treading lightly as she made her way down to the kitchen to find a note informing her of the departures and the locations of the others who’d gone out, along coffee kept warm for her and the band. She took a deep breath of that before lazily pouring herself a cup and moving to sit at the kitchen table. Scrolling through her phone as she waited for the others to get up, she couldn’t keep from smiling, seeing all the messages about them out there, the pictures… It felt so surreal but at the same time they _had_ been there, and she remembered it now, remembered it like all she had to do was close her eyes and she’d be there again.

A creak on the steps made her look up to find Kayla coming down the stairs, where she’d spent the night in Sophie and Chiara’s room. She filled herself a cup and came to join Maya at the table. Both of them sat there, caught between a yawn and a sip, until Maya slid her phone over for Kayla to see some of the messages that mentioned her. There was also a great picture of her up there at her drums, in mid swing, smiling so much…

_“I was smiling because I thought I broke one of my sticks, but it was fine,”_ she revealed, which made Maya chuckle.

_“I think that means it’s time you got some new sticks,”_ she replied.

In the end, Willow _had_ spent her first night away from Zola by staying here while Lion had gone back for her. She had resisted it at first, had almost left with him, but he had insisted this would be good for her, and that she deserved to stick around. So, she’d stayed, bunking up in Maya and Lucas’ room. Now, as she came down the stairs, they could just hear her whispering, and even too far to make out what she was saying, the tone alone suggested that she had called Lion, who now held his phone on speaker so Zola could hear her mother’s voice greeting her as she did every morning.

When she finally came into the kitchen, there was a cup waiting for her, and she sat down in front of it with a nod of thanks before letting out a breath. Kayla reached out, touching her arm so she’d look up.

_“How did it feel being up on the stage again?”_

_“Like I never left,”_ Willow shrugged, smiling wistfully. _“I didn’t think I would miss it so much.”_

Riley came down even as Rosa was sitting up on the couch, stretching out her arms as she woke properly. She got up and ended up making it into the kitchen just as Riley did, the two of them completing the quintet. They all had that same look about them, like they’d been absolutely spent the night before, or early that morning, really, by the time they’d gone to bed. And while they’d all slept like logs up until a few minutes ago, there was still that exhaustion in their bodies, born of exhilaration.

“Last night…” Rosa shook her head, recalling.

“I know,” Willow nodded.

“You actually sang with…” Riley looked to Maya.

“I know!” Maya laughed.

_“This was not at all what I thought our Friday night was going to be,”_ Kayla added. The other four gave much the same nod, showing this was their impression as well.

There was a pause here, and in it, Maya felt as though they were all thinking more or less the same thing, whether they meant to or not. Last night had been the biggest thing they’d ever done, which was saying something, because they had done so much in the past two years. That show though… it stood in a class all its own, and how could it not? They had opened for a group who’d had their name in lights for years, touring all over the world… It would have been doing themselves and that main act a disservice to write it off like it was nothing.

It also left them to think about what the future would hold for them, for the band.

It was easy right now, easy to just look no more than two or three steps ahead. For the next two years, precious little had to change, and whatever came along would come along. That was simple really. But then… then what happened after that? They might not all be in the same city anymore, and while the chances were vast that this would only mean the two-hour drive between Houston and Austin, it would change the rules just enough. That was fine. That wasn’t the thing they were all left thinking about.

What played at their minds was the long run. They weren’t really thinking about it before, and really why should they? They were living in the moment, they were following the path they were expanding ahead of them with every move, which meant they didn’t have to think about the rest. Opening in that show last night though, talking to those artists who had been following this dream so much longer than they’d done, who had piled success after success and devoted their lives to it… Was that going to be them? They were all out there, in school, studying, making their futures. What if they decided _this_ was to be their future? TXNY, bigger and bigger all the time, until everyone knew their name… What if some of them chose it, and others didn’t?

“We should finish that video,” Rosa declared. “If nothing else.”

_“We should,”_ Kayla agreed.

“I’ll call Lion,” Willow grabbed her phone and headed into the hall in such a way that said what she really thought was ‘I’ll call Lion and ask him to bring our baby back.’

“I’m hungry,” Riley breathed.

“I’m on it,” Maya picked up her phone and texted Lucas, asking if he might make a stop over at the Nook for ‘as many pancakes as those arms of yours can carry.’ When that was done, she scrolled back through her phone until she found a picture she’d saved earlier and slid it over for Riley to look at, so she could see herself, standing up at the microphone, in the middle of her song.

“Wow…” she couldn’t keep from saying, which made Maya smirk.

“Didn’t I say you would be amazing?”

“Not a zombie left,” Riley declared proudly, still captivated by the photo.

Maya was already planning to print it out and frame it for the music room, along with a few other shots from the previous night. They had pictures up there, more and more as time went on. Their big shows, they were all on display. Their very first one with the five of them, Rosa’s first song, and Willow’s, now Riley’s… She knew of course that Kayla wasn’t about to have a moment like that, as she didn’t speak, much less sing, but she really wanted to find something, to give her a chance like the others had gotten. She certainly deserved it with all she’d done since joining them.

“Do you think…” Riley slowly asked. “I mean, maybe…”

“You want more songs?” Maya guessed, trying to keep her smile from looking too ‘I told you so’ triumphant. Riley smiled and nodded. “Do you know, I think that might be something we can do. The future’s wide open for you now, Riley Matthews.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	197. Their Bash For Sweets

There was something about rolling down the aisles loaded deep with variety after variety of candy that made her feel like hopping on the under rail of the basket and speeding on by. It didn’t matter that she was twenty-one now, hardly a kid anymore. She just wanted to race on.

“This one or that one?” Lucas held up two large bags of mini chocolate bars.

“There’s boxes of them, down there,” she pointed. “Cheaper to get a couple of those than four or five of the bags.” He followed her finger before setting the bags back in their place and pulling two boxes off the bottom shelf and into their basket.

“It’s a good thing everyone pitched in,” he sighed, looking at what they already had.

“You say that every year,” she motioned for him to keep going.

Every year, it felt like the gap between the start of the fall semester and Halloween got shorter and shorter. One second, they had been seeing Rosa to her first day of college, and the next they were gearing up toward their third Halloween bash in Houston… and their sixth anniversary of being a couple.

It wasn’t as though they had no awareness of the passing time, far from it. The last month had been hectic for everyone in the house or in the band, at varying degrees.

Sophie and Chiara, for instance, who had dreaded coming to the point where they weren’t in school together anymore, had slowly but surely adjusted to Sophie’s being gone off to the academy, carrying on her training to become a police officer, while Chiara remained at the university that they’d both gone to for the past two semesters, since her arrival among them.

It was easy to understand why they would lament losing this one thing, when they had spent all this time with an ocean between them. From the moment Chiara had arrived to take her place in the house, it had always felt very much like the both of them wanted to be near each other as much as possible.

They had all seen plenty of periods within one semester or another where they would be very busy, but every once in a while, not _too_ frequently, thank goodness, they would have their very own ‘Hell Week,’ where everything would suddenly seem to happen at the same time, and they would be stuck. As of yet, Riley had been lucky enough not to have one of those, but she finally got hers in this fifth semester, and it had been as much of a nightmare as the name would suggest.

They barely saw her for days, only occasionally turning around and finding her standing there or just walking by, like an apparition to startle them. Dylan did his best to provide for her, whatever she might need, until finally ‘the sky cleared,’ and Hell Week ended. They hoped, for her sake, that she wouldn’t cross another anytime soon.

Rosa was continuing on her way through this first semester of college, through being away from home, even if the distance was so short as to be non-existent. Between that and the fact that her job was at her mother’s store, it only broadened the thought that she was only one foot out the door with moving on and becoming her own person. She had confessed to her roommates how part of her would consider quitting her job at the bookstore, finding something of her own, but then… she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She just couldn’t leave her mother behind like that, and plus she loved her job, especially now, this time of year. The window displays continued to be a simple joy in her life, and now, with back to school, and Halloween, and all the other holidays lining up like so many dominos… How could she pass that up?

Anyway, as much as a lot of her new life felt like it ran right alongside her old one, she couldn’t pretend like the new one didn’t have qualities all its own. Her room, with all its personal touches, living among her roommates, going to school, and slowly sorting out what she might want to do with her life, her new friends… She had Leigh, of course, who would come to pick her up every morning, and she had befriended a boy called Colton, also in his first year. The three of them were becoming a common staple around the house, or whenever they’d run into Rosa at school.

“Lollipops!” Maya called, pointing down the aisle. Lucas turned, looked at her, looked where she pointed, then went and grabbed a bag. She cleared her throat. He picked up another. She cleared her throat again. He turned to look at her. “Come on, if I keep this up it’s going to mess up everything in there,” she pointed to her neck.

“I’m beginning to understand where all the extra lollipops went last year, although I don’t remember seeing you eat that many.”

“Oh, they’re not for me. Well, not _all_ for me. Professor Robinson calls them her ‘one cheat,’” she explained with an innocent smile. “What am I supposed to do here?” He stared at her for a moment before grabbing another bag and setting it in the basket. “Thank you,” she bowed her head, and they carried on.

Things were at a point where it was all just so easy between them. This wasn’t to say that it was boring, no, far from that. It was more about how they’d been together all this time, and they were at a point in their lives where they didn’t have to go around and worry so much, so instead they just got to go ahead and enjoy being with one another. They were well aware that times like these could waver, that difficulties could come along the way, out of the blue and completely unexpected, so they were absolutely going to enjoy what they had here and now.

They felt bad to even consider it in this way, but after everything that had happened with Zay and Nadine in the last couple of months, they saw how their connection was only getting stronger.

Even though the initial shock of the break-up, and then Zay’s move from Boston to New York, had spent itself, all their friends could plainly see that neither of them had put the event well behind them and out of sight. On the one side, there was Zay, settling slowly but surely into his new place, living with his friends. He’d found a job at a comic book store, and another at a diner. He had taken a semester off, as he’d told them he would, though they wondered if, at the rate he was going, he would actually transfer and enroll into school out there, or if he had officially/unofficially dropped out.

He was going through his days, and it would all be good and fine. But then, anyone who really knew him could see there was something missing from him, a giant hole, and all the joy in him had been the first casualty, slipping right out that hole.

Meanwhile, back in Boston, everything they were hearing of Nadine showed her being exactly what they would expect her to be in a situation like this. She dove headlong into her studies, her work. They could all but hear the wheels turning in her head, telling her that she was meant to be concentrating on her studies anyway, so that was what she should do, and that was what she did. There was little for the rest of them to do about it, even though what they heard and saw of her told them plainly that this wouldn’t last. Sooner or later, something would trip her up, sooner or later it would all come to a stop and she’d have to admit to herself all the things she was in denial of.

As to the Layla situation, with everything they’d found themselves considering from afar, about the matter of Nadine’s friend living with her, Nadine’s friend who had a crush on her… For the time being, so long as Nadine was caught in her cycle of denial, of focusing on school, they didn’t see it being a problem. It was when she’d crash, and they knew she would… That was when the trouble might start.

“I think that’s enough, right?” Lucas asked as they reached the end of the last aisle in the Halloween candy section. Maya stood up on the back of the basket, peering in at their selection. Between the party and the trick-or-treaters, and… well, the seven of them living in the house… and Patty ‘Lollipop Fiend’ Robinson… This was definitely looking to be their biggest haul yet.

“Yeah, I guess so, I mean we… Ooh!” she sprang off and returned a moment later, holding up a giant mixed bag of candy. “How much would it cost me to get you to help me pull all these little ones just for me?” she pointed to one of the candies, a round thing that would sort of fizz out when you bit into it. For as long as they’d spent Halloween together, he had lost count of how many times she’d complained over the fact that they couldn’t just buy _those_ candies separately from the rest of the bag.

“I love you. I’ll do it for free,” he shrugged, and she grinned, tossing the bag into the basket with the rest.

“A very innocent answer there… Makes me question the one _I_ came up with,” she told him before pushing the cart on toward the registers. Lucas blinked for a moment before hurrying to follow her.

“What, uh… What were you going to say? Just… out of curiosity?” he asked, his innocent shrug coming off a lot less innocent than his previous answer. She turned back to look at him, a smile spreading over her face.

“It’s going to bug you now, isn’t it?” she asked sweetly. He knew this game, they’d played it plenty of times, and it didn’t stop him from falling into the trap every time. He showed the answer without even saying it, and that was all she needed to know to go and mess with him, turning about and continuing on the way to pay for the heavy load of candy.

By the time they left the store, loading their purchases into the trunk and remarking again on the sheer amount of candy, he had a tactic, and he was going to get his answer. They drove on toward home, where they found many curious hands ready to help them carry everything inside.

“Maya,” he whisper-called, still standing by the car. She turned and he held up the mixed bag of candy for her to see, holding a finger to his lips. She grinned and nodded up. Sneaking it up to their room wouldn’t be nearly as hard as it could have looked, and soon they were sat on their bed, playing triage with the mixed bag. Fizzies to one side, everything else back in the bag.

“Think they’ll buy the ‘bag just tore open’ excuse?” she asked as she got up to bring the bag downstairs with the rest.

“They did last year,” he reminded her, and she chuckled, hurrying down. A minute later, she returned, ready to get her first fizzy of the year… only to find the little pile had disappeared from the bed. Her mouth gaped for a moment before she turned to look where Lucas sat, a smirk on his face. She didn’t have to ask where he’d put them – he wouldn’t say – nor did she have to ask what it would cost her to get them back.

“Alright, fair enough,” she walked over to him, leaning to whisper at his ear. As she would put it, anything said into one’s ear when no one else was in the room…

“Yeah…” he breathed, nodding slowly, arms locked around her waist. “You make an excellent point…”

TO BE CONTINUED


	198. Their Bash For Plans

Leaning over the counter at the bookstore, scribbling a few notes for Anniversary Six’s Date, Lucas found himself looking forward most of all to Anniversary Twelve, as strange as that sounded. That would be the first one they’d have where neither one of them was in school anymore, which kind of felt very important. Sure, they’d still have jobs to contend with, and he’d still have residency, but then jobs on their own were easier. They went in, did their time, then they went home, and they were in the clear. Right now, if they weren’t at work, a lot of the time they were studying or working on an assignment… It had a way of eliminating options for them which was its own brand of frustrating when someone was trying to create something memorable for the one who they loved the most.

“What’s that?” He startled at the sound of Rosa’s voice and stood up all at once, like he thought he had a customer, and he hadn’t been hearing them. When he saw that it was her, he relaxed again. “Very concentrated, huh?” she bit back a smile.

“Do you need me?” he asked.

“Just the tape, this roll’s all out,” she held up the dispenser. Lucas reached into the drawer under the counter and handed her a new one. “Thanks,” she went about switching it out. “So, what are you working on?” she nodded to the paper in front of him. Once upon a time, she might have just snuck a look, but something about their being roommates now had somehow instilled some element of boundaries for her.

“Anniversary plans for Maya and me,” he told her.

“Right, right,” she nodded. “Number six, yeah?” He confirmed. “Should be better than last year, right?” she shook her head, looking up at him with a bit of a cringe, afraid it might have come off a bit rude, but he shook his head.

“It’s fine,” he promised her.

It wasn’t like she was wrong. Last year’s anniversary had come on the tail of the previous Halloween, and the infamous night of the maybe baby. Much as they’d done their part for not letting it affect them so much, the better to enjoy their fifth anniversary, it had been inescapable.

They had put it all behind them now, they really had, but as Rosa had gone and reminded him about it, the realization that all of that had happened almost a whole year ago… it hit him. He could still remember how he’d felt that night, how they’d both felt. He worried now about what it might do to Maya if she remembered, too… _when_ she’d remember, too.

It was no use, he couldn’t think of anything for the anniversary that was coming up, so he closed his notebook, slipped it into his bag beneath the counter, and moved around to see what Rosa was up to.

“Hey,” he nodded in greeting to Leigh and Colton when he spotted the pair of them standing with Rosa around the cart that she’d brought out near the Halloween display.

“Hey, Lucas,” Leigh greeted him back. Colton waved.

“I thought you were done with the window,” Lucas looked to Rosa. In the three Octobers he had spent working at Coleman’s, it had always been up well at the start of the month, but now here they were, a few days from ‘the big day,’ and she seemed to be in the process of changing everything.

“I was,” Rosa confirmed. “And then I had an idea, and I didn’t want to wait until next year…”

“Yeah, I know the type,” he smirked.

“Rosa was telling us about the party you’re all having for Halloween,” Leigh told him.

“Yeah, every year,” he nodded. “Did she tell you how she snuck in the first year?” Rosa’s friends laughed. “Dressed as a ninja.”

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Rosa defended herself.

“You wore your glasses over the mask,” he reminded her, making the others laugh all over again.

“Won’t have that problem this year,” Rosa shook her head with a smirk. “I’m going to be the opposite of a ninja. Colors everywhere,” she vowed.

“Are you two coming?” Lucas asked her friends, standing on either side.

“I’m not that big on Halloween, costumes, all of that, but I love dancing, and candy, and those two, so… yeah, I’ll be there,” Leigh nodded, looking to Rosa and Colton.

“What about you? Halloween?” Lucas turned to Colton, who gave a bright smile.

“Love it, definitely in,” he replied, possibly the most animated Lucas had seen him in the weeks he’d known the guy. “I wish I’d known earlier, it’s a bit short notice, but I’m pulling something together.”

“You waited that long to tell them about the party?” Lucas asked Rosa, surprised. She laughed.

“No, I told them at the start of the month, back when I did the window the first time. Colton is just very meticulous about these things. He does these crazy cosplays,” she explained, turning to her friend and giving a gesture easily recognizable as ‘go on, show him.’ Colton pulled his phone from his pocket and opened up a photo album before handing it over to Lucas. “Already told Maya he could help with the makeup effects this year,” Rosa went on as Lucas swiped through the various images of Colton in the guise of some character or another.

“That’s… wow,” Lucas sounded as amazed as he looked. Rosa had been right about his talents. He was barely recognizable at times, completely disappearing into his characters. Colton looked ready to take on the new costume of ‘shiny red tomato,’ giving off the instant impression that he truly became someone else, came alive, when in the persona pictured on his phone. As himself, he was so much meeker.

Mixed in among the images of completed looks, Lucas would find pictures of Colton mid design, wearing one component like he was testing it out. The further back he swiped, Lucas could see another transformation happening in reverse, as the boy in the pictures got a little younger and entirely more feminine looking. He hadn’t expected to see the images, but of course he knew enough not to be surprised by them. It wasn’t as though Colton had tried to hide in any way. He had a small trans flag sewn into the side of his backpack. But Lucas and the others had found out one day at school, when they’d all been having lunch together. Some guys from Colton’s high school, who also went here, had made a point to shout out ‘Hey, Chloe!’ when they’d spotted him, adding a few more suggestive comments before moving along, laughing their heads off.

“It’s nothing, forget about them,” Colton had shrugged, seeing how the others had looked at him like they were ready to go and give those guys a piece of their mind. Whether or not it really was ‘nothing,’ they could already see anyone who’d try and mess with Colton would have Rosa and Leigh to contend with first.

“So, are you all doing a group costume?” Lucas asked after handing Colton his phone back.

“We weren’t going to, but then we had an idea pretty quick,” Rosa nodded.

“That’s why it’s taking even longer than usual,” Colton explained.

“Hey, we help,” Leigh protested. “You said I was a pro with a sewing needle.”

“I may have been trying to motivate you to do better?” Colton cringed and smiled.

“But, you know, it’s Halloween, a few drops of blood might not actually be a bad thing,” Rosa added, to which Colton nodded as though to say ‘there, see?’ Leigh just stared at their fingers for a moment, perhaps examining past pin pricks.

“Let me know if you need anything else,” Lucas told the trio before moving off toward the counter again. He only made it a few steps and he could hear laughter behind him. Turning around, he could see Leigh and Colton laughing about something, only to be shushed by Rosa, who was trying not to smile herself. It was good, he had to say, to see Rosa’s circle of friends being tight like this. Often the trio would become a quartet, with Joseph joining in. Lucas just remembered what Rosa had been like, a couple years back, compared to now… She may have been fine with her solitary situation on the whole, but he could see as well as anyone that having those friends in her life was doing her so much good.

After helping a few customers, Lucas found himself at the counter again, with his notebook open before him. Nothing felt right, not yet, and he couldn’t help but think back to what Rosa had said about the year before. None of his ideas felt right, probably because he was trying so hard to put together something that would be good enough to put aside that previous year’s… hiccup. Now that he was actually realizing it, what he was left to think was… _Do I really need to?_

That date, their anniversary, they marked it with something that felt special to them, that made them just a bit more aware of the fact that another year had gone by since the day they had become more than friends. They didn’t owe anything to that previous year except to say what they had been saying every year. _Here we are, I love you more every day, and I am grateful to be with you now to celebrate._

He ripped out his page of scribbles, crumpled it and threw it out before looking at the blank page before him. _Anniversary 6_ he wrote at the top. This year, it landed on a Wednesday, which was… generally not ideal, except this time around, when neither of them were due to work and they both finished classes early enough. Most weeks, this would be the day where they settled at their desks and tried to get a lot of work done, but this time they would not open a single book, this was about them, so…

He had a thought now, and as he smiled to himself, he turned to the computer to look up something before putting in a call for a reservation. He was briefly worried that the short notice would give him problems, but soon he was confirmed and good to go. From there, the rest of the idea came together in a flash. Even though he wasn’t about to tell her about any of it, he felt a strong need to call home, to hear her voice, so he did.

“Maya’s phone, please hold!” Sophie’s voice answered. He heard a few voices before the phone reached its owner.

“How does your boss feel about personal calls?” Maya asked. He smiled.

“Can I help you find anything today, Miss?” he asked in his best clerk voice.

“How about a how to guide on time manipulation? I’d love to make that clock slow down right about – ouch!”

“What happened?” he asked, hearing her mutter under her breath.

“Tiny cut, nothing big, hold on, keep talking, got you squeezed against my shoulder while I go grab a band-aid. What’s up?”

“Just wanted to know how things are going on your end,” he told her, doing his best to look like he was on a business call, moving to the computer, putting in a random search.

“Making decorations is a lot trickier than it seems, so I’m basically questioning all my life choices as an artist.”

“That much, huh?” he tried not to laugh.

“What can I say, I got inspired, I…” she paused, the sounds in the background telling Lucas that she had reached the box of band-aids and was not applying one to wherever it was she’d cut herself.

In the pause though, he felt like he could finish that sentence himself. Just like he had been trying to make up for their last anniversary, maybe she was trying to do the same for Halloween, too. That had been even more of a mess than the day after…

TO BE CONTINUED


	199. Their Bash For Costumes

“Okay, band-aid is on,” Maya breathed, picking up the wrapping and tossing it in the trash bin. She flexed her fingers, feeling out whether the bandage would get in the way as she went back downstairs. “I need to do as much as possible to maybe get some time to work on my assignment for Professor Medeiros before my shift at the restaurant tonight.”

“I’ll let you get back to it then,” Lucas told her. “I just wanted to hear your voice.” She smiled, taking her phone from where it had remained balanced between shoulder and cheek.

“Happy to help,” she told him.

“Don’t overdo it with the decorations, okay?”

“I’ll try not to. I might switch over to work on my costume for a while. See you tonight?”

“I’ll be there,” he promised. “Love you.”

“Love you,” she echoed before they both hung up.

Returning to the kitchen, where she was set up with Sophie and Dylan to create a few items for their Halloween party, Maya just looked at the madness spread out before them and she wondered how they’d actually let it get to this point.

All month long, it had sort of felt like the ideas kept coming, growing bigger and more extravagant by the day. Actually, it hadn’t even been October yet by the time the ideas had started, more like September… maybe August… July, tops. Or June. The week of Halloween, in her planner, had been invaded bit by bit with any number of post-it notes of various colors, scribbled ideas stuck down on that page until she could find it simply by slipping her finger in the gap created by all the accumulated papers. By the time they were finally within ‘acceptable’ Halloween lead-up time, she had tried to sort through the mess, to eliminate some thoughts, maybe realize some of them were basically the same, but it didn’t help much.

Every time she would think about Halloween, about the upcoming party, it was like her brain refused anything less than amazing, maybe too much of it at once. Talking to Lucas now, it got to feel like maybe she had finally stepped back long enough to notice.

“Maya, come see, it’s a cake made to look like a severed leg,” Dylan pointed to the laptop opened between him and Sophie, who was cringing at the ‘bloody open wound.’ “We could have that for the party, maybe both legs… and the arms… We could turn the kitchen into like some mad scientist’s lair, or…”

“I am _not_ eating that, I don’t care if it’s cake,” Sophie shook her head.

“Bug cakes?” Dylan suggested.

“No,” Sophie shivered at the mere suggestion. “Why does it have to be gross though?”

“You watch all those slashers, how is that any different?”

“It’s not actually here, I don’t have to touch anything, _or_ put it in my mouth,” Sophie went on. “You do what you want, but I’m not having any part of it, nope.”

“I can ask Ellie then,” Dylan agreed, turning to Maya. “What do you think?”

“I think…” Maya looked around the table again. “I think maybe we need to tone some of this down. It’s been fine with the decorations we had the last two years, it’ll be fine now. That’s not what they come for anyway.” Dylan blinked, looking momentarily disappointed. “We can do the cake though, sure. I’ll help.” He grinned, while Sophie looked at her.

“You were all into getting these things done a minute ago, what changed?”

“I don’t know. I think maybe I wasn’t doing it for the right reason, and I let it get out of control. It’ll be better this way,” she nodded, a little more self-assured now.

If they hadn’t put two and two together before, all of a sudden it seemed to hit them all at once. She could see them looking to one another like ‘oh, right, last year…’

As long as it had taken for her and Lucas to get past this thing that didn’t feel like it should have been that big of a deal, they had done it, but now… Now it felt like they were in some video game, and they thought they had cleared all the levels, only to be met with a surprise obstacle on the very end. Halloween, all over again. It was like they couldn’t really earn their victory, not until they had ‘the perfect Halloween’ to make up for the botched one last year. And now, finally, she was just realizing that they didn’t need to go out of their way. Halloween was always great for them, unless something like a missed period and interrupted pregnancy tests came along, and she had it on good authority that those wouldn’t be a problem this time around.

“Let’s just clear all this up?” she suggested, and Dylan and Sophie agreed. They all quickly went about gathering their supplies, the failed projects… Maya looked at the cake video, doing her very best to bite back her chuckles over Sophie’s grossed out faces.

Whatever baked limbs they would or wouldn’t attempt to create for Tuesday night would have to wait. With the botched decoration project now officially set aside, the trio set itself to the much more familiar task of costumes. As much as possible, they tried to make their own, either from scratch or by acquiring whatever pieces might work to create the look they were going for. By now, they had everyone settled who didn’t need anything made, which left the three of them specifically. That was sort of the reason behind their session today.

The theme set for the year’s party was ‘Out of Time.’ What this meant for the costumes was that, if they chose to adhere to the theme – not everyone did – then they had to pick a character and reimagine them as being from a different time than their own. This could mean taking a very old character and turning it into what they might be at present time, or in the future, like it could be a present-day character, only remade for a past era. They had started a bet between the seven of them roommates, with the prize of an exemption from chores for the remainder of the year, as to how many of certain types they would get. The categories ranged from ‘how many steam punk anything’ to ‘how many superheroes’ and then some.

“I get that this is one of you two’s favorite movies, don’t get me wrong, but it does feel kind of weird with the whole ‘they’re sisters and you’re a couple’ thing…” Maya pointed out, sitting on the ground while Sophie stood on a chair and Dylan handed her pins, as she adjusted the hem of Sophie’s dress.

“When I was little, I would watch the movie every Halloween. I would watch it… all year round, actually, and I would pretend to be like little Gillian, or I’d be Kylie sometimes, too. They had hair like mine, and I loved them… After a few years, it was definitely about adult Gillian, too, but that was about something else,” she gave a sheepish grin. “Anyway, Chiara loved the movie, too. She’d dressed up as little Sally one Halloween, with the angel wings and everything. It was one of the first things we bonded about, because of my screenname on the band’s fan page. She knew exactly where the quote was from. We almost did it last year, so now this year we’re going for it. We’ll try and keep it… sisterly… during the party.”

“Just try and not provoke any witch hunters,” Maya teased, looking up to Sophie in her ‘Gillian Owens but 300-some years ago’ dress.

“Let them try,” Sophie gave a smirk that felt very much in character.

“That’s enough pins, I think. What do you think?” Maya asked, as she and Dylan stepped back to let her see herself in the full-length mirror. Sophie carefully inspected herself, turning this way and that.

“I think… it’s a lot more cleavage than I’ve ever put out there…” she admitted, her face looking very much like the shy girl they’d met in junior year of high school all of a sudden.

“You mean ‘at all,’” Maya suggested.

“I do, yes,” Sophie breathed.

“Your sister’s going to love it,” Dylan nodded, making them both laugh.

After Sophie changed back into her clothes of the day, Maya set herself to her sewing. She wouldn’t call herself overly skilled, but she got the job done neatly and didn’t prick herself once, so that was what counted. While she did this, Sophie worked on Dylan’s costume. As this was their first Halloween together, it was no surprise that he and Riley would go for a couple’s costume. In this case, they had opted for a futuristic Peter Pan and Wendy, after previously having planned for a present time rendition of the pair.

“It would have been too easy,” Riley had claimed. In this new scenario, they had cast Peter Pan as a great leader in the battle against the ravager of worlds, the Hook, and Wendy Darling as an ally brought into the cause after aiding a wounded Pan. Together, they had defeated the Hook and saved the world.

As she worked on Sophie’s dress, Maya thought of her own costume, hers and Lucas’ together. It had taken them what felt like an eternity to come up with something that felt right, which she could now guess went back to this feeling she’d had, this need to make up for last year. For that, and in order to add an element of surprise, they hadn’t told one another what they would be dressed as, and they had worked separately, keeping the whole thing a secret. It spoke to how much it meant to them, to have this play out as they wanted, that neither of them tried to get the other to spill the beans about what they were doing.

Maya was not nearly as far along with her own costume as she had been letting on. As far as Lucas was aware, she was nearly done. In truth, she had barely started. She _had_ started… a few times. Each time, she had only gotten so far and then it had all come crashing down, so she’d gone back to the drawing board. Now, as her needle went slowly along its way, she felt it was time for one last reset. Her mind was clearer now, it felt, and knew what she wanted to do. It set her hands working at a surprising speed, as she completed her stitches and practically zoomed off toward the stairs.

“Where are you going?” Dylan called after her, only to have Sophie pull him back as she kept working at his costume.

Where Maya had gone was into hers and Lucas’ room, to get hold of her sketchbook. She opened a drawer, digging through until she found her favorite pencils, and then she headed back downstairs. Sitting on the couch, sketchbook in her lap, she went about sketching the idea which had been growing further and further detailed in her mind as she’d been attending the dress. The more she drew, the more it all came together. She was vaguely aware at some point of both Sophie and Dylan standing behind her and looking at what she drew.

“Oh, that is awesome…” Dylan smiled.

“We’re going to have to go to the store again, aren’t we?” Sophie guessed.

“I won’t have time today,” Maya shook her head. “I’ll just go tomorrow… and hopefully finish in time for the party,” she sighed.

“We can help,” Dylan offered at once, and Sophie nodded to show she was in. Maya thanked them both, looking to her drawing and wishing, just for a moment, that she could let Lucas know, so he might match her…

TO BE CONTINUED


	200. Their Bash For Trick or Treaters

Before they knew it, three days had passed, and Halloween was upon them. There was a chill in the air, a scent of autumn, and as she woke up, Maya felt as though the world was showing her that today would not be like the last time. As she turned over to face the still sleeping Lucas, she made a promise to herself and to him. She wouldn’t spend today – or tomorrow for that matter – thinking about last year’s Halloween and everything it had brought them to feel. That was the past, and today… today felt like it would be their best day for spooks in a long time.

She didn’t even get the chance to scare him awake. Her phone went and gave off the familiar bell of a Skype call and it woke him up all at once. She restrained her laugh as best she could, reaching for her phone and knowing who it would be before she even saw the screen. She had once promised her sisters they could call her every morning, and the mornings were rare when the two of them forgot. When she connected the call though… there was no one. She could see the kitchen, like the laptop was set on the table, facing the wall, but no sisters, no parents…

“Hello?” she called. Silence, and then, barely audible… laughter. She smirked, turning a look to Lucas. He shrugged. She held a finger to her lips before turning to look at the screen again. “Lucas, I think a ghost called me,” she intoned. More tinkling laughter could be heard, less subtle than before.

“What if it climbs through the screen?” he played along.

“Oh, we wouldn’t want that. Maybe we should hang up. Should we do that?”

“Might be safer, yeah.”

“Okay…” Maya let the word stretch out. As expected, it brought the two little sneaky faces into view. The unexpected part was that they were all done up in their costumes already. They weren’t modified versions of anything: they were dressed as characters from the animated movie they had been watching daily since they’d been given it on their birthday back in August, from what their parents had been telling them. Shawn and Katy would be happy when this phase played itself out, but until then… “Look at you,” Maya laughed. “Go back a little so I can see the rest,” she instructed, and the four-year-olds did as they were told.

“Want to see MJ?” Nellie asked.

“I really do,” Maya told her, and the girls ran out of frame again, allowing their big sister to turn a look to her boyfriend. Just one more of these away from them after today… Just one more…

MJ didn’t look as though he understood _why_ he was dressed as a small bear, like as far as he was concerned this was just a new outfit, although at this time they couldn’t know how he would pitch a fit if he didn’t get to wear it every day for the next several weeks, to the point where Katy would go and buy him a second one, so they could wash the first. It would soon earn him a new nickname.

“Where’s your costume?” Gracie asked her sister and Lucas after MJ dashed off and Nellie went chasing after him.

“Uh, we haven’t put them on yet,” Maya told her.

“We’ll show them to you once we do though,” Lucas added, and this seemed good enough for now.

They weren’t getting changed until that afternoon, coming back from classes to get the house ready for the party. As the day would progress though, the Hunter twins wouldn’t be the only ones curious to see Maya and Lucas’ costumes.

Tuesdays were one of Lucas’ clinic days this semester, and he was there over lunch when his cousin Joseph came in, leading his sisters and brother along to go and find their mother. He still had school in the afternoon, but the rest of them had only a half day, so he’d been tasked with picking them up and bringing them here until their babysitter could come and collect them.

“Trick or treat!” Maggie pointed her fairy wand at her cousin with a grin.

“Please don’t turn me into a toad, here you go,” Lucas reached to the end of the counter and presented them with the jack-o-lantern bucket full of candy. Maggie, Sarah, and Evie Hillard all dug their hands in, while little Henry tried to stretch right out of Joseph’s arms so he could get his, too.

“You’re not dressed for today,” Evie declared, pulling the wrapper from a toffee.

“No, not yet. Wouldn’t want to scare the animals.”

When Maya showed up to Professor Robinson’s office, she found the place had been given what one might call ‘just the right amount of decoration’ before it could become too much. She presented the woman with a bag of lollipops, and one would have believed she was a kid all of a sudden and not a grown woman and a grandmother. She went through three and was on her fourth by the time Maya got the call she’d been waiting on and excused herself to go in the hall with her computer. She sat on the ground, back to the wall and computer in her lap.

“The costume came out great, Cara,” Maya spoke with genuine admiration at ‘Spider-Gwen’ Cara.

“Wait,” the girl raised her hand, reaching to pull her hood up and the mask with it, until it covered her face, and the look was completed.

“Nice,” Maya laughed.

“It’s hot in there,” Cara breathed once she’d pulled it back off. “And Mom says I should just have my hood up without the mask when we’re trick-or-treating tonight.”

“Well, you couldn’t _not_ have the mask.”

“That’s what I said!” Cara smiled before looking around. “Here comes Elphabaliza,” she turned back to Maya before Eliza appeared at her side, her face, and her hands indeed a very vibrant shade of green. She’d been obsessed ever since they’d gone to see Wicked and had been upset at Cara for not dressing as Glinda, though once she’d been introduced to Gwen Stacy, she had quickly gotten over it.

“I wanted to see _your_ costume,” Eliza told Maya.

“You will, later,” Maya promised with a smile. “Where are the boys?”

“Wyatt is at the dentist’s,” Cara told her.

“On Halloween? Harsh,” Maya laughed. “What about Sam?”

“I’ll get him!” Eliza ran off, turning back at once when her hat tumbled off her head. They could hear her shouting for her eldest brother until he finally arrived. He wasn’t wearing a costume either, although that might have been due to the fact that, even after having washed his hands, they could see bits of pumpkin on his shirt sleeves.

“Dad’s waiting, they’re ready for carving,” he informed his sisters, and they were gone in a flash. They wouldn’t be handling the cutting tools, that’d be Kermit, but they still loved to watch. “Hey,” Sam sat down, frowning as he picked a strand of pumpkin innards from his arm and put it on his desk.

“Hey,” Maya laughed. “Too squishy in there for you?”

“That’s nothing. Mom had Eliza try it this morning. She stuck her hand in, touched the bits, and she just screamed and ran off. The pumpkin rolled off the table and exploded everywhere, then Alix ran in and tried to eat it off the floor before Dad shooed her off. We had to go back and get a new one after he came to pick us up from school.” Alix was the family’s new dog, a recent addition to the household in the form of a fluffy golden retriever.

“Wow…” Maya’s laughter rang a bit louder now, forcing her to cover her mouth in an effort to control it. “So, what won in the end, Bilbo or Doctor Strange?” she asked. In response, he tilted back in his chair until he could lift his foot into view, and she saw his hobbit feet. “You better send me a picture of the whole thing or I will hunt you down,” she pointed to the screen.

“Same to you,” he smiled.

“Okay, fair enough. What about your parents, are they getting dressed up?”

“Yeah, but none of us can figure out what they’re supposed to be,” Sam admitted. There was a brief beat of silence here, and Maya hated that it was becoming something familiar for the two of them. In this pause, the brother and sister exchanged a question and answer neither of them felt at ease to put into words. In the silence, Maya asked after Kermit, whether he was still okay, and so long as he stayed silent, too, it was as good as him telling her that yes, he was. When the silence had gone on enough that she had her answer, they both blinked, the call ending soon after.

The rest of the day went on about the way they would expect it to go when it was Halloween. By the time Maya arrived home, a few of the others were in the process of putting up the decorations they didn’t put up until the actual day. Most of them had put on their costumes already, some of them still needing their turn in the makeup chair. Lucas, she saw, was conspicuously not wearing his costume yet. She was also informed, via Colton as he came to join her and assist, that she would not be the one to do the makeup portion of his transformation this year, as it would of course spoil the surprise.

“So, you guys went with the future option, I’m guessing, but I’m not sure… You’re not a pirate, are you?” Maya asked Colton as they were setting up. He pointed to the cloth banded over one of his eyes and part of his head before pulling it away, blinking to readjust to the light.

“Not a pirate, no, it’s just hard to tell when I’m on my own, I think. Then again, people might not know the show even if we do tell them,” he shook his head like he felt this was just a plain travesty. “Look,” he flipped out his arm and, with a click, something slid out of his sleeve and into his hand. It looked like a sharp piece of wood, or… a stake.

“Oh… Oh!” Maya pointed. “You’re Xander!” she declared, and Colton smiled and nodded.

“Post…” he mimed someone pushing their thumb into his eye. “Fighting the good fight is hard, sometimes you lose an eye…”

“Happens,” Maya agreed. “Wait, so then who…”

“Oh, wait until you see them.”

She didn’t have to wait long, as Rosa and Leigh arrived. Maya almost didn’t recognize them, especially Rosa, her raven hair hidden in favor of a dark blond wig that pegged her for the vampire slayer herself, although this Buffy looked like she’d run into more apocalypse than she knew to throw a stake at, in whatever hellish future she came from. She had all the intensity of it in her, which was fascinating to see. The same went for Leigh, who looked to have dyed their own hair to an auburn-like shade. The robe they wore made it seem as though this Willow was a more battle ready… well…

“What are we saying here? Witch, or…” Maya asked.

“We settled for ‘magically delicious,” Leigh smirked, looking to their best friends. Rosa and Colton laughed and nodded in agreement.

“Right,” Maya chuckled. “I’m going to get changed now, before everyone starts coming for their makeovers. Colton, you good?” He held his thumb up. “Great,” Maya went out to Sophie and Chiara’s room, where she’d stashed her completed costume when she had finally finished it the night before. She hadn’t done it with the makeup and everything yet, but she had nailed the rest and now it was only a matter of filling in the missing pieces.

TO BE CONTINUED


	201. Their Bash For Friends

It had taken some time and research to figure out exactly how the change in era would affect her character. Before long, she’d figured it wasn’t so much about the time she would be from, but instead the time that would shape her. Samantha, Art3mis, like all those who had devoted themselves to the hunt for the keys that would lead to the hidden Easter egg, showed the influence of the 1980s, the resurgence of its pop culture, despite being from several decades afterward. The idea, which had been cooking up in Maya’s mind as she’d sewn a new border on Sophie’s dress, was simple enough at first: What if they were influenced by a different decade?

She’d seen the movie with Lucas in the theater. They had been dating all of five months at the time, which seemed like a lifetime ago now. He’d already read the book and had been trying to get her to read it, too, but she’d decided to wait and read it after, so they could have both perspectives. The memory of so many conversations had been the thing to spark the costume idea on Saturday, and since then she had worked on her idea at every chance she got, with great assistance from both Sophie and Dylan. The final look was mostly faithful to the sketch she’d done, with a few adjustments as her research gave her ideas. It hadn’t been that hard. She had been a child of the 2000s, so that was how she’d shaped her Art3mis.

Her hair was pulled in as seamless of a braid as she could manage, the better to pull on the wig she and Sophie had worked so hard to make right. Already this and the clothes did a lot of the work, but the makeup would be essential to finish the look, so she got to work on that, too, finishing with the colored lenses, the ears…

She barely had time to look at herself, to feel a giddiness that could only come from feeling that she had been successful, when there was a knock at the door. A second later, she could hear Lucas on the other side, and she hurried over, pressing her hand to the closed door in case he tried to open it.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Just now. Are you?” she asked back.

“Yeah. Can I come in?”

“Hang on, okay?” She stepped away from the door. “Okay, go for it.”

When he opened the door and she saw him, and he saw her, they both froze. He hadn’t known she would be Art3mis… and somehow, he was Parzival.

“Who told you?” she finally had to ask, not annoyed, just stunned. Colton had done a stunning job on him.

“No, I just… Well, when I was about to close up and go to pick you up from the restaurant on Saturday, Dylan came in, wanted to buy a copy of the book. I told him he didn’t have to, that he could just borrow mine, but he insisted he wanted to buy his own.”

“Didn’t he read yours already, like six years ago?”

“He did… Anyway, we started to talk about the book, and the movie, right up until we closed and then he left, and I thought ‘Hey, there’s an idea.’ Now I’m thinking maybe…” he pointed at her.

“Oh, he’s got some skills, that Dylan,” Maya smiled. He had gotten Lucas to play right into his hand, _her_ hand, technically, ensuring without actually blowing the surprise, that they would head into the party and fit together. “So… surprised?” she asked, turning about to let him get a closer look at her costume.

“Very,” he smiled. “You?”

“Speechless,” she promised, moving up to kiss him, just enough without breaking either of their makeovers.

They went down the stairs, where they got to see everyone’s completed looks, save for those few still arriving in need of makeup. Before Maya could go with Colton to see to all of them, she made sure to take some pictures, of herself, of Lucas, and of the two of them together. She sent these off to all those little eager ones who’d been asking them all day about their costumes.

In no time, the party kicked off with the arrival of a great number of classmates. Some of them were getting to be regulars, recognized with or without masks or makeup. Others were first timers, including Leigh, Colton, and some others of Rosa’s classmates, and then some of Sophie’s new friends from the academy. Joseph showed up, as he’d done the year before, this time camped in the role of the equally apocalyptic Watcher, Giles, to join Rosa’s slaying team. This year, he was not forced to go back home; he had asked ahead of time, and he’d gotten permission on both his cousin’s side and his parents’. He would be spending the night at the house after the party was over.

“Some guy actually screamed when he saw the leg cake,” Dylan reported with a triumphant chuckle and a mouthful of red velvet when he came to join Riley, Maya and Lucas as they saw to what were likely some of their last trick or treaters of the night.

“Sophie won’t even go anywhere near those,” Maya broke off a piece when he held up his plate. In the end, thanks to Bakery Ellie’s assistance, they had themselves ‘enough arms and legs for a few poor unfortunates,’ enough to ensure pretty much everyone could get a piece.

“I’ll take her slice if she won’t have it,” Riley hummed after getting a bite from Dylan’s plate, too.

“Well, before we end up with a belly full of cake, care to dance?” Lucas turned to Maya, who had a grin on her that said she would gladly forego the cake in favor of spending the whole evening dancing with him.

“Look, look, a couple more for the steam punks,” Maya pointed a few minutes later as they moved to a very upbeat song.

“How many does that make?” Lucas asked.

“Last I counted, fourteen, I think.”

“How many did you put down?”

“Twenty-six… There’s still time,” she insisted. “You?”

“Eight,” he admitted.

“Ouch, too bad,” she smiled, looking happier than disappointed. “Make that sixteen, and with a combo into the superhero category,” she nodded over his shoulder. He turned to find Kayla and Will making their way across the room, scanning faces in search of familiar ones. They had come as the reinvented Shuri and T’Challa. “Seriously though, siblings…” she told him as they worked their way off the dance floor and toward Kayla and her boyfriend. Kayla got that big happy smile of hers when she saw them.

_“I am so sorry we’re late,”_ she signed. _“It went longer than I expected.”_

_“Don’t worry about it, you’re here now and you both look fantastic!”_ Maya told the two of them.

_“So do you!”_ Will signed, _“I love the ears.”_

_“Thanks,”_ Maya laughed. _“You should go look in the kitchen,”_ she added with a mischievous smile, before taking Lucas’ arm and leading him away, no explanation given, the better for a surprise. Of course, by now, with people getting pieces of those cakes, the visual would give itself away just a bit…

“Evil,” Lucas teased.

“What’s the point of having those things if we can’t startle a few people?”

“Hey, can we talk for a minute?” They turned around to find Joseph standing there.

“Uh, sure,” Lucas told him before looking back to Maya.

“I’ll try not to get into too much trouble,” she told him before disappearing into the throng of party guests. Lucas pointed to the stairs and led his cousin past a present-day Frankenstein’s monster – Bishop – to reach the slightly quieter second floor. As ever, the difference in temperature was instantaneous.

“What’s going on, are you okay?” Lucas asked.

“Oh, I’m fine, it’s not… So, you know how I had these… feelings… for Rosa, when I first met her.”

“Your crush, yes, I’m familiar,” Lucas nodded, then, “That’s not back, is it? Because you know she doesn’t…”

“No, no, I get that, that’s not even… we’re friends, that’s all,” Joseph assured him. “But now, I… might like… someone else… and I don’t know, I’m just not sure if I’m going down the wrong path again, or if I’m getting ahead of myself, and… Well, I don’t want to mess things up.”

“Right, I get that, believe me,” Lucas told him. He gave a quick rundown of how, for months before he and Maya had actually gotten together, they had both known their feelings for one another, to some extent, but then they had not taken that leap, not until six years ago the next day, because they were so close, and because they meant so much to each other, and because Maya had been scared of losing that, and he had respected it. They had waited as long as it had taken, until finally she had been certain, and he had been, too, and from there they had never looked back.

“So, what you’re saying is…”

“What I’m saying is, if you think it’s real now, then it will still be real later. Maybe you just need to wait, to see, to be sure you’re ready to jump.” Joseph considered this for a few seconds before nodding.

“Alright, I can do that… Thanks,” he told his older cousin.

“Anytime,” Lucas told him, suddenly very conscientious of his overall blue and gray tones, as he stood here, giving his cousin advice. “Come on, you want some cake?”

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they very nearly bumped into Leigh, who just managed to keep from dropping the small plate they were holding.

“I was just looking for you,” they said. “Want some?” they held up the plate with a smile. By the way Joseph’s face lit up beneath those thin-framed glasses, Lucas had a feeling he knew by whom this new crush was powered.

“Arm or leg?” Joseph asked as he took the plate and followed Leigh back to wherever they’d find their friends.

“I don’t know, but it came off really bloody…”

While Lucas had been upstairs, dishing out romantic advice, Maya had found the updated Bride of Frankenstein to match Bishop’s monster. Leona and her shock of black and white hair was the current person in charge of the drinks table.

“Want me to relieve you for a while so you can go dance with your guy there?” Maya asked.

“Not much chance of that,” Leona shook her head, pulling her left leg out into view to show that her foot was wrapped in a beige bandage.

“What happened?” Maya blinked, startled.

“Some guys at school started their party early today, ran into me as I was coming out of class. It’ll be fine in a couple of days, I think, but tonight I’m out for dancing. I don’t mind,” she shrugged, looking much more like she did mind.

“Bishop is crazy strong; he could carry you. I’m sure he’d be happy to do it, too.”

“I know, he would, he offered.”

“You don’t need to dance, you can go and guard the stairs with him, keep him company. Go on, I’ve got this,” Maya insisted. “Can you walk?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks,” Leona smiled, limping her way off to find Bishop.

Maya went right on to tending the table. She hadn’t been there more than a minute when her Parzival came looking for her. She filled a cup and held it out to him before he had to ask.

“Whoever was going to take over for Leona suddenly got a reprieve,” she told him, serving herself now.

“I spotted three more steam punk interpretations,” he revealed, and she grinned.

“Coming closer and closer to winning that bet now. Stick with me, kid, I’ll try and get you a good chore.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	202. Their Bash For Spooks

A year ago, Halloween night had felt like some surreal moment, with too many people around them, too much noise, and on the end of it, just a feeling in their guts which they couldn’t shake away. They knew a party had happened, but they couldn’t even say off the top of their heads what their costumes had been, what anyone’s costumes had been. All they saw when they thought of that night were those damned sticks on a towel. That was last year.

They were going to remember this year’s Halloween bash, for all the reasons one should remember it. Not because of some incident, not because anything bad had happened. It had been a wonderful night, from start to finish. The night would have barely had time to turn into Wednesday before some of their guests started to leave, mindful of their need to get up for class in the morning. Once that happened, it was very much like they’d been the cork in the tub, and with their departure would come the draining swirl of the water washing away. The less responsibly inclined, or the ones with a free morning, followed the others’ lead before long.

“Saved the best for last,” Rosa pulled something from the fridge and carried it to the table, where all those who’d stayed behind after the party was over – the roommates, Joseph, Leigh, Colton, Franny, and Kayla – now sat, nursing the last of their drinks or some water, looking all partied out. When she set down the severed arm cake, there was a variety of noises in reaction, ranging from delight at the promise of more cake, to hesitant noises debating whether or not it would be wise to dig into another slice, to instant refusal followed by a turn away for one ginger witch.

“Whatever the owner of this arm was doing before it got chopped off, they sure went down in style,” Franny declared, and the others laughed, noticing the way the hand had been shaped by Ellie. Now they knew what Rosa had meant when she’d brought the cake over. Before long, a few of them were grabbing a slice.

“Hey, it’s November now…” Riley noted, turning a smile to Maya and Lucas, sitting huddled together in their chairs.

“Ho ho ho,” Maya told her.

“Seriously?” Colton laughed. Maya turned to nod at him. Yes, seriously.

“Every year, when I show up at the bookstore, day after Halloween, my mother’s already got the stuff down from storage for the new displays,” Rosa pointed out.

_“The decorations will have changed at school. When Franny and I lived in the dorms, we saw them taking down the Halloween things and putting up the Christmas ones, in the middle of the night. If Halloween ever loses its place around here, they’ll probably have them up even earlier,”_ Kayla added, as Franny interpreted for the newbies.

“And I thought my parents were bad,” Leigh shook their head. “My father is probably hanging Christmas lights on the house right now.”

“Yeah?” Lucas asked. Leigh held up a finger before pulling out their phone and making a call.

“Hello?” a boy’s voice answered.

“Hey, Clint, what are you up to now?” Leigh asked their brother.

“Box number three,” Clint sighed. “Dad’s on the roof now with the stapler.”

“Just checking. Don’t stay up too late,” Leigh crooned sweetly.

“Bite me,” the frustrated Clint groaned before being called away by his father and having to end the call. Leigh looked back to the others and bowed their head. Proof given.

“How many boxes are there in total?” Chiara asked. She had been amazed at the number of lights some people had on their houses the year before. She would stop and stare for so long that they would have to get her walking again if they expected her to keep going.

“Last year there were fifty-six,” Leigh revealed. “I don’t know about this year.”

“Fifty-six?” Sophie’s eyes widened.

Fifteen minutes later, Maya, Lucas, Sophie, Dylan, Rosa, Colton, Leigh, and Joseph were pulling up, two cars one behind the other, up to the Morrison house, where Leigh’s father and brother were in the process of tacking on the contents of box number eight.

“Dad?” Leigh called up to the roof. The man turned and looked down, spotting the small group on his front lawn. “Need a hand?” Leigh asked, the first to swallow back a chuckle at the memory of the last cake. “Or, you know, sixteen?” they went on.

It would be past three thirty in the morning by the time the roommates – and Joseph, their night guest – returned to the house, and past four once they had all removed costumes and makeup and other accessories and could finally head to bed.

“Would they have seriously done all that just the two of them?” Maya breathed, landing heavily on the bed, clamping on to her pillow like it was her best friend and she hadn’t seen it in five years. “It would have taken them until noon or something.” Lucas crawled up next to her, weaving his arms around her not unlike the way she did with her pillow.

“Don’t know, doesn’t matter now, it’s done,” he mumbled.

“We’ve got class in… a few hours,” Maya turned to face him. “And then after that…”

“Happy anniversary,” he nodded, smiling as he held her face in his hand.

“Happy anniversary to you, too,” she smiled back, staring up at him like she was dead tired – which she was – and a bit tipsy – less so than before their excursion to the Morrison house – and very much in love. “Tonight was kind of the best, wasn’t it?”

“It really was,” he could agree with complete confidence. “You looked so good as Art3mis.”

“First to the key!” she chanted lazily.

“First to the egg,” he followed, leaning to kiss her forehead.

“One more Halloween in Houston…” she went on, nuzzling herself up closer to him.

“I know…” He rubbed at her back. Much as he would talk with her all night, they were both hanging on by a thread. And they needed to sleep.

“Next year…” she yawned. “Next year, we should dress as…”

Whatever they should dress as, he didn’t find out that night. Before she could finish her sentence, she fell into a deep sleep. He closed his eyes now, too, and in no time, he joined her.

The next morning, or specifically a few hours later, when they woke, Lucas would tell Maya of the dream he’d had. He could actually remember it, which wasn’t always a guarantee, of course. More often than not, he’d forget, but not this time. This time, this dream, he remembered well. He had dreamed of Halloween in Austin. Much as it would never be the same as the parties they had here, he knew that the holiday would always be special to them, as it had been from the start, and not just because it led to their anniversary the next day.

He imagined them being one of those houses where kids would go to every year, looking forward not only to the candy but also to something of a spooky thrill. He imagined great big decorations, not unlike the ones she and the others had tried to make at first, ready to catch people by surprise.

There was no telling when they’d actually be able to do anything of the sort, but already the realization that it was really a lot closer than they realized was just… invigorating, maybe? It was like with their trip to Europe. They had started planning that years in advance, and for a while it was always like ‘oh it’s still a long way from now,’ but then when junior year had ended and they’d found themselves in summer, with only a year to go… Suddenly, the trip was ‘next year’ and ‘in a few months’ and ‘in a few weeks…’

That was what it felt like, realizing they only had another Halloween here. Sure, their third year was not even halfway done, and there’d be a whole other one before they were done at their school here and the two of them headed back to Austin. It was still just… so much closer than they’d realized.

“That sounds like a great dream, maybe if I go back to sleep now, I’ll have one like that, too,” Maya declared, trying to get him to stay with her as they were, not to force her to have to get up when she was still so tired. All he could say to that, all he could promise, was that if she did get up, and if she did get through her day, then it would all be worth it once they got to the part after, to the actual anniversary part of their anniversary. “One of these days, that trick won’t work,” she ‘warned,’ pointing a finger at him.

“Yes, it will,” he smiled.

“You make an excellent point,” she sighed. And still, she held on.

“Alright, what’s it going to take to get you out of bed?”

“So many options, I don’t know if I can ever choose!” her voice raised into a laugh when he suddenly scooped her up and carried her out of the room. “Yeah, yeah, okay, that’s one way to do it, please don’t drop me,” she begged as they made their way down. He set her on her feet at the bottom of the stairs.

“Uh, Maya?” he asked, suddenly noticing.

“Yeah,” she turned back to him. He motioned for her to come closer, which she first took to mean he was going to kiss her, until he reached to the side of her head and prodded what she soon realized was one of her two fake Art3mis ears, which she’d forgotten to take away the night before. “Well, that held on,” she laughed. “Who does a single earring anymore, now it’s a single prosthetic ear that’s all the style,” she spoke dramatically.

“Want me to…” he pointed to the ear with a smile.

“You can’t just rip it off, no, no, I’ll deal with it later, right now I need food.”

“Cake?” he suggested.

“No… Unfortunately, I learned now that there is such a thing as too much cake, and that’s just sad.”

“Pancakes?” he suggested instead.

“Ooh, yes, please,” she beamed. “With bananas?”

After a much too brief breakfast, they also had to hurry in their preparations for the day. Despite their small window of time, he was left to wonder whether or not he should give her some clue to his plans for the night, so she could prepare now. In the end though, he decided to wait. They’d come back here first, it would be easier that way. Plus, if he told her a bit now it would stay on her mind. He looked at her, walking around, it seemed, with a slight tilt toward the bed, no matter where she stood in the room, like any loss of control would bring her crawling back to her pillow. Maybe having something to keep her mind turning wouldn’t actually be such a bad thing.

“Alright, I’m ready…” she sighed. “Can we stop for coffee on the way?”

“Definitely,” he nodded. “Hey, listen, we’ve got a couple minutes left, how long would it take you to pack an overnight bag?” He had her attention now.

“Depends on the occasion, why?” she asked, moving slowly back toward him.

“Can’t say, just… think casual with a chance of formal?”

“And this is for… tonight?” she continued her interrogation. He nodded, as though to say, ‘it would be weird for me to ask you this now if it wasn’t.’ “Are you packing, too?” she asked.

“Already did,” he smiled.

“Huh…” she replied, impressed. “Fine. Give me three minutes.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	203. Their Bash For Six

Making it through the day’s classes proved to be a mix of several challenges. First and mostly foremost, they still felt the after-effects of the party and the unexpected trip to help Leigh’s father put up a ridiculous number of lights over the house and surrounding areas. Sure, they had youth behind them, allowing them to bounce back some of the way, but when even that couldn’t carry the bill, well… Once they’d split off, both Maya and Lucas had come to a point where they couldn’t even rely on coffee anymore, knowing it would do nothing more except to get them all jittery and weird.

All they could do then was try and focus on the evening to come, where they’d celebrate their sixth anniversary. It would become something for them to laugh about whenever they recalled this day, that for the majority of the time, whenever they weren’t actually in class and knew the other would also be free, both of them would go around in order to surprise the other with a ‘visit.’ The problem was that neither of them could find the other, because unbeknownst to them, the one they sought was doing some seeking of their own, which meant that they never actually found each other.

But, finally, their shorter class day – thank goodness for that – did eventually come to an end, and this time, when they both went and left their respective classrooms, they managed to meet halfway.

“I was looking for you earlier…” Lucas told her, as their hands went and found one another, aided by familiarity rather than sight.

“Me, too,” she revealed, shaking her head. “Maybe we should have written or something…”

“Something, yeah,” he agreed.

“Right, so… We’re here now, together,” she held up their joined hands. “You’ve got the wheel on this one, what’s step one?”

“Step one did end up happening this morning,” he reminded her.

“Overnight bag, yeah,” she nodded. It had been stowed in his car’s trunk along with his own bag. “Step two then?”

“Driving,” he guided her on toward the parking lot.

He had already told the others not to expect either of them back at home tonight, though he hadn’t specified where they would be going and why they wouldn’t be returning until after the next day’s classes, and work shifts at the bookstore for him and the restaurant for her. He _would_ let them know where they were, once they’d arrived, once Maya knew, just for the sake of anyone else knowing where to find them if need be, but for now only he needed to know.

“Are we running away to New York on a train?” Maya asked as they drove along.

“What?” he asked, laughing.

“I mean we tried it, once, you and me and Zay, except we couldn’t, because no one would sell us tickets on our own at that age… Which is smart, obviously… But we’re not too young anymore…” she pointed out in a sing-song voice.

“Why would we run away to New York today though?” he smirked, entertaining the thought. “On a Wednesday.”

“Why not?” she countered.

“Well… Not today,” he had to tell her. “But I will keep that in mind,” he promised. “Today though, we are not leaving Texas,” he told her. “Or Houston either.”

“We’re not?” she asked, lifting her head again from where it had been tilted against the headrest. She looked around now, like she was finally paying attention to where they were, hoping maybe to get a clue as to where they were headed. “If we’re staying here, then why do we need… oh… Oh?” she looked back to him for confirmation. He just smiled, refusing to tip his hand just yet, even as she settled back in her seat like someone who had things all figured out.

Even for all that, when they pulled up to the hotel, she looked up in awe. She had figured the where, just not which one. The immediate memory/thought it triggered was ‘if the ceiling at the movie theater in Austin was a whole building.’

“I’m suddenly very aware of how I stepped in mud with these shoes the other day…” she blinked.

As impressive as the outside already was, it only had her staring in awe that much more once they walked in, each with their bag over their shoulder. They went up to the counter, where Lucas checked them in. Their room was ready and waiting for them, so they got on the elevator and headed up there.

“Is it bad that I mostly just want to walk around this place right now?” she asked.

“Why do you think I picked this one?” Lucas smiled.

“Because you’re amazing and you love me?” Maya guessed. “Can I open the door?” she asked, holding out her hand for the key card. He passed it to her, and she beamed like a kid.

About as soon as she had taken two steps into the room, she took off her shoes and left them sole up by the door before going any further. Even Lucas, who had seen pictures of the rooms when he’d researched and then booked the night, was stunned by what he found in person. This did not stop him – once he, too, had taken off his shoes – from scooping her up for the second time that day and, to the tune of her surprised laughter, this time releasing her on a bed rather than away from one. He dropped in at her side and they lay there for a beat, staring up at the ceiling, feeling like this particular combo of sheets and mattress was very aware that its occupants were just so close to sinking into a deep sleep under the right circumstances.

“I know they have wake up calls in hotels and all, but I think I’ll need an actual person to come and wake me tomorrow morning,” Lucas breathed.

“Tomorrow? Try before dinner,” Maya matched him before forcing herself to sit up again. “I need to see the rest of this place,” she rolled off the bed and on to her feet again. “I think I can actually hear the mattress trying to pull me back,” she ran her hands over the covers before pulling them away and shaking her head to herself. “Nope, no…” she muttered before moving to look around. The room did not lack for eye stimulation. And when she reached the bathroom, her exclamation was enough to finally get Lucas to get up and go looking for her. “When we have our own place, how much do you think it would cost to have a bathroom like this?” she asked, mouth agape as she took in the sheer size of the bathtub.

“I don’t even want to know…” Lucas stood as wide-eyed as her.

They still had a couple of hours before the dinner reservation he’d made, and though they both intended to make use of The World’s Best Bathroom to get ready, this didn’t have to happen for some time. So, key card in pocket, they left their room to go and take a tour of the hotel. They walked around for over an hour, coming off like tourists who’d just wandered in, no doubt, before returning up to their room, feeling like they had reached some middling point where they were still tired but they’d gotten past the nodding off part.

Getting to use the shower in that bathroom felt like they’d combatted their sleepiness that much more. They came from it refreshed and hungry, so they went about getting themselves ready for dinner. Maya was glad now for the choice of dress she had packed that morning, and for the care she’d taken to prevent it getting all wrinkled throughout the day. Lucas at least had the advantage that he’d known what he was getting himself into when _he’d_ packed his things, which she saw now included her favorite suit of his – not to be confused with his best suit, no, just the one she preferred. When he caught her smiling, she grabbed her bag and told him she would go and get ready in the bathroom.

Two could play that game, of course. For her part, she had held up an occasionally observed habit of going to buy a new dress a couple of weeks before a big event and keeping it hidden so he wouldn’t see it until the ‘big reveal.’ By now, she knew how to spot something to tick all the categories: something she would love, something _he_ would love, specifically something that make him get that hammer-to-the-head sort of look on his face.

“Do we even really need to go anywhere?” was his response upon seeing her… once he was able to string some words together.

“I want to have dinner in that dining room, don’t you?” she asked, grinning so hard from the look on his face as she approached.

“I… I mean, sure, but… uh…”

“Dinner,” she reminded him. “Feed me and I will be the happiest girl.”

“I can make that happen,” he gave a nod before holding his arm out to her.

The dining room was really worth the departure from their private haven upstairs, and as they sat there, seeing the waiters pass by with plates, catching the scents, they were glad for having made the trip.

“So, what made you decide to bring me here today?” Maya asked, once they had put in their orders. “Of all the things we could have done which… probably didn’t cost nearly as much…” she noted, hoping not to sound in any way ungrateful.

“I…” he breathed out, recalling his thought process, hesitating to even bring it up. “It took me a while to figure it out. I had ideas, a lot of them, but none of them felt right, they were just too out there, like I just wanted to…” He didn’t have to say it. She knew what he’d wanted to do, or _not_ do, the same thing she had not wanted to do, with the party. “In the end, I just thought today had to be about you and me, nothing and no one else, so what better way than to get away, disconnect from the rest of the world, for one night at least.”

“You know there are other people in the hotel,” she whispered. She was all smiles though, feeling like she understood exactly what he’d been going for. She couldn’t have come up with a better plan if she’d tried. “Once we get back upstairs, we can just pretend like they’re not though…”

Dinner had been everything they could have asked for. Everything had tasted and looked great, and they’d left nothing behind in those plates, right down to dessert. They sat and just talked for a while after they’d finished, and then they made their way back up to their room, hands locked together as she set her head to his shoulder. When they reached the room, they set the sign on the door to prevent their being disturbed and shut the door.

“This couch is too good, I don’t think I can leave here,” Maya hummed after having kicked off her shoes and sat and laid back on the cushy couch.

“That good?” he asked, and she waved for him to come join her, which he did, padding up on his socks. The couch adopted him, too, and he breathed out, undoing the button on his jacket. “I don’t think we can stay here permanently, but I’ll tell you what, we can come back here on other anniversaries. Maybe not every year, but sometimes, definitely.”

“I like the sound of that. A tradition, we need more of those,” she told him, moving over to reach for his tie and loosen it. “You put that on just so I could take it off, didn’t you?”

“You have this habit of grabbing me by the front of my shirt, I figured the tie worked just as well.”

“So long as I don’t accidentally choke you with it,” she chuckled.

“That’d be preferable,” he agreed with a grin as she used the loosened accessory to pull him into a kiss. “See, it works,” he managed to say before their lips met.

They loved the house, loved living with so many of their friends, sharing their day to day… But then there were times where living all seven of them in there could start to get a bit complicated, and they would look forward to a point in their lives where they could have a place all their own, to live in the peace it would afford them. That had been a bit of what Lucas had wanted to give her for this anniversary, and that was exactly what he’d done.

“I could get used to this, too,” Maya declared a little while later, as they sat there on the couch, still in their dinner clothes, if a bit more disrupted than when they’d returned upstairs, with the loot they had liberated from the mini bar in their laps, and a movie playing on the large screen across from them.

“Which part?” he asked, offering her the bag of jelly beans which he’d just opened.

“Doing stuff like this,” she gestured to the snacks and the movie. “And stuff like… all of that before,” she casually brushed a loosened strand of hair behind her ear, “In fancy dress. Feels kind of like we shouldn’t, so then when we do…”

“What else would I wear while doing laundry?” he nodded, and she laughed.

“I can go walk the dogs and look all powerful,” she added, indicating her dress.

“I am familiar with that power,” he agreed. The memory of her first walking out of that bathroom still got his heart a bit fidgety, though that could also be a bit from fooling around earlier… “So, you know what next year is going to be?” he asked as he took the bag of almonds that she offered him.

“Lucky seven,” she grinned.

“That, yeah,” he smiled. “But also…”

“Our last anniversary in Houston,” she nodded, showing she’d been messing with him before. “Although not exactly, if we do come back here sometimes. So, the last anniversary while we live here,” she corrected. The thought settled in, thinking of being back in Austin for their ninth. She’d be through with school, and he’d be starting his next step… and they’d be on their own for the first time. “No pressure, okay?” she insisted.

“I promise,” he tipped his head. That was sort of the arrangement now, wasn’t it? She took care of Halloween, and he had the anniversary the next day. “I’ll just go ahead and cancel the fireworks,” he hooked his thumb over to where his phone sat.

“Funny guy,” she crooked her eyebrow. “Fireworks are my job anyway, and if you don’t believe me, just look in my eyes right now…”

TO BE CONTINUED


	204. Their Visit With Pappy

They would never attain levels of the Morrison or Zhu magnitude of lights, but as November came nearer to the halfway mark, it came to be that Sophie and Chiara convinced the rest of the household to try and ‘up their Christmas game.’ Neither girl stated it in so many words, but the other five had all instantly assumed that Chiara’s discovery and fascination for the heightened displays had made short work of convincing Sophie to jump along. If that was something they wanted to do, then the rest of them were all for it. Besides, the two of them were holding on to the house after the rest of them would leave, so why not help them start their tradition?

Unlike Mr. Morrison, they had _not_ undertaken the effort in the middle of the night, though it had still taken several hours. It wasn’t so much that they had too many lights to put up, more so that this was their first time attempting to put any on the house, so they had needed to figure out how they’d go about it. Repaying the favor that they had done him, Leigh’s father _had_ come along to give them some pointers, which had probably cut down the installation time by a half.

On Friday, with a weekend trip home to Austin later that evening, Lucas and Maya were due at the Hillard house, for dinner with Lucas’ uncle, aunt, cousins, and grandfather. There had been no mention of whether or not Professor Robinson would be there tonight, but it had become a fair assumption between them that she would _probably_ be there. It was almost automatic now, to the point where they wondered if, without anyone saying a word of it to anyone else, Patty had been staying there at the house, with Pappy Joe.

“I don’t know, I mean…” Maya frowned, as she and Lucas debated this question on the drive over. “I see her almost every day, and it’s not like I expect her to tell me everything about her life, especially while we’re ‘on the clock,’ but she’s driven me home a few times now, and if she was going to your uncle’s, she would have gone off the opposite way,” she gestured. “Anyway, if she really is staying there, then… good for them.”

“No, yeah, I agree, it’s just that so long as they don’t say anything, it feels weird.”

“Maybe they’re not saying anything because there’s nothing to say.”

When they reached the house, they were surprised to find Joseph to be joined by Rosa, Leigh, and Colton, the four of them tossing the basketball at the hoop over the garage door. Well, they all tried, some better than others. Joseph and Leigh were definitely the better of the four, and playing on opposite teams, as Lucas and Maya could well see, they would move around one another, Joseph trying to make a shot and Leigh blocking him, with enough of a drive that Rosa and Colton both seemed to just have decided to stay back and let them get on with it. When she spotted the car, Rosa lifted her arm to greet them, which Joseph misinterpreted as her telling him to pass. He tossed the ball and, not actually paying attention to him, Rosa cried out when it hit her in the back of the head.

The other three were already crowded around her by the time Lucas managed to park the car and he and Maya hurried over to see if she was okay. Joseph was apologizing profusely, even as Rosa kept insisting that she was fine.

“I’ll get her some ice,” Colton hurried into the house, while the others convinced Rosa to go and sit down.

“How many fingers?” Leigh held up their hand. “And don’t give the sarcastic answer.” In answer, Rosa held up her own hand, and the same fingers Leigh had raised.

“Okay?” she asked. Colton returned with the ice just as Lucas was saying how they’d had no idea she would be here tonight. “I’m not though,” Rosa told Maya and him. “We’re going to a club party.”

“Maybe we should pass and stay here,” Joseph told her. “Just in case.” The ice was set to her head and she winced, reaching up to hold it in place.

“Josie, go get your mom, she’s a doctor, she’ll tell you I’m good to go,” she pointed to the house.

“She’s not that kind of doctor,” Joseph pointed out.

Lucas and Maya left the four of them bickering outside. As far as they were concerned, Rosa did look fine, so it would be up to her to decide.

“What is going on out there?” Pappy Joe appeared, moving out of the kitchen to come and greet them. “That little fella came running through and left with ice…”

“Just an issue with a ball and a head,” Maya told him, just as they were joined by Professor Robinson. She wore an apron, and she wiped her hands on it like she’d just been washing them or handling food. “Evening, Patty,” Maya smiled as the woman embraced her. “We weren’t sure you’d be here tonight,” she went on, looking back to Lucas.

“Oh, well, I had other plans. I suspected that they might fall through, and I’d end up here, but I didn’t want to say anything unless I knew for certain.”

“Maya!” Sarah Hillard called as she and her younger sister, Evie, came rumbling down the stairs. “Can you come upstairs for a minute?” Sarah asked.

“Uh, sure,” she nodded before turning to Lucas again. “Be right back.”

“I remember the first time we came over,” Lucas told his grandfather and the professor. “They recognized her from the band, and they froze. They could barely say a word to her.”

“Looks like they’ve conquered that problem,” Patty laughed.

By the time Maya returned downstairs along with the second and third of the five Hillard children, first born Joseph and his friends had come inside. They had finally convinced Rosa to skip the party. They still wanted to do their own thing though, so they wouldn’t be sitting to dinner with the family, instead ordering a pizza and bunking down in the basement to watch a movie or two, maybe play video games… The rest of them finally moved into the kitchen, finding Hank and Tanya along with their two youngest. When they heard about the change of plans for Joseph and his friends, Tanya went down to go get a look at Rosa. Maybe she wasn’t ‘that kind of doctor,’ but she still needed to see for herself.

“Why does he get to have pizza and we don’t?” Sarah complained when she and the other kids discovered what was going on downstairs.

“Oh, I think you’ll do just fine with what we’re having up here,” Patty told the girls with that grandmotherly voice of hers. “I had some very good assistants to help me, too,” she looked to Maggie and Henry, who nodded proudly. “And your mother and father, too, of course.”

“One more meal and I get a gold star,” Hank told his daughters, making them laugh. By the time they were told about dessert, the pizza had been forgotten.

With this latest semester advancing as it was, they were all gearing toward finals and the winter break already. For Maya, especially, seeing it all from the other side as far as the classes she was assisting on, it was an experience for which she had both been nervous and excited. But it was all shaping up pretty well by now, so she didn’t feel the nervous part so much anymore.

As for Lucas, maybe for how much he and Maya had been ringing up the fact that next year would see their last Halloween in Houston, their last anniversary, all of that, he had been thinking more and more about the next step in his studies, after his four years here would be over. Seeing how fast this semester seemed to be going by only increased the feeling. He was already thinking about what his options might be once they went back to Austin, when he wouldn’t have his aunt’s clinic anymore.

“You’re planning another trip already?” he asked, surprised, when Pappy Joe mentioned it in passing.

“Nothing as travel heavy as the last one,” Joe chuckled, looking to the professor.

“A former colleague of mine lives out in Quebec City, and she’s invited Joe and I to spend a few days out with her sometime in December,” Patty explained. “We’ve been thinking we might stay up there a while longer. I haven’t been up there in a few decades, but I remember it being very beautiful.”

“And if she thinks it’s worth seeing, then I’m in,” Pappy Joe added with a strong nod. Little Henry, who looked up to the old man like a hero straight out of a cowboy movie, mimicked the gesture, which made him let out that booming laugh bordering on the one he would use as Santa. “You could come up a few days,” he went on, looking from Henry to Hank and Tanya. “You and the kids.”

“Is it where there’s snow a lot?” Evie asked, spearing a bit of potato from her plate.

“Oh, yes,” Patty told her with a smile. “You could try skiing, or ice skating, build some snow sculptures. And there’s these places called sugar shacks…” She had said enough. Now all four of the kids at the table were sold for going up there over the winter break. Their parents looked like they would rather have waited until the decision had been made before letting the kids in on anything, but there was no turning back now.

“We’ll have to see if we can get away,” Tanya told them. They all started to talk at once, insisting that they wanted to go, that they should go, and didn’t something called a sugar shack sound great??

“We could always take them ourselves,” Pappy Joe offered his nephew, who gave him a look like he wished the conversation could be put on pause until it was just the four of them adults and no kids or guests. “We will do our best,” Pappy Joe looked back to the kids with a smile. They seemed to accept it and move on.

“He would do that with me when I was little, too,” Lucas told Maya after the two of them had left the Hillard house, driving home to pick up Riley and Dylan, who were headed to Austin with them. “Used to drive my father crazy. My mother would always jump on board, of course.”

“Because she couldn’t say no to you,” Maya guessed, laughing.

“Pretty much, yeah,” he confirmed. “Eventually I sort of figured out that this was a thing, and I tried to use it to make something happen that I wanted to happen, I can’t even remember what it was anymore. It all worked great, but then I overshot the next time.” She laughed, curious to know what had happened. “My dad busted me. Wouldn’t even tell my mother until after I’d done my punishment because she would have just laughed it off.”

“Never did it again, huh?” Maya asked with a smirk.

“Maybe… once…” he admitted.

“When was that?” she sat up.

“Junior year.” Oh, she had to hear this now. “It was easier than sneaking out to go and see you,” he defended his actions, which only made her burst out laughing. This was too good…

“Coming from you, I’m actually not that surprised,” she finally told him. He tried not to, but then he just had to laugh, too. “Did they ever find out?”

“Not that time, no,” he replied.

“I won’t tell a soul, I promise,” Maya grinned as they pulled up to the house and he honked the horn. “I might tell them about that one though, _honking_ , Huckleberry?” she gasped.

“What, they’re right there,” he pointed to the window, where she spotted Riley and Dylan now, jumping apart, startled. “They were just… distracted.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	205. Their Visit With a Weekend

While Lucas, Riley, and Dylan were loading the bags into the trunk, Maya dashed back into the house for a minute to go and find Sophie and Chiara. The two of them were sitting on the couch, watching a movie, where Chiara looked both annoyed and enamored by the way Sophie had started picking up on and pointing out problematic police procedure in whatever movie or television show they would watch, just as she did now.

“Hey, tiny favor?” Maya leaned over the couch. Sophie paused the movie and both she and Chiara turned their heads toward her. “Rosa’s still at the Hillard house now, but when she gets back, maybe keep an eye on her?” She told them about the whole ball to the head thing that had happened earlier, promising that she seemed okay on the whole, just soreness and maybe a small bump. Still, she didn’t think she’d be able to go off in peace with the others if she didn’t at least let these two know – Rosa definitely wouldn’t even bring it up – just in case it turned out to be not so fine.

“Okay, sure, we got her,” Sophie sat up.

“Thanks, Officer,” Maya grinned, nudging her shoulder, and waving to Chiara before heading back out to the car. The others were already in their seats, so she climbed into the passenger side and clicked in her belt before they pulled back on to the street and on their way to Austin.

Maya had been tempted to sit in the back, too, just so she could chat with the others easier, Riley especially. Sure, she would hear and see for herself once they got out there, but she wanted the latest news on Riley’s mom and the pregnancy. She had always been a frequent caller to her family back there, no more than two days without checking in, but since she’d found out about her parents’ new baby coming along, she’d been calling home every day.

“She says she’s getting flashbacks to the last two times, except she finds it harder this time around,” Riley revealed. “Other than that, everything seems to be going well. She’s about four months in now, though she says it looks more like five or something. Just don’t do the ‘oh, maybe it’s twins’ joke, because she will not find it funny.”

“Dad says they should call it Hunter, boy or girl,” Maya grinned. “Then they’ll have Matthew Hunter and Hunter Matthews.”

The night rides usually went one of two ways. Either they’d get the music up to keep everyone energized, or they would talk a while before the darkness and the lull of motion started putting the non-driving passengers to sleep. This one, once they had gone through the subject of Baby Matthews, and then the incident with Rosa and the basketball, and the dinner at the Hillards, with Pappy Joe and Professor Robinson’s next vacation together, soon led to Riley falling asleep with her head on Dylan’s shoulder, before his head leaned to hers and he fell asleep, too.

“Oh, good, the kids are asleep,” Lucas joked, and Maya barely contained her laugh.

“At least we get a bit of quiet now,” she told him.

“Are you going to drift off, too, and leave me all on my own?” he asked.

“I would never do that to you,” Maya shook her head, grinning. “Who needs dreams when I’ve got this?” she gestured at him. “Alright, dreams are good, too, sometimes, especially when my brain gets a bit more… creative than the real world.”

“What does Dream Lucas do that I don’t?” he had to wonder. She had that laugh now that seemed to say ‘oh, well, let’s see…’

“Dream Lucas, now there’s a guy…” she hummed. “A lot of the time, in the more outlandish scenarios, he’s sort of… Okay, so I’m going to admit something huge here, but you don’t actually have that much of an accent like this,” she said, using her exaggerated imitation of him.

“Wow, how brave of you to say it,” he teased.

“Yeah, well, guess who does talk like that?”

“Dream Lucas?” Real Live Lucas answered.

“Ha-hur he does,” she beamed.

“So, he’s a cowboy.”

“He is _the_ cowboy,” she held up a finger to specify.

“I’m starting to think he’s like one of those guys on the novel covers in the romance section,” he squinted, the image called up in his head.

“Open shirt, kind of windswept, more of that scruff going,” she gestured at his chin, sighing dramatically. “Hold on, I am picturing him now, ooh, he is on _fire_ … Sure got me all… woo…” she fanned herself before bursting out laughing and just as quickly pulling it back in, remembering the sleepers in the back. They didn’t even stir.

“Are you in this dream, too, I mean… Dream Maya and all?” he had to ask.

“You bet I am,” she smiled, turning on her own cranked up Southern Belle voice.

“Oh, good,” Lucas smirked.

“Can’t say too much in present company,” she nodded to Riley and Dylan. “Needless to say, she’s got it bad for Dream Lucas. She’s got that whole swoon thing down, knows he’ll be right there to catch her in those arms of his. And then she’ll bat her eyes at him and…”

“I get the picture, maybe tell me more when I’m not driving anymore?” he gave her a look and she nodded and pointed at him. Good call.

They had done the drive enough times now to be able to gauge how far they’d gotten and how far they still had to go, how long it would take depending on the amount of traffic, by landmarks and signs and sometimes a particular tree. By the time they reached what they affectionately referred to as ‘the halfway tree,’ Maya was starting to feel the lull working on her, too. She didn’t want to fall asleep and leave Lucas hanging, but oh her eyes were growing heavier by the second. She rolled down the window a bit to let some air in, wake her up. After a few minutes of this had gotten her only a tiny bit less snooze-like, she opted for keeping her mind busy by starting to sing. She didn’t want it to be so slow as to work right against her, but anything too big _would_ work against letting the others in the back sleep. When she picked up on Lucas providing an accompanying beat with his thumbs and fingers on the steering wheel, she smiled and pivoted her head away from the window and over to him.

“The Road to Austin: Car Jams Unplugged,” she declared after they stopped.

“I like it,” he smiled. “Now are these different from the ones when we’re headed back to Houston?”

“They’re rarely at night, so they’re more upbeat and awake sounding?” she guessed. “I mean I know it’s not like we couldn’t just leave in the morning, we’re the ones who chose to go at night, so we’d get as much time with our families as possible, but yeah, this one’s dragging on,” she nodded to all the cars ahead of them. “What are you all doing out here tonight, huh?” she addressed them.

Eventually they got to the point where things finally opened up, and they were reaching the parts of the city that started them feeling it: they were almost there, almost home. Houston was home, too, but it was different. Austin was the place where their families were, where they had grown up, some more than others.

“Hey…” Maya looked over her seat as they were making their way to the Matthews home. _“Hey!”_ she reached down and got hold of Riley’s foot, giving it a tug. At once, her oldest friend startled and awoke, which in turn got Dylan to open his eyes, too.

“Are we there yet?” he yawned.

“Almost,” Lucas told him.

When they did reach the house, Riley and Dylan got out and grabbed their bags and said goodbye until Sunday, when they’d be having dinner here before heading back to Houston, one of those exceptions to the claim that those drives happened in daylight. They might have stopped in to say hello for a few minutes, but by now they were both feeling the day and they just wanted to get to the Friar house.

“Alright, come on, time for the big finish,” Lucas declared, seeing Maya was starting to drift off again. He started another beat on the wheel. When she recognized the song, she smiled and started to sing.

They reached the house, letting themselves in quietly even though they knew his parents would be up and waiting for them.

“Hello?” Lucas called out, looking around until he spotted the two of them, sitting in the living room. Mr. Friar was absently watching an old rerun on television, while Mrs. Friar had been flipping through a baking magazine, which she immediately tossed next to her on the couch as she got up to go and greet her son and his girlfriend.

“I was starting to wonder if you were still coming,” she told them, moving to take the bags from their hands.

“Mom, it’s alright, we can take care of it,” Lucas smiled at her. She stopped then and held her hands up with a smile as though to say ‘okay, if you’re sure.’ “We’re actually pretty tired so we’re just going to head up now.”

“See you in the morning,” Tom Friar nodded to them both. His wife contented herself with a hug to each before they moved up the stairs to Lucas’ old room.

“Is it just me or are our lives just really exhausting these days?” Maya sighed as she set down her bags and did a half spin to drop on to her back on the bed. “I am twenty-one years old, it is not even midnight, what is this?”

“College?” he suggested. She grunted. “And work,” he continued. She flailed her hand at him until he came and sat next to her. “The band,” he added. “And Halloween, and all that…”

“I’m hearing a lot of things, but I’m not seeing your face any closer to mine,” she shook her head, smiling once he leaned back and turned to kiss her. “I don’t know,” she sighed, returning to the conversation. “I think I just need to reorganize my schedule a bit.”

“First things first, we could be sleeping right now,” he pointed out.

“Not a bad idea. Does it mean I have to get up and change now though?”

“Well, I could help you, but past experiences tell me that this usually leads to something that’s really not… sleep…” he tipped his head, holding her gaze. She smirked.

“Dream Lucas, is that you?” she drawled.

“It’s totally one of those romance novels,” he laughed before getting up. “Come on, you need sleep more,” he managed to snatch up her hands and pull her back seated.

“I don’t know, the other thing was starting to get interesting,” she insisted as he went to get her travel bag and opened it for her to fish out her PJs. “I feel much better now,” she turned big innocent eyes up at him.

“Oh, hey, look, here’s the shirt with the cat,” he held it out to her.

“You have the resistance of a very good guy,” she smiled, taking the proffered shirt and the pants that matched it.

“I’ve been told. Say hi to Dream Lucas for me,” he smirked.

One change later, they got into bed, though rather than going for the usual spoon, she preferred to turn on her other side, her head at his shoulder and her arm around him as he had both of his around her. He had barely reached over to turn the lamp off next to him that he could already hear her even breathing. She was sleeping, and he could swear there was a smile on her face.

TO BE CONTINUED


	206. Their Visit With the Friars

Maya awoke the following morning with her arms wrapped around her pillow instead of her boyfriend, who was presently nowhere to be seen. Looking at the time, she was stunned to discover it was already after ten.

Making her way down the stairs, she ended up in the kitchen, finding Mr. Friar as he emptied the dishwasher. She looked around, like she expected Lucas or his mother to be somewhere in a corner she hadn’t found.

“They went out about an hour ago. Dash wasn’t doing too good, they took her to the clinic,” Mr. Friar explained. “Lucas didn’t want to wake you, so he left me as his messenger. You hungry?”

“Uh… yeah,” she blinked, waking enough now to feel the alarm that would have been caused by the Friars’ dog being ill. Until they came back, she could only hope that Dash would be okay.

She got herself some coffee while Tom Friar went about preparing eggs and bacon and some toast. He scooped up some of his wife’s fruit salad into a bowl and set it in front of Maya before getting back to the stove. For a while, the only sound came from the food in the process of being made, and the stabbing of her fork in the fruit… It wasn’t that this was weird. She’d hung out with both of Lucas’ parents while he wasn’t around. But the quietness of the house had a way of binding them to do the same.

Once he brought her plate to the table, Tom sat across from her, only to remember he’d been doing something else before and rise again to continue emptying the dishwasher. Maya smirked. It was always wild to see her friends’ parents do something that would highlight the traits they shared with their children. In that moment, Mr. Friar looked a great deal like his son.

When she was done eating, Maya loaded her dishes into the now emptied dishwasher. Tom thanked her before asking if she might like to accompany him to the grocery store. She had brought some reading for class, but she knew that right now, with Lucas and his mother out there dealing with the Dash situation, she had very little chance of keeping her focus and remembering a single word she read. So, she said yes.

As they drove to the store, they found themselves discussing the drive between Houston and Austin and vice versa. Mr. Friar was not keen on long drives himself, and he asked about how she felt about them.

“It’s not so bad, most times,” she shrugged. “Especially when there are others in the car, too.”

“Oh, I suppose that’s true,” he nodded. “What do you do?”

“Usually, we just turn the music up kind of loud, sing like we’re the most ridiculous people in the world,” she showed him, miming a particularly dramatic interpretation, which made him laugh. He had never sounded quite like his father, which made her wonder if Lucas would laugh like that, too, someday. “Anyway, we couldn’t really do that last night, once the others fell asleep in the back.” When he asked what they did instead, she had to force herself not to smirk, thinking back to the discussion of ‘Dream Lucas’ and ‘Dream Maya.’ “Uh, well… We talked for a while… Complained about the traffic… I did sing a bit, mostly to keep from falling asleep. It’s worse at night.”

“Oh, I’ll bet. I’ve gotten to a point now where I can’t stand driving at night unless I have no choice. Two hours on the road at night, I would need a lot more than singing.” Maya chuckled at this, just as they were pulling up to the store.

Once inside, Mr. Friar asked her if she wanted the basket or the list, holding up the paper filled with his wife’s neat handwriting.

“I’ve got this,” she smiled, taking the list from him.

“Then I’ll drive,” Tom nodded, and they were off.

As they went along, she took out her phone, sending off a message to Lucas, letting him know where she was and also asking after Dash. She also found a message waiting from Sophie, telling her that everything was fine on their end. Rosa was fine, mostly ‘crabby whenever she pokes her head, even though we keep telling her not to.’ She sent off a reply in the form of a thumbs up emoji, only to receive Lucas’ reply right after.

_Lucas: The clinic wasn’t open yet when we arrived. We’re still waiting to be seen now. Mom said Dash had been off for a few days already, so she had an appointment with her, but this morning it was just bad, so we couldn’t wait. Mom insisted on seeing their usual doctor, which is why we didn’t go to the emergency clinic._

She showed the message to Lucas’ father and he read it, shaking his head to himself before handing the phone back.

“Melinda wouldn’t trust a stranger in a situation like this,” he told her. She could imagine as much.

They continued making their way through the aisles mostly in silence for a while, except for whatever had to do with the list. Maya would pick up the items, setting them in the basket, they’d move along… Finally, she told him about dinner at the Hillards’ the night before, and about Pappy Joe’s trip to Quebec City with Patty Robinson over the holidays. When she told him about the ‘ambush’ over Hank and Tanya either bringing or sending the kids up there, Tom laughed.

“I told Hank, when Dad agreed to move in with him, he didn’t get into playing Santa Claus by accident,” he tipped his head to her, only to suddenly stand up straight again and absently look at the shelves to his right. Maya frowned, only to spot a small boy just behind them, standing frozen on the spot with a confused look on his face. She had to do her best to look forward and not giggle, realizing the poor kid was probably questioning everything he knew about the jolly man whose face was popping up in more and more windows as they edged toward December.

“Do you miss having him at the house?”

“Oh, sure. After he was injured, it only made sense to have him stay with us while he recuperated. But then he let go of the house and stayed with us, so I guess we got used to having him around. It was like before I left home, only in reverse. I’m okay with him moving out. The way I see it, if being in Houston, being near your Professor Robinson, going on trips with her, makes him feel happy, and alive, then I wouldn’t want him anywhere else.” Maya smiled. It wasn’t just facial features he shared with his son.

After they finished up with the groceries, Maya asked if Mr. Friar minded dropping her off at the clinic on the way, so she could be with Lucas and his mother. The man smiled and made the turn to get them in the direction of the clinic. He let her out once they arrived, continuing back toward home as she went inside.

The waiting room was surprisingly occupied for a Saturday morning, though this probably explained the extended wait. She quickly found Lucas though, sitting on his own and looking like he needed a distraction, big time. When he looked up and saw her standing there, he breathed out and got up to hug her.

“They’re in there now?” she guessed as they sat down.

“Yeah, about ten minutes ago. I stayed back, didn’t want to crowd the room.” She looped her arms around one of his, leaning her chin to it.

“You could have woken me; I would have understood.”

“You were tired, you needed your sleep. Did it help?”

“Loads,” she promised. He nodded. _Good._

“I called Aunt Tanya,” he went on. “Told her about Dash. She thinks the same thing I did when I saw her this morning.”

“Something bad?” Maya dreaded to know. Lucas had had the dog since she was a puppy, in the summer before 9th grade. She was six now, with years ahead of her unless…

“Might be if she doesn’t start getting better. Aunt Tanya suggested I bring her back to Houston with us tomorrow night, if we want a second opinion after today.”

“We can just go back today if we have to, my parents will understand.”

“No, I know. We’ll see, I guess.”

Having dogs around them had just become such a part of their lives. They had Trix and Lou and Peanut back at home, and Ghost and Tuck and Queen at her parents’… Dash had been the first of them, a year before the Hunter Hart three. They had not lost a single one of them yet, and the thought of that moment coming to pass was legitimately scary. Those pups were as much family as anyone else.

Lucas and Maya both stood up at once when Melinda Friar emerged on her own. She must have read the instant panic on their faces because she immediately raised her hands in reassurance.

“I couldn’t carry her, Lucas, could you…” she pointed back, and her son moved right along to go and get the dog.

“What did they say? How’s Dash?” Maya asked the woman, moving up to her and touching her arm, she hoped, giving some reassurance of her own.

“Oh, the doctor won’t know until they’ve run some tests,” she shook her head.

“Lucas said he spoke with his aunt about maybe bringing Dash to her?” Maya mentioned, which she guessed might have happened just a few minutes before her own arrival, after Dash had been taken in. This was news to her, but it was good news, from the look on her face. She trusted Tanya Hillard very much, and if she could help Dash…

“Yes, if she can see her…” Melinda Friar nodded.

“We can take her there tomorrow night, or today if you think…”

“No, I… I think tomorrow will be fine. Thank you, I… Oh, here’s our girl…” she looked up as Lucas came through with Dash in his arms. She ran her hand over the dog’s back. Dash looked up at her as she did this. Maya hadn’t seen the dog the night before, with how tired she’d been when they’d arrived, but they were right, she really didn’t look like her usual self. “We’re taking you home, yes we are,” Melinda hushed, looking at the dog who she had once tried so hard to convince everyone was called Lulu, before Dash had just stuck to her.

Lucas got behind the wheel of his mother’s car, Maya taking the passenger seat while Melinda sat in the back with the dog, speaking to her the entire way back to the house. When they arrived, Lucas came and carried her inside just as he’d carried her out that morning when he and his mother had taken her to the clinic. He would settle her in her dog bed, in his parents’ room. Maya trailed behind as Melinda was greeted by her husband. Tom hugged her, guessing easily that the news wasn’t good even if it wasn’t necessarily bad. Either way, it would have affected her.

Maya went to find Lucas. He was sitting on the ground, in front of the small bed, gently petting the dog. He’d had her since he was sixteen, and the only reason he hadn’t taken her with them to Houston when they’d started college, same as her with the trio, was that someone back here needed her more… But he’d missed her, and now, being here when she was sick…

“We’ll start back for Houston after dinner tomorrow,” Maya told him. “Won’t be too dark yet.” He nodded without a word, continuing to tend to the dog staring up at him.

TO BE CONTINUED


	207. Their Visit With a Date

The plan had been that they would have dinner with Lucas’ parents on Saturday night, after which they would head to the Hunter Hart house and spend the rest of their weekend with Maya’s family, before driving back to Houston in the evening. Mr. & Mrs. Friar had prior engagements on Saturday evening anyway, so it wouldn’t be as though they were skipping out on them.

With everything that had happened with Dash that morning however, there was some debate about whether it might not be best for Tom and Melinda to just cancel and stay home with the ailing pup.

“You should go,” Lucas told his parents when they first suggested this.

“No, I wouldn’t want to leave her on her own,” his mother shook her head at once. “She could take a turn for the worse and then…”

“We’ll stay with her,” Maya chimed in now. She looked to Lucas, and he gave a nod. She turned back to the Friars. “We’ll watch her until you get back, and then we’ll go.”

It took a bit more nudging, but finally they convinced the pair. Maya called home and spoke with her father, who told her and Lucas to take their time, that if they needed to spend tonight at the Friars’ again, they would understand, too.

With that settled, they spent the afternoon looking after Dash, just being with her. Maya got through her class readings with her book balanced on one leg and the dog’s head laid on the other as she’d stroke her back. Lucas would be at her side, taking over from time to time. He wished in that moment that he could have been further in his studies, that he could genuinely help his old friend. He remembered when she was still a puppy, and she’d fit over his arm… He remembered how she had gone and ‘adopted’ the guest bed they’d kept in his room from when Farkle used to visit, and they’d had to coax her away from it… He remembered an old hoodie she’d almost literally loved to pieces…

As the afternoon progressed, they heard Tom and Melinda in the process of getting ready, even as they showed reluctance over leaving the dog. But they left, shortly before dinner, leaving their son and his girlfriend to see after Dash.

“I don’t really feel like cooking, do you?” Maya turned to Lucas.

“No…” he admitted. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know… Not pizza again…” she sighed. Lucas thought it over for a few moments before nodding to himself and carefully getting up without disrupting the dog. “Where are you going?” Maya looked up.

“Somewhere that doesn’t deliver,” he leaned over and kissed the side of her head. “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

He called in a takeout order even as he drove, so that by the time he reached Ma Maggie’s, the food was nearly ready and he was on his way back again five minutes later. He was back at the house less than a half hour after he’d gone.

He returned to find both Maya and Dash laid out on the couch. It almost looked like they were asleep, but then Maya looked up as he approached, while Dash let out a sound like she’d definitely smelled what he carried in that bag of his.

“You got her something, yeah?” Maya asked as she carefully sat up and stood.

“Yeah, just hope she can eat it…”

They set up at the coffee table, so they could stay here with Dash and leave her on the couch. Under normal circumstances, even the most cautiously arranged meals consumed anywhere apart from the kitchen table would have gotten Melinda Friar all worked up, to the point that no one would even dare, but this time around they trusted that she’d permit this rule to be broken.

“Does this count as a lowercase d date?” Maya wondered, as the containers were set out on the tablecloth Lucas had laid over the coffee table. They both needed to be hopeful, to believe that Dash would get better, and it wasn’t going to happen if they sat around like the dog was on her last leg. She felt it, and maybe he did, too. He smiled at her.

“We could put on a movie… maybe something with a dog…”

“Wait, okay, but not just any movie with a dog,” she had to specify. This pulled a laugh out of him, recalling one time where the two of them, Riley, Asher, Dylan, and Nadine had watched… he couldn’t even remember what movie it had been… What he did remember was that there had been a dog, and things had not ended well for him. When the scene had played out, the reactions had varied, but Maya hadn’t been one of the ones who cried, no, that had been Riley and Zay. Maya had been furious, and he’d had to hold her back as she shouted at the screen. She’d been grumpy for the rest of the night, and he’d just kept her wrapped in his arms.

“No, never,” he promised. “What was that one we watched once, she was still a puppy, and she spent the whole movie standing in front of the screen, and she’d just run around and wag her tail whenever the dog came on?”

“Isn’t that like every movie, show… commercial?” Maya chuckled.

“No, sure, but that one really got to her, I think. I watched it again with my parents weeks later and she had the same reaction.”

“Ten bucks says you actually own the DVD because your mom bought it, not for you, not for herself, but for her,” she nodded over to Dash. Lucas didn’t look sure about that, but Maya insisted.

“Okay, deal,” he told her, standing up to go and check out their movie collection. “Nothing here. I’ll go see in the basement.”

“He’s totally going to find it,” Maya whispered to Dash, holding out a bit of the food Lucas had gotten her from Ma Maggie’s. She seemed to hesitate at first, but then she collected it from Maya’s hand and ate it up. “That good?” Maya smiled.

By the time Lucas returned two minutes later, she’d gotten the dog to eat a couple more bites. For everyone’s sake, she would keep them down.

“Did you find it?” Maya looked up, just as he held up the box. “Yeah!” she pointed, remembering now. “You can pay me back later, I know where you live,” she teased as he went and put the disc into the player.

They didn’t exactly expect Dash to have the same reaction now as she’d done five or so years ago, not with the way she was feeling, but they could still see her show some attentiveness toward the screen. She curled up and slept for the second half of the movie, but as a whole she seemed in a good place, and that was really what mattered to them.

“This wasn’t exactly the weekend I figured we’d have,” Lucas sighed, looking to Maya as she drained the last of her milkshake. She shook her head at him, not wanting him to feel like he needed to apologize to her. They couldn’t have known this would happen, and really, in the end, she didn’t mind it at all.

“Even if we hadn’t been here already, the minute they called you and said something was wrong with Dash, we would have been on the road to hurry up and get here. We’re good now, we’re here, with her…” she tipped her head to the sleeping dog. “And you know I love a good home date,” she smiled.

“I know it’s not the same, but all this keeps making me think of how you hated to leave Austin, when we were looking into colleges. You didn’t want to be away from your family, your sisters…”

“Doesn’t matter, dog, sibling, boyfriend or girlfriend… If you love them, you can’t stand being away from them, especially when they’re not well.”

When the Friars returned, they were told all about the quiet evening with dinner and the movie. Melinda saw the box and looked pleased to find that it had actually helped.

“We almost left about six times… Well, I almost did, and Tom convinced me to stay,” she admitted, sitting on the end of the couch, next to Dash’s head. “Thank you for staying with her,” she looked up to her son and reached for his hand, smiling. “Both of you, really.”

“Of course,” Lucas told his mother.

Choosing to leave for the Hunter Hart house had taken both Lucas and Maya a moment to decide. Part of them did feel like they’d be better off just staying here, just in case. But then they didn’t want to forget Maya’s family, her parents, her sisters, and her brother… And looking after one dog also made them want to make sure they didn’t neglect the trio who’d be out there and happy for a visit of their own. So, they grabbed their weekend bags and drove off toward Maya’s parents’ house.

“Do you miss living out here sometimes?” Lucas asked as they stopped and parked, the car silenced.

“Out here like Austin or just the house?” Maya asked.

“The house. Not just the being near family part, just that part of our lives, you know?” She looked at him for a moment, thinking, turning her head to look at the house now.

“I miss… our little house,” she admitted. “I love the addition, and I know that _not_ adding it would have meant that they would have had to move to a bigger place and then I wouldn’t have any part of it anymore. But… I don’t know, sometimes I look at it from out here and it’s hard to remember that it’s the same place we came to when I was thirteen. It was our first ‘real’ home, and the more time we were here, the more it mattered to me that we had it. I still remember what it felt like, so… yeah, I do miss it sometimes, living out here. I’m guessing you do, too.” He didn’t have to say it. The fact that he’d brought it up at all said plenty. The whole situation with Dash had somehow brought it all up for him. “Do you miss it more than you like where we are now?”

“Not even a little,” he replied, and she smiled. “Now is like here,” he held his hand up until it touched the top of the car, “Living at home out here is like this on a good day.” He set his other hand on the seat, between them. “Things like today, maybe it comes up like…” he raised his hand from the seat, up to where it could sit on his knee. “It’s not even on the same level. I miss it, but not nearly enough that I’d want to go back. Not unless you came with me,” he smiled. She laughed.

“You and me and your parents, every day… That’d be something.” He had to laugh, too, thinking the same thing of the same scenario but in the house just ahead of them. “We should head inside before someone thinks there’s people prowling out here.”

They grabbed their bags and headed into the house, where they were greeted by the totally up after their bedtime twins, running around with the eager trio of Ghost, Tuck, and Queen enabling their rebellion against sleep, while Shawn tried to get in there and scoop up his daughters to no avail. When they all spotted the pair just inside the door, it was a rush of shouting little girls, barking dogs, and a tired father calling for them to snatch up the twins while they could. It was by no means an uncommon scene in the house, but it had never been as welcome as it was on that day, the wonderful mess cheering Lucas and Maya up after a day of worries.

TO BE CONTINUED


	208. Their Visit With the Hunter Harts

They were not telling the little Hunters about Dash being sick. It would only upset them, especially if they had any hope of going to sleep so, at least for the time being, it was better to keep them unaware. This wasn’t too difficult on Saturday night, as Maya and Lucas arrived, helping to get the girls up to their room and to sleep. They were both so giddy, it was hard to do anything but smile, being around that energy, which was needed more than the girls could realize.

With the twins finally off to bed, and MJ already asleep, Maya and Lucas spent an hour or so just sitting in the living room with Katy and Shawn and the dogs. After spending a day with Dash, watching her so slow and unmoving most of the time, being surrounded by the trio of dogs here, crowding around them as they did, showing their own happiness for having them around, it felt… They didn’t want it to feel like they had abandoned Dash in order to be surrounded by healthy, active dogs, because that really wasn’t it, but deep down there _was_ something almost like guilt. But they’d look at those happy faces staring up at them, tongues lolling, tails wagging, and then they’d just smile.

The next morning, again, Lucas found himself awake first, and again he left Maya to keep on sleeping. He took his phone and started down the stairs. He would just check in with his father, to know how Dash had fared through the night.

He was about to connect the call, reaching the ground floor, when a sound broke through the early morning stillness. It didn’t take him too long to figure out what it was, and he soon found it came from the bathroom, just around from the stairs. Unsure whether he should go or not, he was still standing there when Katy Hart emerged, looking pale and clammy, which was par for the course right after having been sick like that. When she saw him there, she froze, surprised, only to spin on her heel and return to the bowl. This time, he went after her, finding a small towel and running it under cold water in the sink. He handed it over to her when she pulled back, stood by, and waited as she dabbed the cloth at her face.

“Thanks,” she finally spoke.

“Can I get you… What do you need?”

“Nothing, it’s fine,” she waved her arm, which he took as her reaching for him to help her stand up. He realized after a beat that she might simply have been waving off the offer, though she didn’t refuse him here. “Fourth time, you’d think it wouldn’t catch me so…” She paused, for the second time looking up at him like she was becoming aware it was him standing there, just like before her return to the bathroom. Lucas, for his part, was looking a bit wide-eyed, too. He hadn’t wanted to assume this was what it was at first, but now that she’d sort of unintentionally confirmed it… She looked down now, like her mind had gone elsewhere, gone to a few months ago. _Fifth time…_

“Does Mr. Hunter know?” was all he could think to ask.

“Yeah,” Katy replied, managing a smile born of a memory. “But the kids don’t, not yet, not any of them,” she held his gaze, and his mouth shut tight. Maya didn’t know…

“Right…”

“You can’t tell her,” Katy insisted, and despite the clamminess, she looked a whole lot like her eldest daughter here.

“Not a word,” he swore. “When are you planning to…”

“Well… It tends to keep going back and forth between waiting and just telling her while she’s here today. After… after last time, I think we might as well just tell her now, but then we don’t know.”

He followed her into the kitchen, just as Shawn came down the stairs with MJ balanced in one arm. One look to his wife seemed to confirm what he had thought he’d heard, but then seeing Lucas standing there as well, he looked uncertain that he could speak, or…

“It’s alright, he knows,” Katy bailed him out. Shawn nodded.

“Do you mind?” he turned to Lucas, holding up the two-year-old boy. Lucas came and took him, so Shawn could go toward Katy. “Did I hear…”

“Twice,” she confirmed. “Better not be a third…”

Lucas sat at the table, sitting MJ on his knee. Not having seen the twins by this time, he suspected they might be primed to sneak their way down the stairs to go and see their big sister in her room. He liked seeing this sort of morning routine. He wasn’t sure why, maybe because he’d been an only child growing up, and he only really remembered coming down in the morning to find his father either reading the paper or helping his mother with breakfast. He didn’t remember being the twins’ age specifically, but they were all – Nellie, Gracie, and MJ – getting to an age where they shared in this moment, and he loved that.

“Want juice,” MJ tapped his arm.

“Uh, sure, yeah, let’s get you some juice,” Lucas set the boy on his feet. He immediately went up to the counter and pointed up to one of the cabinets. _There_. Lucas opened the door and pulled down one of his cups. Now MJ moved to stand in front of the fridge and waited for Lucas to get the juice, fill his cup, close it, and hand it over, which he did. The boy looked up at him with a smile and started drinking his juice, standing in the middle of the kitchen.

“By the way, try not to mention any words around him about you-know-what,” Shawn told him, indicating his son. “He’s been repeating.”

“Got it,” Lucas nodded.

“Got it,” MJ echoed, making the others laugh.

“See? Oh, and he calls you Lulu, you know that?” Shawn went on. Lucas looked up at him, then the boy. He chuckled.

“My mother tried to call our dog Lulu at first, but that wasn’t her name.” The thought of his dog brought back the memories of the day before. He tried not to let it show, but there was no point.

“How’s she doing?” Katy asked, starting to sound better than before.

“Same since yesterday morning, I don’t know how last night went. But we’re taking her to my aunt once we get back to Houston tonight.”

He didn’t know how to pronounce himself any further than that without airing out any thoughts of what the chances were that Dash would actually pull through. He kept thinking how, even though his knowledge was still far from being what it needed to be in order to have a full picture, to be able to actually do something, he _had_ been working at the clinic, especially over the summer, and he’d picked up on so much. It was like he’d told Maya the day before. He’d seen this before at the clinic, he’d seen how this usually ended. It didn’t always, but odds were not in their favor. He wanted to give the others hope, his mother especially, but he couldn’t seem to give it to himself.

“Dog-dog-dog!” MJ toddled his way over to the closed basement door now, and he would look into the kitchen, to where he could see his parents and Lucas. He knew they were down there, and he wanted them out. He didn’t know which dog was which, so he’d call them all ‘dog.’ He didn’t know how to count either, but he had called to each in turn enough times that he now sought out the three dogs by calling them as he would if they were around. “Dog-dog-dog!” he insisted again.

“Fine, alright, hang in there, bud,” Shawn walked over to get the door open for him. “You sure know what you want today, don’t you? Ordering people around and all that? Come on,” he picked up his son before the stampede of dogs climbing up and out the door could reach him. With the door shut again, MJ was set on his feet, the better to gleefully reach to one dog and another.

“So, who else knows besides me?” Lucas had to ask, just in case. “Do Riley’s parents know yet?” They were coming over for dinner tonight, before the four roommates – and Dash – returned to Houston. He could just imagine Mr. & Mrs. Matthews discovering that the two of them and Katy and Shawn would become new parents again within a few months of one another after all.

“Cory and Topanga know,” Katy told him with a smile. “Shawn tried to wait; he really did. We found out… twelve days ago? He ran over there and told them eleven days ago. Apparently, there was a lot of hugging and crying and jumping around… Topanga was there, too,” she added, smirking to her husband.

“Juice dog?” MJ held up his cup toward Tuck.

“Okay, no, no, hold on,” Shawn swept in again, trying not to come in too quick and end up making MJ cry as he was prevented from sharing his juice. “Over there, see? Water?” he pointed. MJ looked over before going on toward the bowls near the back door. The dogs followed him like he was their keeper.

Stepping back into the living room, where he could just hear giggling ring out of Maya’s old room, which told him the twins had gone in as predicted, Lucas finally got to call his father to ask about Dash.

“She’s doing alright,” his father told him. “That is to say she hasn’t gotten any worse since you left. Your mother insists she’s doing better and that it’s because of the movie you played for her.”

“So, she’s reaching?” Lucas tried not to smile.

“As only your mother can.”

“We’ll come get Dash after dinner,” Lucas promised his father.

“I would have offered to bring her to you, but it’s probably a good idea for you to get a chance and come say hello to your mother before you head back.”

“Dad, if… If things get really bad for Dash… If she’s not… If we have to…” he struggled to make himself say the words, eventually giving it up altogether. He didn’t need to say it.

“I know, son, I know,” his father replied, as good as clapping him on the shoulder with his words.

“I mean, what do you want me to do? About you and mom… She’ll want to be there.”

“We will cross that bridge if we get to it,” Tom Friar insisted. “Your aunt is one of the best ones around here and we’re lucky to have her. I won’t tell you it’ll all be alright, because it might not be. But this is not the time for you to lose hope.”

“I’m not… I won’t… Call me if something changes before tonight?”

“Of course.”

After they hung up, Lucas took a brief look into the kitchen, where Katy still sat at the table, watching her son, who now sat on the ground, watching the dogs eat and drink, while Shawn worked on breakfast. He moved off toward Maya’s room. She was now sitting cross-legged on the bed, the twins on either side of her, with a sketchbook in her lap. She appeared to be attempting to recreate some creature from Gracie’s dream, which was some kind of puppy horse by the sound of it. When he cleared his throat to announce his presence, Nellie scrambled to stand on the bed and held out her hands like a shield.

“Stop! You can’t look, it’s a surprise!” she insisted.

“A surprise for me?” Lucas asked, pointing to himself. Nellie considered this for a moment.

“No?” Lucas waited. “Okay, you can come then,” she lowered one arm and turned her hand in a reaching gesture. He went and snatched her up, receiving giggles for his act, before sitting across from Maya and Gracie.

“He needs more hair!” Gracie begged. Maya turned a smile up to Lucas.

“More hair it is,” she told her sister, as they continued to work on the project until they were called for breakfast.

TO BE CONTINUED


	209. Their Visit With Secrets

At some point over breakfast, the twins got it in their heads that it would be the perfect day to decorate the Christmas tree. Katy told them that it was too early, that the tree wouldn’t last, but they wouldn’t believe that, oh no. Their friend Annabeth had her Christmas tree in _her_ house. Shawn told them that this was probably because they had a fake tree, so it couldn’t die like the other ones. He knew his mistake when he saw the girls’ eyes turn to saucers, while Katy gave him a look, and both Lucas and Maya tried not to laugh. It would be years before an actual tree would be allowed into the Hunter Hart house.

In the meantime, they now found themselves loading up the car with everyone, so they could go and acquire an artificial, not at all living or dead, Christmas tree. To further regain his foothold in his daughters’ good graces, while he and Katy and MJ went shopping for said hero tree, Shawn sent Maya and Lucas along with the twins to go shop for some lights and decorations.

“Sure, send us,” Maya shook her head as she looked to Lucas, while the girls were two steps ahead of them, staring fixedly into a shop window. “They’ll get overwhelmed, try and grab enough things to decorate a dozen trees, we’ll have to say no, and who _won’t_ be the bad guys?”

“They won’t get mad at you though,” Lucas smirked.

“Excuse me, have you forgotten _this_?” she lifted her chin to point to a small, barely noticeable scar. Alright, so he did remember that day last summer. One of the twins had thrown something in frustration, it had hit Maya in that spot, there’d been some blood, and confusion over which twin had done the throwing… Neither of them would either snitch or come clean, so they’d both been sent for a time-out. “If they start throwing things here, we have to pay for it.”

“Right…” Lucas slowly nodded. Standing there for a minute, they both got stuck trying to think of a way to get around that eventuality. Maya was the one to come up with something first.

“Hey, you two ready to go inside yet?” she asked, moving up to her sisters. They looked up at her, then back to the window. “You know, there’s more stuff in there, too,” she pointed out, and that changed their minds at once. Maya picked up Nellie, while Lucas got hold of Gracie, following her lead. They got two baskets, the better to sit one girl in the first and the other in the second. “Alright, now, ladies,” Maya addressed them in what she might call her ‘fancy decorator’ voice.

It was an immediate hit. Lucas thought it sounded like his mother if she’d been from New York instead of Texas.

“What we need to decide here is what kind of tree we’re going to have when this is over. We are artists today, all of us…” This caught their attention at once. They knew about artists. Their sister was one, and all those people who made things that were in museums, like the ones she would take them to… Whether or not it would instill some kind of self-control in them was what remained to be seen. “Now, tell me, should we maybe pick a few colors for our decorations? Like… pink?”

The twins looked to one another from their respective basket seats. Maya turned to Lucas, shrugging. _Let’s see if this works, huh?_

After some amount of debate, they came up with some sort of working plan. The real test of course would be to see what happened when the girls saw everything, all the lights, and the ornaments, all the decorations that swallowed up a good chunk of the store at the moment.

“I guess it wasn’t a complete failure, right?” Lucas told Maya as they watched the cashier ring up their items a while later.

“Yeah, it got a lot easier once they got too tired and fell asleep,” she smiled, carefully brushing Nellie’s hair from her face as she slept, curled up on the handlebar of the basket. Gracie was in much the same position in the second one. “This will be enough, I think, with whatever we use from the old ones, too. With any luck, they’ll forget some of the things we put back in the end.”

They’d already gotten a message from Shawn, saying that they had gotten the tree, but seeing as it took up a lot of space in the minivan, they would take it home and swing back to pick them up as soon as possible. They ended up sitting just inside the store, with their bags of decorations in one basket at their side, and one twin to each of them, sleeping away. They’d grabbed something to drink from a vending machine, passing the can between them. Without having to say it, they were both drinking as fast as they could, without going too fast, knowing that if the girls woke up, they would want some and they couldn’t have any.

“You know, we could just call to see if Riley and her family are ready to come over now,” Maya pointed out, looking at her phone for the time. “One of them could come and get us.”

“Actually, they might already be here,” Lucas told her. “I was talking to Dylan earlier, and he mentioned something about Christmas shopping while he and Riley were in town.”

At this, Maya sent off a text to Riley, asking where she was. When she and Dylan confirmed they were indeed at the mall, and that they were nearly done, Maya explained the situation and asked if they might be able to pick them up. At the same time, Lucas was calling to the Hunter Hart house to see if Shawn and Katy were still there.

“Hello?” Shawn’s voice answered.

“Hey, Mr. Hunter, Maya’s texting with Riley right now, they might be able to pick us up so you wouldn’t need to come and get us.” There was a pause, with a muffled sound like Shawn had covered up the phone with his hand before turning to repeat what he’d said to Katy.

“She’s next to you right now?” he finally came back.

“Uh, yeah?” Lucas blinked.

“Alright, so look, we’re trying to set things up over here to surprise Maya and the twins about the you-know-what. If you could find a way to make sure you guys don’t get back here for like an hour, that would actually be great.”

“Uh… okay…” he frowned to himself, hanging up and turning to look at Maya. He couldn’t see her screen, but her demeanor said enough to suggest Riley had agreed to drive them, and it would definitely not be an hour before they got back to her parents’ house. He had to act quick to create a diversion, and his options were small… and sleeping. _I’ll make up for this later, Gracie, I promise,_ he thought, before discreetly tickling her side until she’d wake up with a start. “Woah, hey, hello,” he looked at her as she looked around, disoriented. When she spotted the bags at their feet, it all started coming back to her.

“Can we make the tree now?” she asked.

“Not yet,” he told her. “Hey, are you hungry right now?” She considered this for a moment before giving a good nod. “I thought so. What about Nellie, do you think she’s hungry, too?”

“She’s sleeping.”

“She’ll wake up though, and she might be hungry, too. Hey, Maya?” She looked over, noticed Gracie was awake, and smiled.

“They should be done in about fifteen minutes, so…”

“I’m hungry,” Gracie informed her.

“Oh, well we…”

“Hungry…” Nellie’s voice sounded, and they saw she was waking up, too.

“You know, we did say we’d try and take them to that new restaurant over there,” Lucas nodded across the mall lot. “Riley and Dylan could come and join us there?”

The diversion went off as smoothly as they could have hoped, which was to say it was never identified as being one. They took off, the four of them and their bags, until they reached the restaurant and asked for a table for six. Maya called her parents, saying they had decided to stop for lunch and that they’d found a ride to get back so the two of them didn’t need to come back after all. Lucas smiled when she told him how they had been very receptive to the idea.

This was good. They would sit here a while, have lunch with their friends, and then they would go back, and Maya would get to find out she was about to be a big sister again. He didn’t even have to work that hard to hide the fact that he knew something she didn’t.

“Hold still, close your eyes for a second,” Maya was telling Nellie, sitting next to her in the booth, across from Lucas and Gracie. When Nellie did as told Maya reached out and carefully pulled a fallen eyelash from her sister’s face and presented it to her. “What you do now is you close your eyes and make a wish, then you blow at it like this…” she demonstrated. “And the lash flies away and maybe your wish will come true.”

“I want a baby sister!” Nellie declared at once, not even waiting to have blown the lash. Lucas almost knocked over his glass of water.

“Not… exactly how it goes, but that’s alright,” Maya smiled, ignoring him. “Here,” she held out her index, the fallen lash perched on the end. Nellie blew on it, and the little thing sailed off and out of sight. She turned back to her big sister expectantly. “Well, it doesn’t happen that fast,” Maya laughed, and Lucas hid his face by taking a sip of water. They may have inadvertently skewed Nellie’s expectations on the… efficacy of a lash wish. Sure, said baby sibling would not be here for several months, and it may not in fact be a girl for all they knew, but it might be close enough for her.

When Riley and Dylan arrived, the booth got a lot more crowded, with the addition of more bags, so the twins ended up being pulled on to the laps of their sister and her boyfriend. Dylan asked if they’d missed anything, to which Nellie informed him that she had made a wish ‘with a hair that came out of my eye’ and that she’d wished for a baby sister.

Just barely perceptibly, Riley reacted like she’d just managed to catch a gasp and keep it locked in her lungs. Lucas spotted this, which led to a quick meeting of the eyes and a realization that they both knew something the others didn’t. He wanted to tell her what he knew, about stalling, but he couldn’t find a way to do it without sounding obvious right in front of Maya.

It wasn’t until the twins had to be taken to the bathroom – which Maya and Riley did – that he was able to pull out his phone and write, hoping she’d manage to look without Maya noticing.

_Lucas: K/S are going to tell her when she gets home, they’re doing something, not sure what except that they said to stall._

Riley didn’t so much reply as, when the four of them returned to the booth, she gave him a discreet thumbs up. He didn’t know how she’d found out, or how long she’d known, but if he had to guess, he’d say she had found out sometime since they’d come to Austin on Friday. There was no way she would have been able to keep it a secret with all of them in the house together. As to the how, he’d put his money on Cory Matthews slipping…

TO BE CONTINUED


	210. Their Visit With Revelations

By the time they had finished with their lunch, with little to no effort to guarantee that they would have given all the time needed for Maya’s parents to complete their surprise, everyone was eager to get to the house. The sisters’ adventures in decoration shopping had gotten even Dylan and Riley hyped up, so now they were all in on the goal to get the new not real tree decorated. Dylan, who had worked at a tree lot over a few holidays back when they were in high school, had tried to reassure the twins over their brand-new awareness of the trees’ life, but it had gotten him absolutely nowhere. In contrast, Maya had vowed to come and help them start a small garden in the backyard sometime in the spring. The twins were on board at once.

As they neared the house, they learned that Riley’s parents, her brother, and her brother’s girlfriend, Michaela Zhu, had all arrived before them. They became aware of it thanks to the sound of the basketball thumping on the ground, which led them to August and Michaela, playing against one another. August had been working his way up toward making a shot, only to be intercepted by Michaela, who managed to get the ball from him, make a shot… _Swish!_ She celebrated by hopping and laughing her way around him before stopping face to face, her ponytail swaying wildly, and kissing the disappointment away.

“Again?” Riley groaned, turning her eyes up. “Are they done? Are they still…”

“Hey, give it a rest!” Maya shouted at them. When they sprang apart, she laughed. “I kind of see the family resemblance there,” she gestured between August and Riley.

“You want to play this game? Really?” Riley asked, tipping her head to the two small girls at Maya’s side, sandwiched between her and Lucas. Maya looked down to the twins, staring back at her in all their four-year-old innocence, imagining them someday as teenagers, kissing people…

“I said nothing…” she breathed.

“Yes, you said…” Nellie started to tell her. Maya wrapped her arm around her and covered her mouth with her hand, leaning to kiss the top of her head.

“Shh, it’s a secret,” she whispered.

They got out of the car, unloading the bags as August and Michaela walked over to help.

“We’re not supposed to go in there,” August informed his sister and her friends.

“Woah, when did that happen?” Maya chuckled, noticing the bit of fuzz on the boy’s upper lip and chin, determined to grow into proper facial hair. Between that, the height, the voice change, and the girlfriend kissing, it was hard to find the small boy she’d once known still in there.

“It was news to me, too, yesterday,” Riley told her. “Why can’t we go in?” she asked her brother, but he just shrugged.

Looking over to the house, Lucas spotted Shawn through the window. The man gave him a nod and disappeared.

“Actually, I think we’re good now?” he told the others. “I just saw your dad, Maya, he waved us in.”

“He gets cryptic around Christmas, it’s a thing,” she shook her head, leading her sisters along, one on each side, while the packages were split among the others trailing behind her.

As they advanced, Lucas was briefly reminded of the day Sophie had come home to discover Chiara sitting in their living room. They’d all been there behind her, knowing what was about to happen, knowing there was something to be anxious for even as she had no idea. That was what was happening now, too, for all three of those sisters walking up to the door. When Maya unlocked the door, Lucas had to turn and share a knowing look with Riley for a second, even as the others behind them had no idea either.

The one mystery he would have to see solved was ‘what exactly had taken this much time to prepare in their efforts to surprise everyone.’

It was just a bit strange to walk in there, expecting something huge and surprising and not actually come across it. He had been bracing himself for it, and so had Riley, but the others had no idea, so when they all walked in and there wasn’t anything right there for them to find at once, Maya and her sisters and the others who had no idea just went in like it was normal. Lucas on the other hand, and Riley, too, must have looked like they expected something to jump out at them at any second.

“Are you okay?” Maya asked him, her face a mixture of amusement and confusion.

“Yeah,” Lucas quickly replied with eyes wide before he could rein them in. “Fine, yeah, I just…”

“It’s beautiful!” Nellie gasped, and they turned to see as the twins ran up to the tall tree now standing in the usual spot where they’d mount their tree every year. Artificial as it was, it did look about as real as it could get, short of being the real thing. “Is it the alive tree?” she turned on her mother.

“No,” Katy promised with a smile. “It’s the pretend tree, it’s fine.”

“It’s funny though,” Shawn followed, looking to Gracie, who’d grabbed hold of his leg and stayed there. She looked up at him. “Well, when we finished putting it up here, we turned around and the big socks were there,” he pointed to where they all sat hanging off the edge of one of their bookshelves.

Maya blinked as much as Lucas did when she noticed there were seven stockings on their hooks when there had had first been two, then three, and five, and six… And now the seventh, beyond the ones with Katy and Shawn’s names and the four of them children, was brand new but decorated with just as much attention, down to the letters that identified it for its owner. _Lucas_. He had his own stocking, as of this year.

Maya had had her own at the Friar house from the year she’d started dating Lucas. They hadn’t been together two whole months, but Melinda Friar being who she was, she had insisted that she needed her own. The fact that the reverse had not happened up to now had never been seen as any kind of slight, because it wasn’t, but the fact that he had one now, he had to admit, made him feel like there was something warming in his chest.

MJ had been sitting on the couch with Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, but now he was called up by his little big sisters and he followed them over to the shelf. The kids’ stockings were set on one of the lower shelves, because they actually wanted them to be able to reach them, and now Gracie looked to her little brother and pointed to the one that belonged to him.

“Look, that’s you. That’s a M,” she traced the letter with her thin index finger. “And that’s a J,” she did the same with this one.

“That’s my big sock,” Nellie pointed to the one that said Nellie. She poked it, and just as soon paused. She poked it again, then squeezed it… and gasped. “There’s something! Mommy, there’s something in my sock!”

“There is?” Katy asked in a curious voice. “What about you, Gracie?” The second twin blinked before turning to her own stocking and carefully giving it a squeeze. Another gasp. There was something in _her_ ‘big sock,’ too! Both girls looked up to the socks hanging out of their reach, and they saw at once…

“Maya!” Nellie shouted, pointing up at her stocking.

“Santa got you something, too!” Gracie ran to her sister and tugged her arm so that she’d follow.

“Santa did, did he?” she asked, looking to her parents with a puzzled look. They shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s not Christmas for a while, I’m not sure if we’re supposed to…”

“There was a note,” Shawn pitched in. “He said it was okay.”

“Well, if the big guy said it was okay…” She unhooked the twins’ stockings and handed them to each girl in turn before taking her own and joining them as they decided to sit on the ground.

Carefully, each of them reached in, pulling out a draw-stringed bag, the only item inside. With the stockings set aside, Maya helped her little sisters open the small bags. Each bag contained a stack of cards, not like a deck of playing cards, more like cardboard which had been cut evenly into square pieces. They couldn’t say how many there were, but each stack was as tall as the next. All the squares looked like they’d been hand made, hand drawn. On one side there were lines, though it was hard to decide what they were supposed to mean. On the other, there were little symbols, of various colors and numbers. Yellow stars, pink hearts, green circles… Maya looked to the first few of her cards. Four pink hearts, two yellow stars, seven yellow stars, six red squares, ten orange crescents…

“What is it?” Gracie whispered. She was still Maya’s little Mouse-Mouse, after all this time, and finding herself under everyone’s gaze as she tried to understand what ‘Santa’ had brought her was making her grow visibly nervous. Maya looked at the three piles now, and she had to wonder.

“I think… it’s a puzzle… What do you think, Dad?” she looked over to Shawn.

“You know, I think it could be, yeah,” he slowly nodded. She squinted at him before turning to the twins.

“I think maybe these all go together. Maybe…” She looked her first card over, then spotted Nellie’s first card. Four pink hearts and five pink hearts. “Can I borrow this one?” she asked. Nellie hesitated, momentarily territorial of her Santa cards, but finally she handed it over. Maya lay the two cards on the ground side by side, pink hearts up, before flipping them over. The lines on the back lined up, creating a curve. Nellie looked at her sister like she’d just pulled off a magic trick.

“We put all the same together!” Gracie understood, her smile returned.

“Good idea. And I heard you two know how to count to ten now?” Maya asked in an impressed voice. The girls nodded. “Okay then, sleeves up, girls, let’s do this,” she held out her hands for high fives and she got them.

For a few minutes, the sisters sat there on the ground, sorting through the cards, first by kind and then by number. Curious MJ had been wandering about, trying to get his hands on the cards, too, until Maya scooped him up and kept him in her lap. That seemed to be good enough for him, a good spot to observe.

“Last one!” Nellie stuck a card with eight blue triangles on top of the other cards with blue triangles.

“Nine kinds, nine piles,” Maya noted. “So, let’s each take three piles to put in order?”

This part went by remarkably fast. Nellie and Gracie had been playing games like this for a while. Soon, there were nine piles, each with a single of the colorful items on the top card. The twins looked to their big sister expectantly. Thinking about it as her parents might have done, she reached for the pile with the color she expected to find at the top of this particular rainbow. Lining up the cards with their puzzle face standing out, they all linked up.

“I want to do one! I want to do one!” Nellie begged.

So, Maya handed her the next pile, and she laid those out, exactly as Maya had done, and they matched, too. Gracie got the next, and little by little the whole image started to form. It wasn’t an image. They were words, three of them. The twins could sort through the game just fine, but they couldn’t read, so they looked to their sister, who still looked confused.

“Mom’s big sock?” she read out before looking up to the sock marked ‘Katy.’ She stood up again, moving to reach inside the sock. It wasn’t more cards in there, just a small envelope. Maya pulled it out, showing it to her mother like ‘do I open this?’ Katy nodded, so she opened it and pulled out what was inside. She only had to get a very brief look to know what it was, and what it meant. She looked to her mother again now, to her father, eyes wide. When they smiled at her, she was across the room and in their arms in a heartbeat.

“What is it?” Nellie insisted, confused more than ever, not liking that she could tell something was going on when she didn’t know _what_ was going on. She went over to her sister and their parents, and Gracie followed her, and MJ followed them. “What is it?” Maya handed the card back to her mother, who crouched before her small children and showed them the photo.

“This is a little baby that’s inside my belly right now,” she told them. “That’s your little brother or sister,” she smiled.

“Little hair wish worked, Maya!” Nellie turned to her big sister at once, making her laugh through her happy tears.

“What?” Katy laughed through her own, too. They explained the scene back at the restaurant, and Nellie’s desire for a little sister.

“We won’t know for a while if that’s what we’re getting,” Shawn had to tell her. “It might be another little brother,” he nodded to MJ. Nellie considered this for a moment.

“After?” she asked, making her parents look like they’d be doing a spit take if they had drinks in hand.

There would be some of those before the day was out, for those of them who could have them. All the celebration would be something of a whirlwind. When the time came for the four roommates to start on their way back for Houston, the memory of what that drive would involve was about as sobering as anything could be. They left the Hunter Hart house and returned to the Friar house, where they picked up Dash. She hadn’t gotten any worse, but she hadn’t gotten any better either.

Dylan took the wheel this time around, with Riley in the passenger seat. Maya and Lucas sat in the back, with the dog laid out over both their laps. As quiet as the ride was, with only the sound of the wind and the cars as their soundtrack, none of them fell asleep. There would be time enough to process the news of the day later.

They drove past their neighborhood and straight on to the Hillard house, where Lucas’ aunt and uncle stood in wait to receive Dash. Tanya would examine her as best she could tonight before taking her into the clinic in the morning. All Lucas and the others could do now was to go home.

They entered the house, finding the others waiting for them, much in the same way they had left two of them. Sophie, Chiara, and Rosa were on the living room couch, watching a movie, while Rosa painted Chiara’s toenails, having done Sophie’s before, by the looks of it. They wouldn’t tell them about Maya’s upcoming sibling until the morning. For now, all they wanted to do was to go and get some much needed rest.

TO BE CONTINUED


	211. Their Classes Before a Break

On his full days working at the clinic, Lucas would often use his breaks for studying. This turned into much more of a guarantee whenever his workload was heavier. Now that finals were approaching, right before their winter break, he would take his breaks over in the break room, with his books and laptop. Truth be told, these days he would have found a way to study _something_ whether he was busy or not. It prevented him from drifting into bad memories.

A week after they’d returned from their weekend in Austin, they’d lost Dash.

The first time he saw his aunt, before she even said a word to him, Lucas knew the news wouldn’t be good. From the start, he had been walking around with this feeling in him like he had better prepare for the worst. He had been telling himself that he could see where this was likely to go, and he had been doing his best to be okay with that. Still, when he saw the look in his aunt’s eyes, he discovered just how much of what he’d been feeling had actually been denial. He didn’t want Dash to be sick, didn’t want her to die… He wasn’t ready for that. He wanted for him and Maya to move back to Austin in a year and a half and for Dash to become part of the life they’d make out there.

It wasn’t about putting her to sleep, not at first. That day, with his aunt and the sad look, all Tanya Hillard was able to tell him was much of what they’d already heard back on Saturday. She _did_ have a couple of things she wanted to look into, but she wanted him to understand that, in all likelihood, it wouldn’t change much. The best they could hope for was to delay the end, but it wouldn’t be by much.

“Can you walk me through it?” Lucas asked his aunt, doing his best to keep his emotions in check. “Tell me what’s going on with her and what you’re going to try to do?” His aunt looked at him, her expression showing that she understood what he needed from her. He needed to make this moment matter. He needed to learn something. So, she agreed, and he stood by her as she went through everything. It didn’t take him much longer than her to know it would be no use.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked. The way she spoke to him, she might have been speaking to one of her children, not her employee.

“I… I need to make a call.”

He made two. The first was to his parents. When his father answered, his voice gave the impression he already knew what he was about to be told. He would speak to Lucas’ mother and get back to him in a few minutes. After they hung up, Lucas found himself watching the minutes go by for two reasons. He couldn’t call Maya right then. She would be in class, her last of the day, though it would be letting out before long. He let the time pass by, sitting with Dash in his lap, slowly stroking her back while she stared up at him. His eyes were stinging, but he would take deep breaths and keep on running his fingers along.

He was about to put in the call to Maya when his father called back. They worked things out so that his parents would drive over on Saturday. They would spend some time together, all of them and Dash, and then on Sunday they would take her to the clinic again for the end. After hanging up with his father a second time, he got around to dialling up Maya.

She answered with that sort of ‘I’m exhausted but now you’re calling and I’m feeling better’ voice, and he wished he didn’t have to spoil her day, but he couldn’t keep it from her. He needed her.

She figured out what was going on about as soon as he spoke one word. She would come and meet him at the clinic as soon as possible. After they hung up, several minutes after, he remembered that she was supposed to meet up with some of her classmates, to go over some final project plans. He felt bad about pulling her away from that, but it was too late already. Besides, once she arrived, he was so glad to see her that he forgot about everything else.

The rest of the week went by something like an assembly line, everything happening as it had to happen, to get him to the end of the line, to his parents’ arrival on Saturday, and then to Sunday…

Most of it was a blur now. On the outside, he was all about giving Dash anything she could need, to make her last day as good as it could be. On the inside, he was battling denial again. He didn’t want this to be the end. He didn’t think it would affect him quite as much as it did, to have to lose his dog, his friend. And then, before any of them knew it, Sunday was upon them. It would be him, and his mother, and Maya, surrounding Dash while Dr. Hillard tended to her.

He took a week off from the clinic after that day, as recommended by his aunt. He didn’t see how even two weeks, or a month, or any amount of time, would stop him from associating the place as where Dash had passed on. Despite all that, what he really got to feel in the end was that he needed to come back, he needed to remember. One day, he would be able to help so many other animals, and that was reason enough to carry on, in Dash’s memory.

It had been a few weeks now, but he still couldn’t help thinking about that day, thinking about her, the way she’d nuzzled at his palm just before she’d started to drift away. It was like he could still feel it, there in his palm. Not one day had gone by without that memory reaching him. His fingers would curl in, pressing into the spot where he could feel it still…

They were on their last days of class now. In no time, they’d be sitting through finals, and then it would be one more semester behind them. Five down, three to go as far as Houston was concerned.

He shut his textbook, sat back in his chair with a sigh. He wasn’t getting anywhere, kept reading the same passages over and over. As much as he could keep telling himself that this was understandable, that he had suffered a loss, that it was significant whether it was a dog or not, he just wished… he wished… He didn’t want to think about it like this, but he wished this hadn’t happened now, just before finals. He hated the thought, hated that it made Dash dying sound like an inconvenience, because that wasn’t what it was. If anything, it was the other way around. He wished he didn’t have finals right now because it got in the way of his being able to deal with that loss the way he felt he needed to.

He would think about his mother, back in Austin. Next to him, she had been the one to feel that loss the deepest, and he wished he could be there with her. From what his father had been telling him, she’d been dealing with it much in the way they had expected her to deal with it. She was cleaning, making herself busy. It had left Lucas feeling somewhat torn, considering the fact that he and Maya were flying to New York for the holidays. They wouldn’t be with her for Christmas that year.

“You listen to me now,” his father had told him, when he had confessed this doubt to him. “Don’t worry about your mother, alright? I’ve got her, and I’ve got Christmas. You go on to New York with Maya and you have a good time.”

He would do it, no doubt to it. But… but…

“Is it okay if I step out for a little while?” he asked his aunt as he went and found her in her office. “An hour, tops.”

The shelter was just up the street from the clinic. It was where they had adopted Trix and Lou, a realization that had made him smile when he first had it. He had been so close to this part of his family he hadn’t known at the time.

It was a tricky idea, he knew. It was all a matter of whether or not his mother would be the type to need time or not. In his heart, in his guts, the feeling was that she would be more of the type to need someone to pass all that excess love onto now that Dash was gone. The moment he saw a spazzy little pup named Duke, he knew this was the one his mother needed to do just that. By the time he returned to the clinic, he’d already started the process to adopt him and drive him over to his parents’ house when they’d head over there on their brief ‘pre-holiday holidays.’ Just because they wouldn’t be in Texas on December 25th, it didn’t mean they couldn’t make up for it.

“You got her a dog?” Maya asked, blinking, when he told her all about it. He’d gone to pick her up from her shift at the restaurant, the excitement clear on his face making it the immediate topic of choice.

“Yeah, well, I don’t have him yet, but… Do you think I shouldn’t have?” he asked, momentarily hesitant.

“No, it’s not that, I just… It’s unexpected, I guess. Whatever instance I’ve seen of… spontaneity, out of you, this is the most, you know?”

“I do,” he promised, nodding. “But it feels right.”

“Ah, the gut… I know a lot about that old feeling,” she smiled at him, making him chuckle. “Got any pictures?” she asked. Almost as though he’d had it ready all along, his phone appeared as he held it over to her. She picked it up, suddenly presented with both photos and a video of the lively Pomeranian pup. In an instant, she was grinning. “If that dog doesn’t have Melinda Friar written all over him…” she declared, laughing now as she watched the video of the dog skittering circles around Lucas’ legs. “However long we get to have him at the house before we take him to her, I think he could do some good there, too,” she handed the phone back.

He knew she’d been trying to see him through losing Dash as best she could, just as much as he knew that she would never push for him to get through it any faster than he needed to. He’d been catching glimpses of her sketching what looked like several images of Dash, like she was trying to find the best one. His mother may have been getting a new dog for Christmas, but he also suspected she’d be getting a painting, too, a memorial to the one they’d lost. It would be for all of them really, and because he couldn’t wait to see it but also appreciated her desire to surprise them, he went ahead and played along like he hadn’t noticed. Now, all they needed to do was to get through the end of their classes, and then the finals that would follow. After that, they could all use the break…

TO BE CONTINUED


	212. Their Classes Before Finals

After nearly a whole semester of working alongside Professor Robinson as her teaching assistant, Maya was really getting to feel like she was where she belonged. She had gotten the hang of things fairly early on, and as the weeks had gone on, she had also gotten to know the students in her classes, to see their progress over the semester. The job was so much bigger than what she had been doing with the professor the year before, making her free time all but inexistent from the morning, when she arrived at the university, until whatever time she got to leave again, but there had never really been a time where she felt like she wanted to stop, to be somewhere else.

And now… now they were headed into finals, herself in her own classes and the students in the classes she assisted on. This was the first time where she genuinely felt something close to doubt. What if it was too much? She had to balance her own studies with whatever she still needed to do for the professor’s classes, and she didn’t want either side to suffer for her potential mismanagement.

“Someone’s waving at us,” Franny whispered. They had camped up at a table in the library, Maya, Franny, Kayla, and Lily Weaver. The four of them all looked to see a girl smiling back at them, hand still half in the air before it went back to supporting the stack of books in her arms.

“One of mine,” Maya got up and walked over. The girl stood in wait, balancing the books held perilously in her arms. “Aminah, hey, need a hand?”

“I’m alright,” she shook her head. “I didn’t want to make two trips.” Maya still went ahead and relieved her of the top half.

“Yeah, well, just in case. Where to?”

“Oh, I don’t have a…” Aminah shook her head, absently adjusting the patterned veil framing her face. Maya had seen her do this, enough times to recognize the nervous tick. She was one of those who the professor had her taking a particular attention to, seeing how they struggled to find their footing in their first year at university. For all her shyness and her uncertainties, Aminah was bright, in personality as much as intelligence, and Maya knew why the professor had pointed her out to her. If she could just come through and find her way, she could be the top of her class. She could take her place once she’d graduated.

“Right, follow me,” Maya turned around now and, carrying half of the student’s books, she led the girl over to her table. Though she tried to resist, showing with little more than sounds that she feared she might be getting in the way, she finally came along. “This is Lily,” Maya started, setting the books down before indicating the pink-haired girl just at her side and carrying on with the others. “And Franny, and Kayla…” Each of them greeted the newcomer in turn. “Everyone,” Maya spoke and signed, “This is Aminah. She’s in her first semester, and she’s in Professor Robinson’s class.”

“Hello,” Aminah replied with a small smile.

“Here,” Maya nodded to the empty space. Another of their classmates had been supposed to join them that day, but an issue with her roommate had forced her to cancel, leaving them with an opening in their small group. After a beat of hesitation, Aminah came to sit with them.

“Are you local or did you move here for school?” Lily asked, passing her the books Maya had left at her side.

“Local,” Aminah replied. “I live with my parents and my sisters.”

“How many sisters?” Franny asked.

“Three,” Aminah smiled. “I am the oldest.” Maya was familiar with the lineup of the Ali family. It was a picture of her own siblings on her desk in Professor Robinson’s office which originally got the freshman to open up to her, back when she was even quieter than this.

_“How are you liking your classes?”_ Kayla asked. Franny translated.

“Oh, very much, although it wasn’t what I expected it to be. I’ve always loved school the most, but university is so much more than what I imagined.” There was a murmur of agreement around the table, the other girls recalling their own first semesters. Aminah smiled at this, which made Maya smile in turn, and soon they all settled into their respective work.

Maya couldn’t wait for classes to be over, finals, too. She couldn’t wait until the break, to go home to Austin to see her family for a couple of days before flying off to New York for a couple of weeks. In a way she hadn’t felt before, even when she’d visited her siblings out there, the renewed bond with her birth father had worked to make that whole house far away feel part of her world. And with that house, what it felt like even more was that she had been given New York back. After the move out to Texas, bit by bit, it had gotten to feel like the city where she’d been born and raised wasn’t hers anymore, but now… now, maybe it could still be. Maybe she could have Texas _and_ New York, too.

It was just as well that they’d made these plans for her and Lucas to spend the holidays out in New York this year. Next year would be such a different one for them, with the arrival of both Baby Matthews and her own new sibling. With one due in April and the other in July, she could just imagine what it would be like with all of them there.

Until those two babes could actually be born, Maya and Riley were both living away from Austin and their expectant mothers, and the two old friends had settled into the happy knowledge that they would be big sisters to a couple of new siblings around the same time, that they would get to see them grow up together, become friends like they were, like their fathers were… Shawn had reminded them that it wasn’t like this was a third generation all of a sudden, that the two of them and the babies were all in the same boat. The girls had just stared back at him with a smirk and a shake of the head. Shawn had sighed and let it go while the two of them laughed.

The jokes extended even to their roommates, looking at all of them as though they were trying to see if any of _their_ parents might just have themselves a surprise baby of their own, in time for the following year’s holidays. Lucas had looked at Maya with a distinctive ‘don’t put that idea in my head, why’d you have to put that idea in my head?’ kind of look. She still laughed to herself whenever she thought about it.

Up to now, since their return from Austin, since they had lost Dash, she had been doing her best to try and cheer Lucas up from time to time. She couldn’t help it. She would just see him sometimes, and she’d know he was thinking about Dash, know that it still made him sad… She understood it, of course. The idea that Ghost, or Tuck, or Queen, or Trix, Lou, or Peanut could be gone… So many dogs in her life, and each one of them was precious in his or her own way. She knew that sooner or later that time would come, and she’d have to deal with it, but for now it was Dash that was gone. She may not have been _her_ dog, but Maya had known her from a pup, too, from the day she’d come into the Friar house. She would recall that day, at the clinic, when she’d gone to sleep, and it would twist at her heart, so she understood what Lucas had to be feeling.

She got through everything she’d set out to do at the library that day. The others weren’t done and still looked to be in the thick of things, so she gathered up her things to leave. She still had time before her shift at the restaurant, and these days that rare commodity had one purpose alone.

Back at the house, she made her way up to hers and Lucas’ room and pulled out the canvas, her work in progress, along with the paints and brushes. She set everything up near the window and got back to work on the portrait of Dash. There had been several practice sketches over the past week, and she’d shown them to Riley, Dylan, Rosa, Sophie, and Chiara, and they’d all seemed to gravitate around one image in particular, so that was the one she was now recreating in full painted glory. She hoped that it would be something they could all look to, a reminder of those happy years more so than the way they came to an end.

And then New York… Her siblings… her father… and their friends… As much as they all were looking forward to seeing everyone, they’d be lying if they said they weren’t thinking about two of them in particular. She and Lucas had already set things up so that their vacation would start in Boston, a couple of days for them to spend with Nadine before they carried on to New York, to Maya’s family, to Asher and Ray, Joey and Rebecca, Farkle and Isadora… and Zay.

As if everything else they’d had to deal with wasn’t enough, school, jobs, the band, expanding families and a lost dog, the ongoing ‘drama’ of their parted friends was certain to plug any available points in their minds.

On one side, there was Nadine, back in Boston, living now with her friend Layla. As much as their initial concerns over an unfortunate rebound had now been for the most part brushed aside, they could see how the breakup continued to weigh on her. Not just the breakup, but the fact that Zay had actually left the city, gone to New York, removing himself from being close to her… That was possibly what got to her the most. They could see it, and Maya heard it especially, whenever the two of them would talk, and she would mention anything or anyone that had to do with New York. She would get this look in her eye, like all of a sudden, she wasn’t paying attention anymore, because she’d brought up New York, and all that meant to Nadine was him, out there.

They hadn’t spoken, not once, not since he’d moved out. Even though that had been their choice, to take some distance, to reflect, it couldn’t stop them feeling what they felt.

On the other side, in New York with their friends, Zay had been doing his best to make the most of this move, to establish himself. He hadn’t enrolled back in school yet, something which was causing some amount of strife with his family back in Austin, to the point where any day now they expected GiGi to drag herself over to New York and give him a solid talk. He was working full time though, three jobs now. Whatever he intended to do with the money he earned, no one could say. He didn’t live large, just went along, day by day. He’d gotten so much quieter, which was the strangest part of all, but really all it did was illustrate how much he missed Nadine, too.

“We have to do something, don’t we?” Lucas told Maya, after their latest talk with the group in New York. “It’s been months, and we’ve let them do their thing all that time, but it’s not enough. I can’t keep seeing them like this,” he shook his head. After a moment, he turned back, seeing Maya as she smiled back at him. “What?”

“Nothing,” she shrugged, moving to pull a small bundle of papers from her bag and dropping them in his lap. “I’m just glad I don’t have to figure this out on my own anymore.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	213. Their Classes Before Holidays

“Where are you?” Maya asked as she answered his call, setting her phone back on the counter once she’d hit speaker, before getting back to the stove. “It’s Friday night,” she reminded him.

“I know, I…” he replied before she cut in again.

“It’s _our_ turn.”

“I’m on my way,” he assured her. “It’s just that they called me earlier and…”

“Who called?” she asked. In the background, she could just hear a dog’s barking. This could have been any one of their three, suggesting that he was a lot closer than she assumed, but no, she knew how they barked, and this wasn’t any of them, so it could only be… “The shelter?” she guessed.

“Yeah,” Lucas confirmed.

“You got Duke?” she grabbed her phone again and turned off the speaker. She’d been just slightly annoyed that he wasn’t there to help her when it was their night to cook Friday dinner, one of the rare nights where all seven of them were available for dinner at the kitchen table all week, but now…

“I did, yeah. I wasn’t expecting it to happen this fast. I should have called you before, I just…”

“No, don’t worry about it,” she shrugged before wedging the phone between her ear and shoulder and carrying on with the skillet and spoon.

“I’ll be there in five minutes, I just wanted to check how the others were behaving right now.” Maya hesitated for a moment before figuring that by ‘others’ he didn’t mean the other humans in their house but the dogs, who were about to get a new roommate of their kind, if only for a little over a week.

“Last I saw Peanut, Rosa had him up in her room with Joseph, and Leigh and Colton. They’re all staying for dinner, too, by the way. As for Trix and Lou,” she looked down to the ground, where the dogs sat attentively looking up at her, like they were just waiting for her to drop some bit of food. “They’re pretty chill, I guess,” she smiled, grabbing a couple of carrot slices from the chopping block next to her and crouching to feed them to the eager duo. “How about Duke?”

“He either really loves being in a car or he’s just excited to leave the shelter. He doesn’t stay still for long,” Lucas reported.

After they hung up, Maya sent a text through the ‘house thread.’

_Maya: Downstairs!_

She could just barely hear everyone calling to each other upstairs before they finally sent down their elected representative in the form of Chiara. She looked around the kitchen like she expected to find Lucas there, too.

“Duke’s coming home tonight,” Maya informed her. Chiara smiled at once. The house was well aware of the gift to the Friar house by now, and everyone had been eager to see the pup arrive over the past few days. “They’ll be here in a few minutes, can you let the others know?”

“Would you like me to come and help you after that?” Chiara inquired. Maya breathed out.

“I’m cooking for ten people on my own and I’d like them to eat before the sun goes down, so… yes, please, thank you.” She safely assumed that, even once Lucas _did_ arrive, the introduction of Duke would keep her without her cooking partner for the night’s dinner.

Lucas had sort of wished he could have gotten someone to come along with him to the shelter to pick up Duke, if only to have that other person there to hold the dog while they all drove back to the house. By the time they pulled up and the car came to a stop, his giddy barks were reaching a fever pitch.

“You’re going to have to learn to be quiet if we want to surprise my mother, yeah?” he spoke quietly as he picked up the dog and walked up to the house. As he walked in, he found a sizable welcoming committee in the form of four roommates, three guests, and at the forefront three dogs crowding at his feet. In his arms, Duke was instantly wriggling all over again, so Lucas set him down once the front door had been shut again. There was about half a minute where the trio and the newbie looked to be familiarizing themselves with one another, and then it was done, and they were good. There hadn’t been _too_ much doubt that it would go any other way than this, but still it left him feeling relieved.

In no time, the roommates and their guests came to have their own turn at getting a look at little Duke. Soon however, he managed to scamper off, drawn to the kitchen by the scent of food. He was immediately met with Chiara, who picked him up, dissolving into cajoling words they could have understood whether or not they caught on to her Italian. Lucas used this opportunity to cut around and get his arms around Maya, pressing a kiss to the side of her head in a simple sort of ‘sorry I’m late’ apology.

“How can I get upset when you bring a puppy?” she teased.

Finally, after a few more hands had joined in to get the meal completed, the ten diners squeezed in around the table and, with their plates served, they dug in. The conversation started much as any of their dinners would, relaying anything of interest from everyone’s day. The main stories, other than Lucas having to go and pick up Duke from the shelter, went from Sophie’s latest adventures at the police academy, to Dylan’s sharing a small triumph out of one of the kids he coached at the community center, and then to Rosa and Colton sharing a laughter-riddled account of their ‘auditions’ for jobs at the mall’s Christmas village over the holidays.

“We can coach you on that,” Maya sat up at once, indicating Lucas and herself with her fork.

“You were Santa’s elves?” Colton asked with a curious grin.

“Oh yeah,” Lucas confirmed.

“Protégés of the big guy himself,” Maya proudly added. They didn’t have to ask what this meant, of course. They’d hung out at the Hillard house enough to be familiar with Pappy Joe.

“Well, we have a Joseph,” Rosa returned just as proudly, tipping her head to her best friend, who had played the Christmas elf more than once already.

The introduction of the subject of Christmas and the holidays as a whole had not taken long, not that they’d expected it to. The closer it came, the easier it would get for them to find themselves bringing it up in one way or another.

Rosa, of course, was staying in Houston this year, with plans to ‘diversify’ her employment with a stint as one of Santa’s elves. With the rest of the house’s residents headed out of town, they had already set up plans for her friends, all of them staying here, too, to spend that stretch of time bunking together at the house. A few days past they had expanded on those plans by telling the other roommates how they were hoping to host a party for those of their LGBTQIA+ club who would also be staying in Houston over the holidays. All they needed now was to hear back from everyone to get a feel of how many people might show up.

Sophie and Chiara would be spending the holidays with Sophie’s mother. Not only did Diana Zvolensky wish to make this time special for her daughter the future cop – forever making up for the rockier times where the two of them had clashed over the subject – but she also intended to introduce Sophie to her new boyfriend. At least, that was what Sophie suspected.

It had been just Sophie and her mother since Mr. Zvolensky had been killed in a hit and run when Sophie was four years old. It wasn’t as though Sophie didn’t want her mother to find love again, one way or the other, but after all these years, she was finding it difficult to adjust to the idea. Maybe, deep down, she had grown up with this thought that her mother had never remarried because no one could come and replace her first husband in her heart, as no one could come and replace Sophie’s father in her own. But now there was this guy, Walt, and her mother had been seeing him for a couple of months already. Sophie hadn’t met him, only heard story upon story about how wonderful he was. He was divorced, had two grown sons, one newborn granddaughter, and ran a business of his own just as her mother ran hers. Those were the stats she knew. Beyond that, all she could do was give the guy a chance, if he and her mother had chosen Christmas as the moment to bring their two worlds into the same room.

Riley and Dylan would be spending the majority of their time in Austin over at the Matthews home. Riley had wished so much to have been able to spend more time near her mother, watching as her belly grew and her new sibling along with it. She had some memories of the last time, when August had been coming along, but she’d been too young to retain anything that felt really substantial. She would be there now, and she just might get to discover along with them whether she would be having a brother or sister, so how could she miss that?

“My dad says he’s thinking it’ll be a boy again. He’s really confident about it, but it’s not like he’ll be disappointed if it’s a girl.”

“Yeah, look how he is with you,” Maya grinned at her.

She sort of wished she could have been there with her own mother-to-be mother, too, but then she was so much further back in her progress that she would remind herself there wasn’t much to miss. As true as that was, there was that nagging memory of the lost sibling in the back of her mind. What if something went wrong again and she was on the other side of the country? No… No, she couldn’t think that…

She was looking forward to New York, and Lucas felt the same. Any chance they got to return out there, the two of them, felt like stepping back into a separate world, an ongoing story, going back to a first kiss. And this year, this trip, they were going to make it a good one. Seeing their friends, maybe knocking some sense into a couple of them… and a house that would feel like home for the first time. They’d stayed there before, yes, but that had been something new and uncertain, a relationship tested into finding its footing. They’d done all that. Now, they could enjoy the rewards. Now, they could call it home.

“Are you nervous?” Riley asked Maya, a knowing look in her eyes, the kind grown over so many years of being shoulder to shoulder with her best friend through the disappointments of her broken family. The only other person around that table who might have tempted to ask that question was Lucas.

“No,” Maya replied, and there was confidence in that word that showed she meant it. “I just want to be there already,” she smiled. Lucas looked at her as she said it, and he could only smile, feeling pride blooming in him for the woman she was growing to be, day by day. He felt… lucky… to have been there to see it all unfold. It was giving him ideas, one in particular, and as they went on discussing their upcoming winter break, in the back of his mind he could feel that idea growing and growing, forming steps he would one day set in motion.

TO BE CONTINUED


	214. Their Classes Before the Rush

Having worked at Coleman’s for a couple of years now, and already bracing to enter into a third of these holiday times, Lucas was getting to be pretty familiar with the way it all went. Specifically, right around this time, he was getting to recognize the turn of the tide, when it would all get to escalate into the start of the rush.

Oh, the decorations had been up for a little while already, not the full burst of Christmas madness, but still a notable wintery sprinkling. This would only cause a sort of heightened cheerfulness in some customers, less so in others, but overall, it would be business as usual. No, the start of the rush was different. It was never one specific thing, just a feeling, an increase in requests for assistance, people walking in with lists, perusing the display tables with a more pronounced curiosity…

“What are you all doing there?” Kimi Obi asked, standing on the outer side of the register counter. On the other side, leaning to the cabinets under the windows, Lucas, Rosa, and Pete stared back at her. They’d been standing there for a few minutes now, absently staring out across the store.

“Waiting,” Rosa told her.

“What for?” Kimi looked around. The store would be opening in about seven minutes. They were all working from opening to closing that day. Kimi had only been with them for a little over three months, but she had found her footing easily enough. That did not include the pre-rush.

“The storm,” Pete replied. “Come, join us.”

“It’s not a _big_ storm,” Lucas shrugged as Kimi came to their side of the counter with a perplexed smile. “You know when you know there’s one coming and then you hear the first roll of thunder, so you go around and shut the windows? It’s like that.”

“This is nice…” Rosa nodded, releasing a contented sigh.

“Is it really that bad?” Kimi asked, biting back a chuckle.

“Haven’t you ever been here in December?” Pete asked back.

“Well, sure…” Kimi shrugged. “I don’t really remember it being that bad.”

“That’s because you just came in and did your thing and left again,” Rosa pointed out. Kimi had to give her that. “It’s like the greatest hits of complicated customers, and they all get mad at you when you can’t help them.”

“You won’t have it so bad this year,” Pete bumped her shoulder. “Ditching us half the time to go and be an elf.”

“Yeah, I’m almost regretting getting the job now that Joseph’s been filling my head with _his_ horror stories about fussy kids and fussier parents,” Rosa frowned at him.

Their last minutes of ‘freedom’ ticked away one by one, until finally it was time to open the doors. There were already six people standing outside, huddled under the awning against the chilly morning air, and they filed in as Kimi greeted them and welcomed them to Coleman’s. Just like that, the day was on.

Lucas didn’t actually mind the pre-rush all that much, nor did he mind the rush itself. He liked being in the bookstore, the environment, the people… Yes, some customers could test your patience more than others, but it would only ever be one moment, and then they would leave, and it would be over. There’d be other customers, other tasks.

Today, he was glad of the distractions of work. It wasn’t because of Dash, or anything like that, not really. They had Duke with them, and the little guy was as jolly as ever. He had spent his first night with them up in his and Maya’s room. Neither of them had wanted him to get disoriented in a place he didn’t know yet, around people he didn’t know. He had been settled near Lucas’ side of the bed, though when they’d woken up the next morning, it had been to frustrated yapping, as they soon discovered Duke in a failed attempt to hop up on the bed with them.

“Hey, bud, hey…” Maya had hushed, rolling over Lucas to get hold of the dog first, sitting back up now with Duke in her lap. “You know, you keep bringing cute puppies in this house, I’m just going to want to keep them all,” she shook her head, addressing him even though she never broke eye contact with the pet.

“You would find any puppy cute,” he had countered, making her grin.

“They can’t help what they are…”

He could just imagine them now. Maya was using her free morning before heading into the restaurant to get some work done for Professor Robinson, and to get in some review for her own classes. But with Duke in the house, brand new to them… He might have tried to find a way to keep him out of her way, so not to disturb her, but she would just have insisted it wasn’t necessary. Either that, or she would have found her way back to their canine guest. Hopefully, she’d still get plenty done.

No, it wasn’t the Dash situation that had his mind seeking distraction, not exactly. Sure, he did keep thinking about his mother back in Austin, how she still mourned the lost dog, how she would react to the introduction of little Duke when they took him to her next week… What he tried not to think about was the time between now and that ride back home. They had one more day of classes, which was just a bit weird and almost pointless by then, after which they’d be diving into finals.

It wasn’t that he was failing this semester, though it did feel like he was more stressed about these particular results than he had been for his classes in previous years. He guessed maybe it was because they were getting closer and closer to the point where he’d have to apply for what would come next for him, after his four years in Houston. None of what he was doing here would mean half as much if he failed to head on the path that he’d wanted all along.

He nudged those thoughts away by rewinding his way back to thoughts of his girlfriend and the surprise dog back at the house. There was really nothing so bad in the world that the thought of Maya goofing around with Duke wouldn’t get a smile on his face. After that, the light rush of customers went and kept the ball rolling for him.

There were plenty of things for him to enjoy as part of his job at the bookstore, from special events to unexpected discoveries, and all the various displays in the windows or around the store… The thing Lucas loved the most though was that, after a while, he had gone and started to develop some working relationships with regular customers.

There were Mr. Willis and Mr. Sanchez, who had been friends for something like sixty years, working at neighboring shops just up the street. They would stop in at least once a week, usually on Saturdays, when Lucas worked. There was a trio of girls, somewhere about thirteen or fourteen by the looks of them. They would go and peruse the young adult section, then ask him questions when they got up to the registers. Rosa insisted that the only reason they always came around when he was there was because they thought he was cute. Seeing as how their approach was generally signalled with stifled giggles, he could only assume that was the case.

Then there was Stevie, who was easily his favorite of those regulars. He was almost eleven now, but he’d been eight the first time he’d come into the store and Lucas had interacted with him. It had been easy for him to become someone memorable, because of how they’d met. Lucas had only been working at the store for about two weeks when the boy had come in, on his own, with a quiet sort of determination about him like he’d worked up some courage for it. Lucas noticed him as he ended up in the children’s section and started to inspect the various covers, pulling one book down and then carefully putting it back after briefly flipping through the pages.

When Lucas had finally gone to him, asking if he was looking for something, the boy had looked ready to bolt out of the store. There’d been something in his face, he couldn’t explain it, but Lucas knew what it meant. It reminded him of Dylan, back when they were all kids in school. He had struggled for some time, because he couldn’t read as well as the rest of them. He’d been determined though, and he worked his way up.

Lucas had introduced himself, and Stevie had done the same. They’d stood there at the shelves together, and through some discussion, Lucas had helped him pick a book. He had his money, he was ready to buy himself a book that day, and so he did. He came back two weeks later and bought another, always calling on Lucas’ advice. He came back again, and again, and again, sometimes after two weeks, sometimes after one, sometimes less. He’d buy one book, or two, or four… The day he’d come in with his mother and shown him his report card with that big grin on his face had been Lucas’ proudest day working at Coleman’s.

“Lucas!” he heard now, and he turned to see Stevie walking up to him with an envelope held carefully in both hands.

“Hey, is that the…” Lucas pointed to the envelope with a smile.

“Yep,” Stevie nodded, depositing it on the counter with his own proud grin. “Can we choose the books now?”

“Hold on, got just the thing,” Lucas told him, moving to get a hold of a plastic bin from under the counter. “Let’s go. How much did you all earn up?”

It had been Stevie’s very own initiative to hold a drive at his school to raise money and buy books for the kids at his school, for those just learning to read right on through to the bigger kids on their way out to the next school come autumn. He wanted to encourage others to find reading just as he’d done, and he wanted them to have these books to keep, to take their time with them, to cherish them.

A good hour of his Saturday was thus spent with Stevie, the two of them picking books here and there and adding them to the bin, all the while keeping a tally of the prices. Tracy Coleman had already pledged to take on half the cost herself, doubling the number of books they were able to put in. By the time they were done, Lucas had actually needed to call on someone to help him take the bin to the registers.

“How are you going to carry all these out of here?” Lucas asked, as he and Kimi crab walked their way to the counter.

“My principal is coming to meet me here with a car or something,” Stevie told him.

By the time Stevie and his principal were gone, with their minivan full of books, Lucas felt like he’d lost all track of the day in the best way possible. Much as it was and always would be Stevie’s project, his initiative, and his work, he was still so happy for the small part he’d gotten to play in it, two years ago.

“I’m starting to see what you mean about this rush before the rush,” Kimi told him, hours later, as they were nearing closing time.

“Wait until the real one kicks in,” Lucas chuckled. “You won’t see the hours go by, but your feet definitely will.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	215. Their Classes Before Music

The girls of TXNY had already suspended rehearsals until after finals were over for all of them, when they got the call from the woman at the morning show, asking if they’d make an appearance in a few days. This would be Monday, their last day of class, the last day before their finals started. Maya was forced to tell her she’d call back to confirm one way or the other. She needed to check with the others. Did they feel confident that, if they took some time off on Sunday morning to practice, and then Monday morning to go on the show, they would not be penalizing themselves? If even one of them didn’t feel able to do it, they would just say no. But they all said they would be able to manage it, and as Maya also felt she could, she called back and said that yes, they would be there.

“They want us to do a Christmas song in there somewhere,” she told the others as they gathered in the basement on Sunday morning. “How’d he get down here?” she pointed to where Rosa lay on the ground with Duke perched on her stomach, tongue wagging as she scratched at his ears.

“I don’t know,” Rosa shrugged.

“He can’t even get on the bed, pretty sure he hasn’t learned stairs yet,” Maya smiled down at her.

“He needs this,” Rosa whispered, turning her attention back to the dog. “Besides, Willow brought Zola,” she pointed to the couch, where the eight-month-old was currently in the care of Auntie Kayla. She seemed to be attempting to teach signs to the small girl as her mother and Riley looked on. “Not that I’m comparing your kid to a pet,” Rosa added, gesturing toward Willow, which only set Duke to hop off and tap his head at the hand currently off its scratching duties. “Hey!” Rosa snatched him back up.

“No, of course not,” Willow smirked at her.

“They’re not going to stay down here for rehearsal anyway,” Riley shrugged. “It’ll be too loud for them. But they can stay until we start though, can’t they?”

“Well, yeah, obviously,” Maya smiled, moving to get her turn at holding her goddaughter. Zola spotted her and squealed at once, even before Maya picked her up out of Kayla’s lap and started to walk around with her, beaming as anyone would, seeing that little face.

_“I always loved Christmas songs the most when I was little,”_ Kayla told the others as she sat back up, tucking in one of her legs. _“The ones that were like a story were the best.”_

_“Which one do you think we should do?”_ Willow signed and spoke.

_“It depends if we want to do one that is more upbeat or not, I guess,”_ Kayla shrugged.

“We could go slower, maybe?” Maya suggested, looking at her so she could read her lips while her arms were occupied by Zola. “It would be different from our own songs.” The others agreed. “Alright, so any thoughts?”

_“I always loved ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas,’”_ Willow suggested. Both Kayla and Riley smiled at once, Kayla in particular, as she started doing what felt like the sign language version of humming the song under her breath. Maya considered this for a moment before looking to the girl on the ground with the dog. Rosa looked back up at her.

“What?” she asked, clueless.

“Want to lead it?” Maya asked her. Rosa blinked.

“I… Well… Don’t _you_ want to…”

“Sure, but I think it would suit your voice the best, yeah?” she looked to the others on the couch. Willow and Riley nodded their agreement. “See?”

“You guys could do it as a duet though. Harmony,” Willow added, and Riley made a noise like ‘ooh, yeah, do that instead.’ Maya looked back to Rosa to see what she thought of the idea. Rosa smiled, lifting up Duke as she moved to stand up.

“That’d be great… Oh, we could do it all of us, sort of acapella, you know, or…” she looked to Kayla. “It could be the four singing and one signing,” she smiled.

_“I would really love that, actually,”_ Kayla declared at once. _“Can’t do that the rest of the time,”_ she added before miming herself drumming, sticks in hand.

“Right, so let’s figure out what else we’ll do, practice those, then we can get our Christmas song down, yeah?” Maya suggested, and the others agreed.

Dylan was called upon to retrieve both Zola and the dog, heading back up the stairs with one in each arm at first, but soon taking on Riley’s offered assistance, as the girl and the pup were too excitable so close to one another, and Dylan didn’t want to risk dropping either of them. Finally, Riley returned, and they went about figuring out their plans for the following morning’s performance. They needed two songs other than the Christmas one. They settled on an old favorite and then one of their most recent ones, Willow’s first turn to the spotlight. These were hardly going to take them long to get through, and they didn’t. Finally, they left their instruments behind and, sitting on the ground in a circle, they started to work on ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas.’

“I wish I got to spend Christmas in New York like you,” Rosa told Maya with a sigh once rehearsals were over. Willow and Kayla had left already, one to get her daughter back home and the other to head home and study until her work shift in the afternoon.

“One day, my little elf, one day,” Maya tapped her roommate’s nose with a grin. Rosa laughed, flinching, and scrunching her nose like the light touch had tickled. “I’ll bring you back something, how about that?”

“Yes, please,” Rosa nodded before scurrying back up the stairs, Maya suspected, to go and find Duke again.

As much as the house – or the basement at least – had been filled with music for a little while, now it was as quiet as a library, as everyone but Dylan retreated into their rooms to study. Maya went up the stairs and found Lucas, sitting at his desk, hunched over one of his books. She came and stood behind him, slipping her arms around his shoulders. He leaned back into the hold at this and turned his head enough to get to look at her.

“Hey,” he greeted her.

“How’s it going in here?” she asked, dragging her fingers along the part of his hair that she could reach.

“It’s going,” he declared, which was as good as saying ‘moving forward at a snail’s pace.’ She kissed the side of his head.

“Am I going to be a distraction? Do you want me to go study somewhere else?” she asked.

“No, stay, please,” he gave her arm a light squeeze.

“Okay, then, if you insist,” she smiled, kissing him once more before letting go and moving to sit at the other chair, opening up her laptop to her study plan.

She had a pretty solid handle on how to go about her pre-finals review by now. This was something she was particularly proud of, considering where she had started out, years before. As long as it had been since she’d gotten a handle of that part of her life, she was never going to forget what had come before. It was part of her journey as much as the rest.

Before she could start on her first task, she pulled together three tracks into a playlist, the two TXNY songs and the Judy Garland version of ‘Have yourself…’ She got her headphones on and set the small playlist on repeat, and then she was good to go, leaving the music to remain on the periphery of her mind in anticipation of the next morning’s performance.

She had not gotten to a place where the concept of people actually calling her and her band in for an appearance would feel normal or expected. She would _never_ get to that place if she had any say in it. This was not something handed to them, it was a mark of the work they had all put in, and it could never be anything else. The day it ever did would be the day where she had to take a step back.

When Lucas tapped her on the shoulder, she was so focused on her reading that she jumped and almost spun right out of her chair as she turned to him. He just managed to steady her as she laughed.

“Hey, what…” she asked, pulling an earbud out.

“You were humming,” he pointed out. She blinked.

“Oh… Didn’t even notice… Sorry, I’ll stop, it’s just…”

“No, it’s fine, I liked it,” Lucas smiled, so she smiled back. “You guys are doing that for tomorrow’s performance?” he guessed. He was more than familiar with her ‘pre-show day’ routine, including her playlists. There were loads of them, each marked with a date and a place, still existing on her computer.

“Yeah, the station asked if we would do something for Christmas. It’s going to be acapella,” Maya explained. “I’ll keep it down,” she told him then, indicating his side of the desk.

“You guys should do a Christmas album,” he joked, turning back around with a grin. Maya laughed, turning, too, though a moment later she turned again and tapped _him_ on the shoulder. He turned back around.

“Why’d you put that idea in my head?” she ‘accused.’

“I wasn’t serious,” he promised.

“My brain doesn’t care; it’s already started to compile songs. And now… now it’s starting to give me a melody for an original one,” she groaned. “This is on you, Huckleberry,” she pointed at him. “So, we’re going to be mature, focused students right now, but the pin on this is only going to hold for so long. Expect a lot of brainstorming tonight.”

“Well, I did the crime, I’ll do the time,” he tipped his head in agreement and she smiled, leaning forward to kiss him properly now before pulling back and using her foot to turn his seat back toward his desk and spinning herself around, too.

Even as she kept on studying, every so often she would grasp a pen and scribble in the title of an existing song, or whatever bit of lyrics she remembered if she didn’t know the actual title, on a bit of paper she kept next to her. On the bottom half she would also write in bits of lyrics floating through her head unbidden, lyrics and bits of melody, too, for TXNY’s own holiday tune, breaking through the songs still playing on repeat in her ears. Much as she did focus and she did progress as far as her studying went, the idea given over by Lucas had taken on a life of its own.

When she had to shut her books and get changed for work, she hit up the band’s chat thread with four words.

_Maya: TXNY: The Christmas Album…?_

A few seconds later, from somewhere across the hall, both Maya and Lucas looked up at the sound of a hollering ‘yeah!’ from Dylan and Riley’s room, so that was Riley’s response. Maya was still grinning when Rosa popped her head in.

“You know if we do that my mother will want to play it over the speakers in the bookstore until New Year’s.” She said this with a smile though, so she was in, too.

_Willow: I’d love that!_

_Kayla: Do we have time before you go to New York?_

_Maya: We have a couple days after finals. It’ll be tight, but we can set some groundwork over this week._

_Kayla: Ok!_

_Maya: Any songs you guys would like to do, let me know. Also, I’m working on one of our own._

Riley hollered again.

TO BE CONTINUED


	216. Their Classes Before Time

Maya spent the better part of her work shift with Christmas songs rolling through her head like a battle. One would take hold, and she would start imagining what it could sound like coming from TXNY, and then all of a sudden, another song would come and claim the microphone in her head, and the process would start all over again. Every once in a while, in the midst of all that, her own composition struggled to piece itself together. She knew that was going to be the thing that required the most work, to make it have the right feeling while also not sounding like a knock off of any of the countless songs already out there on heavy rotation at this time of year.

“What’s that?” Leona pointed when she noticed the back of Maya’s order pad sticking out of her apron. The two of them were standing outside the restaurant’s back door on their break.

“Oh…” Maya chuckled, pulling out the pad and flipping through the pages from the back. While the front of the pad was filled with orders that she’d taken from one table and another, in her neat shorthand, the back was a mess of scribbles, words and notes mingled together. “Song stuff,” she shrugged, passing it on to her friend and co-worker.

“Sounds like a Christmas song,” Leona declared with a smile.

“Well, good, because that’s what it’s supposed to be,” Maya revealed. When she told her about the idea Lucas had put into her head earlier that day, Leona looked at once intrigued.

“Are you even going to have time to get it together before you’re supposed to head out to New York?” she asked as she handed back the pad and Maya stuck it in her pocket again.

“Barely,” she admitted. “But we’ll make it work. Most of it shouldn’t be too bad anyway, it’s hard not to know these songs.”

When Lucas pulled up to the restaurant to pick her up after closing, he found her sitting just outside, so focused over the notebook she had balanced on her knee that she didn’t notice he was there. He climbed out of the car and came around to wave his hand in her line of sight rather than startling her by sounding the horn.

“Hey!” she looked up at him, and he knew that smile. She was deep in the midst of a good inspiration flow.

“Ready to go?” he pointed back to the car with a tip of the head.

“One second, one… maybe a minute or two,” she looked down to her notebook. He sat next to her, and with a smile on her face she turned back to the paper. He could see now that she held her order pad in one hand even as she copied down some of what was written on it. If he’d kept count, Lucas would say it had been about six minutes before she finally sat up again and looked at him. “Okay, we can go. Sorry, I just…” she shook her head.

“Don’t worry about it,” he slid his arm around her waist, pulling her closer on the bench. “I like watching you work… create…” he declared. She breathed out, smiling into a kiss as she held his face in her hand.

“How can I do anything but love you?” she hummed, stroking his cheek with her thumb, lost in his eyes, in his smile… She couldn’t feel the chill in the air at all, it was just one of those small, kind of perfect moments, and she wanted to press it into her memories to keep.

Finally, they got up from the bench and climbed into the car, heading for home. The drive was spent with the radio on, which led to a couple instances of Maya suddenly hearing a song and jumping to add it to her notes with a muttering of ‘can’t believe I forgot that one.’ It was also spent just looking around as they drove through the quiet night, illuminated with lights, with decorations, everywhere around them Christmas calling to them… It called back to the realization they’d had over Halloween, and their anniversary… This would be their second to last Christmas in Houston, and they wouldn’t even be _in_ Houston at the time. Then again, it wasn’t as though they’d ever spent Christmas here, they’d always been with family, in Austin…

“Next year, we should have it here,” Lucas said all of a sudden, as they were nearing their street. There hadn’t been an actual conversation happening, only thoughts in their heads, nor any indication that they were _both_ thinking it. And still, when he said it, she knew exactly what he was talking about, and she nodded in instant agreement.

“We should,” she agreed. “We will.” She could even invite Kermit and the whole family over from New York, and there would be her mother and father and her siblings… there’d be four of them on either side by then. She actually loved the idea of getting to spend the holidays with both sides of her family together… Three sides, counting the Friars… And so many sides with her friends… She could see it all so clearly in her head, and it felt very much as though it was all she needed to bring the various pieces of her new song together. She was scribbling again as the car came to a stop, and it was another forty-five minutes before they got out and went into the house.

“What were you two doing out there?” Sophie asked, tipping her head back to look at them from where she sat on the couch along with the rest of their roommates. The tone of her voice suggested they had all been well aware of their return and the amount of time they’d been sitting in the parked car. It also suggested what they all assumed they’d been doing out there. Maya gave the redhead a bemused tap to the forehead, making her scrunch her face.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she told her before heading up the stairs with Lucas.

They came into their room to the barely audible sound of breathing, sleepy sort of sounds, which led them to find Duke curled up under their bed. Lucas got down on his knees to carefully pull him out of there while Maya started to change out of her work clothes

“Hey, bud… Were you waiting for us up here?” he asked. He’d just gotten Duke out from under the bed when the dog woke up. He started to bark and sort of hopped into Lucas’ arms. “Yeah, it’s alright, got you now,” he got back up and set the puppy on the bed, where he went about trotting around while Lucas went and got changed, too.

“He hasn’t even been here that long, and he’s made himself at home,” Maya sighed as she brought her notebook and pen along to sit on the bed, where Duke came rushing toward her at once. She picked him up and set him in her lap. “Hope he doesn’t get too confused when we take him to your parents’ next week…” she smiled as Duke settled against her, nuzzling at the hand she offered him.

“He’s not the only one who’s gotten used to things, is he?” Lucas countered with a knowing smirk. She squinted at him.

“Just come here and listen to this, okay?” she asked, holding up the notebook. He took an exaggerated rush, dropping himself at the foot of the bed in a ‘ready’ position that made Maya burst out laughing, while Duke gave a few surprised barks, standing up on her legs for a moment before settling back down.

Once she’d gotten hold of herself again, Maya looked to the notebook, to the page where she’d rewritten the lyrics she’d been polishing in the car. It wasn’t necessarily a final draft, and there would likely be some adjustments once they brought on instruments and more voices, but it was solid enough that she could make a first go of letting him hear it.

She had the melody more or less figured out in her head, and she let herself hear it for a few seconds before she started to sing the words. It didn’t take long that now Duke was sitting up again, looking at her with enthralled focus, which made her smirk without skipping a beat. The dog wasn’t the only one to listen with rapt attention, and soon Lucas wasn’t even the last either. Someone must have heard the singing from below, as the roommates popped up just inside the bedroom door, listening, too.

“When’d you do all that?” Rosa asked, once the song had ended. Lucas startled and looked back, and Maya was laughing all over again, realizing he hadn’t been aware of the others’ arrival.

“This afternoon… tonight at work… out there in the car…” Maya counted off. “I’ll send it to you guys once I finish it off.” It wasn’t exactly her way of saying ‘now get out of here,’ but it wasn’t _not_ either, so they disappeared again before long, leaving Maya and Lucas – and Duke – alone on their own once again. “So, what’d you think?” Maya asked, plopping down on her stomach so her head was closer to where Lucas was laid out.

“I think it might be my favorite Christmas song ever,” he smiled. She reached out and gave him a playful shove. “I’m serious,” he laughed. “Not just because you wrote it, although that’s a great thing, too,” he added, earning himself a kiss, which turned into a few more of those before she pulled back again, planting her head in her hand.

“Did you get more studying done tonight?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he sighed, showing his exhaustion for the first time now. “Kind of wish it would start tomorrow instead of Tuesday, can’t stand the waiting anymore.”

“Hey…” she reached for his free hand with hers, gave his fingers a squeeze. “What’s up?” He looked at her, unsurprised that she’d see through him.

“I haven’t been this nervous about finals in a long time,” he admitted.

“Why would you be nervous?” Maya asked, pulling up closer. “You’ve been doing great this semester. You’ve been doing great the whole time.”

“I know,” he nodded. “But I still am. I don’t want to mess it up, and I keep getting this idea like something will go wrong, and by the time I go and apply to the other school…”

“I happen to know a thing or two about academic insecurities,” she told him, still keeping hold of his hand. “That was basically my whole life for a good long while. I was very good at masking it, but I definitely felt it. I’m not going to go and brush it off if that’s what you really feel. All I can say though is… I believe in you, and I think you’ll get through this like before. If you want to study some more though, I can quiz you, whatever you need.”

“You asked for my help for the Christmas album, remember?” he asked, though his face was full of gratitude for her offer.

“I’ve got that, don’t worry about it,” she shrugged. “I’d rather help you instead. Come on, neither of us starts early tomorrow for once. What do you want to do?” she sat up.

“Right now?” he asked, looking up at her with a teasing smile, “Maybe a little something of what they thought we were doing in the car earlier.” She laughed, though she leaned forward again to kiss him, slowly, tenderly, before sitting back up.

“That’s what you get for now,” she told him. “Get your books, we’ll see what happens later,” she informed him when he sat up.

“Yes, Miss Hart,” he smirked, as he stood and went to his desk.

TO BE CONTINUED


	217. Their Classes Before Release

Waking up the morning after their last exam always felt like the morning after a party. Their heads felt a bit heavy like they had a hangover, the world was a bit too real, leaving them unsure of what was going on or what they were supposed to do. The difference between a party morning after and finals, of course, was that they didn’t actually have that hangover, and what lay ahead of them was not a miserable day with a pounding head but rather some much earned and much needed freedom, which had a way of setting the stage for a good day.

Certainly, it felt good when they woke up and remembered they didn’t need to rush off anywhere, didn’t need to jump back into one book or another. Instead, they got to stay lying here, together, in the peace of their own room, of their house. Soon, they would be surrounded by parents, by siblings, and it just wouldn’t be the same.

Maya was the first to wake that morning, momentarily grumbling with that haze of the first day. She rubbed her hand across her face, trying to will some wakefulness into her like she’d done all week, only to stop and remember that they were done, no more tests, no school, nothing, for the next few weeks. At that realization, she breathed out with a smile, settling back in like she might shut her eyes and go to sleep again. Except… no… she didn’t want to sleep again. She wanted to be awake, and she wanted to just… enjoy this, their first morning off.

Turning her head carefully, she frowned, realizing Lucas still slept. She really wanted to just wake him up, so he could be awake with her, but at the same time… He deserved to keep sleeping if he was still out there, dreaming, relaxing… This week had stressed him out so much, she knew. He’d done so well to keep it to himself for the most part, but he never had to keep up the pretense around her, and he didn’t. Every exam he got through felt like one more obstacle vanquished, and she was happy for him. Every time, she would ask him how it had gone, and he would give this sort of nod that said ‘yeah, that actually went a lot better than I thought it would.’

Her last test had been just after lunch, but by the time she came out of it, she then had to go and sit in on one of Professor Robinson’s classes as _they_ took their last test, at the same time as Lucas was off somewhere, sitting his ‘final final’ of the semester. By the time he was done there, she would be off working at the restaurant, and he’d be due at the bookstore.

_Lucas: Can’t wait to see you._

She found the message on her phone when she checked it over her break, and it made her smile, leaning to the wall in the back room.

_Maya: The feeling’s mutual._

After a beat, she smirked and added…

_Maya: Think Rosa might ‘puppysit’ Duke tonight?_

She just managed to catch his response before her break was over, and she had to wipe the flushed look from her face before she stepped back into the dining room.

Even being at work that night, it still didn’t feel like it had sunk in, that they were on break. This was just business as usual for all of them, wasn’t it? School, then work, then home to study a bit before sleep… But not last night, of course. Lion drove Leona and her back home after their shift was over, saving Lucas the trouble of coming to pick her up. She waved off her friends and co-workers until after the break – it was her last shift before she was on vacation from the restaurant, too – and headed into the house. Dylan and Riley were on the couch, Riley asleep with her head at her boyfriend’s shoulder. Dylan held up a hand in greeting.

“Lucas?” Maya whispered, waving back. Dylan pointed upstairs and Maya nodded, mouthing ‘good night’ before continuing up the stairs.

Looking to the bedroom doors, she found the one leading into Sophie and Chiara’s room was shut, while the one across was open, showing Rosa sitting on the ground, tossing a ball that the giddy and uncoordinated Duke tried to catch or pounce on and failed to achieve. Maya reined in her smile as she greeted her room and bandmate in passing before turning into the room next door to hers. Walking in, she casually shut the door, as Lucas turned in his chair from where he’d been playing a game on his laptop. She smiled, and he smiled…

When he finally woke up that morning after, he pulled her close again, and she laughed lightly, turning in his arms and greeting him with a kiss. If every morning could start just like this, oh… They would both feel that life couldn’t get any better. Eventually, sure, they’d need to get up, to leave this room, but for now there was little more they wanted from the world than this peaceful little here and now.

They _did_ have to get up, get dressed, get moving, of course, and finally they did so. Lucas would be taking care of getting the ball rolling with their suitcases, packing things so they might leave behind whatever they would only need in Austin, while also minding the additional necessities of a flight off to New York. As far as presents were concerned, they didn’t have to worry. Weeks ago, they had done their shopping, wrapping everything before shipping it off to New York. Everything had already arrived and been set in hiding until the moment was right for adding them under the tree, so it was one less thing to carry along. And while Lucas did all this, Maya was in the basement, with her bandmates, as they worked to quickly and properly get their Christmas album recorded.

They had figured out and locked down their track list throughout the week, within their band chat thread. There were so many songs out there for them to choose from, most of them covered so many times that it would seem impossible to make it their own. Through a lot of discussion and going back and forth though, they had managed to assemble a number of songs they could be confident about. They were personal favorites of one or another of them, but more than that, they were songs the five of them felt would go great together, would hold to the sort of spirit called up by the two songs they already knew would be on the album: Maya’s original, and their acapella Have Yourself as they’d done on the morning show the Monday before.

“They definitely picked up your hint,” Willow remarked as she came down the basement stairs on that recording day, holding up her phone. She paused halfway down and burst out laughing when she saw the others, all of them decked out in their best gear for the occasion, from ‘ugly’ Christmas sweaters, to a variety of Santa hats, elf ears, and light up snowflake headbands. “Where did you…”

“Got some for you, too!” Riley held up a shirt and jingled a sort of tiara lined with bells, the last ones left after the rest of them had jumped on the gifts brought in by Kayla and her. “We can swap if you want.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, hand ‘em over,” Willow hurried down and slipped on the sweater before Riley ‘crowned’ her. She gave a good shake of her head and laughed at the sound. “I can totally work this into the tracks…”

“No headbanging though, you’ll jingle it right off your head,” Maya laughed.

_“I had a discount at the store,”_ Kayla revealed with a proud grin. _“Riley saw them, and we just went wild.”_

“We need to film the session,” Rosa declared, straining as she stretched on her toes to twist a string of lights along the back wall, where a few other decorations had already been set up, along with a short tree already adorned with plenty of colorful ornaments, and seven stockings all in a row, one for each of the five of them and then a couple more for their founding/retired members up in Boston and New York. “Videos for the site, nice and easy.”

“I’ll go see if one of the guys can come handle the camera,” Riley hurried up the stairs at once.

Sophie and Chiara were pulled in to help, too, as Dylan insisted that they needed to have more than one camera, for a variety of angles they could mix together to create the videos. They had been packing, too, but on the promise of the wackiness about to ensue in the basement, they trailed in. Just the sight of the bandmates in their sweaters and headwear was enough to prove Dylan was a man of his word.

“Wait, wait,” Chiara turned and ran back up the stairs. “Sophie!” they heard her call a moment later, and Sophie pulled herself out of her giggling fit to go and assist her girlfriend.

Soon after, they returned with loaded arms. Chiara had pried the wreath from their front door, bought from the tree lot every year since they’d lived in Houston, while Sophie seemed to have come carrying half the bottles off the spice rack.

_“What are they doing?”_ Kayla asked, as baffled as the others, and equally amused.

The wreath was waved about the room for a minute or so before being planted atop the bookshelves in the corner, while the bottles of spices were pulled open and given the same treatment before being distributed around the room. It didn’t take long that the aromas started to spread out, and Chiara’s plan revealed itself. All those scents together, it really got to feel so much more like they stood in the middle of a Christmas day party, with treats both spicy and sweet, and a tree in their midst…

“And now, music!” Chiara waved her arms triumphantly, to the cheer of the band and their ‘crew.’

As an activity to officially ring in the holidays and their break from their studies, they really couldn’t have asked for anything better. Before long, Lucas was pulled from his packing activities by sounds and growing curiosity. Opening the basement door, he was taken by an immediate feeling that he’d just stepped through into a holiday world. He could hear Maya’s voice, giving a sweetly sorrowful rendition of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” as he climbed on down. He had to stop right there and watch her, listen to her… She just lifted his heart into a place that was full of light and warmth, and he couldn’t get enough of it.

Soon, it came to be that Lucas fell into a rotation of camera wielders. There would always be three of them, but then one of them would get to take a break, running back upstairs to continue with their packing. The girls from the band took breaks now and again, leaving all four of their camera people to go up there while they sat around on or near the couch and inspected what they had of the recordings so far. Huddled together, they would decide if one song or another needed another go or if they had it as good as they could want it to be.

It was just after dinner – picked up from the Nook by Kayla’s boyfriend, Will, and brought to the house – before they finished their recording and filming. That was only part of the task, even if it was the most important one. At this point, it was mostly up to Maya, though the others stuck around anyway. Rosa kept close in particular, as she wanted to observe the process, the editing, everything to get the tracks ready, and the videos, too, once all the footage had been loaded on to her computer. They had pictures, too, for the cover. They’d sat on the ground, the five of them, with their backs to the wall, each of them with her head just under her respective stocking, caught in the middle of a laugh caused by Dylan as he tossed fake snow over them.

“That is the fastest album we’ve ever put together,” Willow shook her head, amazed. Her bells gave a jingle.

“I’ll get some physical copies done in the morning,” Maya told them, following even before Rosa could say, “And I’ll drop a stack off at Coleman’s on the way back. I’ll ship some out to Riley’s grandfather once we’re in New York, I know he’ll want to have some at his store. And I’ll drop some off to diner for Nando Garcia, too.” He had been one of their first supporters, back in the day. They would not forget him.

Dragging herself back up to their room, Maya came in to find her side of the bed was clear, while Lucas was still using his side for packing purposes. She didn’t have to ask whether he’d cleared the space for her in anticipation of her return or not. There wasn’t even a doubt to it. She let herself drop on to her side of the bed with a sigh.

“All done?” Lucas asked with a smile. She looked over, spotting a pile of her clothes ready to be put in one of the suitcases and absently inspecting his selection.

“Yeah, I sent you the songs, the videos…” she gestured as though to say, ‘wherever your phone or your computer are.’ He pulled his phone from his pocket and found the waiting transfers. Soon, the room was flooded with music to accompany his packing. To think this had all come from an off-hand comment a week ago… He didn’t know whether it was that he was so tightly connected to the band, but it really felt like this would go down as his favorite holiday album… right up until they decided to do another one, if they decided to do another one… and even then, maybe this would still be the winner.

“This one…” he made himself a spot to sit close to her in the clutter of the bed when her ‘I’ll be home…’ came on. “That’s my favorite one,” he declared with complete confidence.

“Yeah?” she smiled, turning on her side to face him.

“Don’t tell anyone, but earlier when you were singing it, in the basement, I almost cried,” he confessed. She laughed. “I know, it was just…” he shook his head, at a loss for words.

“I don’t know, but what I’m getting from this is I need to push a bit harder, get those tears out of you. I hear it’s cathartic,” she nodded.

“Is that what you heard?” he nodded along, tipping his head to find her lips and kiss her.

“It is,” she confirmed with a ‘serious’ look.

“Well, can’t argue with that then.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	218. Their Christmas With Duke

The two-hour drive to Austin was one they had done so many times now, and for all the variations from sleepy to chatty, they could not say that any of them would be near as memorable as the one they took the next afternoon, six roommates, two cars, suitcases, presents… and Duke.

At least, now that Rosa lived with them, it meant one less thing to worry about. Trix, Lou, and Peanut would all be able to stay home and be looked after without having to be shuffled off to someone who would look after them. She was already discussing plans for her party along with her friends when they all took off. Sophie and Chiara left in one car with much of the luggage, while the others took off in Lucas’ car, with Riley and Dylan in the backseat to tend to the spazzy pup. Car rides always got him going, but this one would be extra-long, so who knew what it would do to him.

On Dylan’s insistence, Maya plugged in her phone and they drove along to the tune of the TXNY Christmas album – TXmasNY as it was jokingly called between them.

By the time they were rolling through Austin, nearing the Matthews’ house, Duke had actually fallen asleep in Riley’s lap, as though he had properly gone and tired himself out with his antics throughout the ride. He woke up though, once he was passed over to Maya before they continued on to her parents’ house.

“Okay, so what did we learn last time?” she told him, scratching at his ears. “There’s glass here, and we’re not going to try and jump out again, are we?” He turned his head up at her. “Don’t give me those eyes, you know what I’m talking about.”

“Did you tell your parents we were bringing him?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah, I had to. They’re going to explain to the twins that Duke is only staying with us until tomorrow, and then he’s going to your parents’ house, but he’s a secret until then. They’ll still get to visit him whenever my parents visit yours. Did they tell you they’ve been having weekly dinners?”

“My dad told me, yeah,” he laughed.

“Do you wonder what they talk about when we’re not around?”

“All the time,” he admitted.

They arrived at the Hunter Hart house just in time for dinner, in more ways than one. They pulled up at the same time as the pizza delivery guy, who turned out to be one of their old high school classmates. This made for a bit of chaos, as Duke started nipping at the guy’s heels, having smelled the pizza, while at the same time the door opened, and Nellie and Gracie cut past their father, eager to see the puppy from up close and to see their big sister and her boyfriend, too, of course.

They finally managed to get inside the house, the pizza boxes secure in Shawn’s hands and the delivery guy waving off his old classmates while the twins ushered Duke into the house with repeated proclamations of ‘secret puppy, secret puppy.’

There was plenty of excitement in the house, too. It was pretty exciting stuff for the kids that they got to have _two_ Christmases, the first one a whole week before the other, ‘real’ one. Maya spent much of that evening with her little brother in her arms. Sure, he didn’t know any better of the fact that she’d missed his second birthday a week ago, but _she_ knew, and now that they were going to be missing their usual trip back to Austin over the next couple weeks, well… She wanted to make up for that, too, as best she could. MJ absolutely did not mind this. Ever since he’d started walking, he had greeted his big sister’s approach with a run up for her to grab him into her arms, which she’d never refused.

The next morning, Lucas and Maya went off to the Friar house. Duke was left with Shawn and Katy for now, the surprise left pending until later that day.

They’d always sort of joked, after the move to Houston, that Mrs. Friar had only really managed to let her son go because she had Dash to shower her motherly love on to. Now that Dash was gone though, it really did get to feel like the joke had been a bad one, and they regretted making it. She really did just care so much about her family, and as they arrived that day, she was truly so happy to see both her son and his girlfriend, and she welcomed them as though it actually was Christmas Day instead of a week before.

Lucas and Maya managed to play it cool for those next few hours. They helped with the dinner preparations, both with the food and the table setting. There were presents under the tree, for them, for Maya’s family, even _from_ Maya’s family. That way, when the kids arrived, they could say that ‘Santa’ had made a pitstop here because he’d found out they would be celebrating today.

“Gracie knows about Santa,” Maya revealed to Lucas as they were folding napkins.

“She does?” he asked, surprised. “How?”

“She told me this morning, you know, in great confidence,” she made a serious face. “You know her, she’s real quiet.”

“Mouse-Mouse,” Lucas smiled. Maya laughed.

“Exactly. Well, the little mouse overheard our parents talking about a couple more presents they needed to get wrapped to bring over here today. So, this morning, she cornered me. She looked kind of upset, and she said, ‘Mommy and Daddy make pretend that there’s presents from Santa Claus, but they’re not.’ I tried to play it off, but damn, that kid’s smart. Did my best to let her down easy and explain that she couldn’t tell anyone, that the others still believed. If there’s one of those three I trust to keep it to herself, at least, it’s her.”

The Hunter Harts arrived in mid-afternoon. Nellie, Gracie, and MJ were all fascinated by the Friars’ Christmas tree. Whether they noticed it was a natural tree or not, they didn’t say a word. Soon after they’d come, the bell rang again, bringing the Hillards of Houston, along with Pappy Joe and Patty Robinson. This was an unexpected surprise for Maya and Lucas, but as Pappy Joe pointed out, if this was to be _their_ Christmas with their Texas family, then they needed it all. They weren’t about to refuse that. There _was_ something of a chuckle over the fact that the professor had been pooled in on this claim of ‘family,’ and certainly she and Lucas’ grandfather made quite the couple, whether or not they called themselves as much.

“Hey, kid,” Pappy Joe smiled and leaned forward when Gracie stopped in front of him and stared. “You’re the shy one, aren’t you? Is it alright if I hug you?” he opened up his arms.

“Santa?” Gracie whispered, blinking, looking back to her big sister, who held a finger to her lips. Gracie looked back to the man and finally held up her arms. Pappy Joe picked her up and balanced her on his side. When she mimicked Maya with the shushing, he did the same, sealing the circle of trust.

“Right, so should we go now?” Lucas whispered, shortly after dinner.

“Wait, I have my guy on the job,” Maya whispered back.

“You got a guy and it’s not me?” he gave her a look of mock betrayal. She smirked, nodding across the room.

“You would have been too obvious about it. Me and him, we’ve been pulling stuff like this on my mom for a while,” she explained. Lucas spotted Shawn passing through, the picture of casual innocence. A moment later, Melinda Friar came pacing toward her son.

“I don’t understand, I was certain I still had a bag,” she was speaking to herself before addressing Lucas. “Could you run out to the store quickly?”

Minutes later, they were driving up to the house next door to Shawn and Katy to pick up Duke. Mrs. Talbot sent them off with a full bag of small marshmallows at the ready. Lucas blinked, turning back to Maya as he realized she’d had this all planned out, too.

“Alright, Duke, bud, this is it, this is going to be your home from now on, and there’s good people waiting there to love you and look after you as much as we did. We’ll still visit, I promise, okay?” Maya told the dog as they were driving back to the Friar house.

“There’s pretty much zero chance that he’ll stay quiet long enough for us to get him in the house and to my mother without her knowing we’re coming,” Lucas pointed out as they were approaching.

“Absolutely no chance,” Maya agreed, smiling as she watched the curious Duke sitting in her lap, tongue lolling as he looked around. “So, what do we do?” When the car slowed to a stop and Lucas turned the wheel to head back the way they’d come, Maya stared at him. “Where…”

“We need to go back to your parents’ house.”

They excused the extra time it had taken for their errand by claiming that the first store had been all out of the brand Mrs. Friar insisted on. As she took the bag and turned to go into the kitchen, Maya asked the woman if she would like to hear their Christmas song. Somehow, they hadn’t gotten around to playing the album for her, which turned out to be a good thing. Melinda took the big black headphones as they were handed to her, slipping them over her ears with an amused smile. She was notorious for having a ‘complicated’ relationship with technology, which showed in the puzzled way she slipped the object on. She was so preoccupied with it that, even before she expectantly looked to Maya, waiting for the music to start, she did not notice her son slipping away back out the door.

“I don’t hear anything,” Melinda declared, her voice coming out loud to the rest of them. Maya held up her finger to tell her to wait, so she nodded and waited, clueless still. The other guests could hear just fine though, and they were instructed to keep quiet when they spotted Lucas returning with Duke in his arms. As expected, he was barking, but thanks to the noise-cancelling headset they had borrowed from the Hunter Harts – the one Lucas had gotten for Gracie to enjoy the fireworks – Lucas’ mother had no idea what was coming.

“I didn’t break them, did I?” she asked, and Maya motioned for her to take them off. “I couldn’t hear a…” she shook her head, stopping when she heard a yapping little bark. Turning around, she saw her son there, smiling at her, holding the pup called Duke, adorned with a red bow he would soon shred to bits. She gasped, her hand moving to her mouth as Lucas approached her.

“Merry Christmas, Mom. This is Duke,” he told her.

“Oh… Oh, look at you,” Melinda reached out, taking the dog into her arms. He immediately set to nuzzling at her, giving her doggy kisses that made her laugh as she scratched at his head. “Aren’t you sweet, yes, you are…” There were tears on her face as she looked to Lucas again and reached out one arm to embrace him. “Not near as sweet as you,” she told him, hugging him as tight as she could, all the while minding the pup in her other arm. “I had no idea, I… Thank you…”

“You’re welcome,” Lucas told her. Soon, they would spare many a thought for their lost Dash, as the Friars would receive Maya’s painting, but even as that chapter would be closed, the chapter of Duke would start as they settled him into his new home.

TO BE CONTINUED


	219. Their Christmas With Nadine

Their flight to Boston had mostly been a blur. Five hours in the air, and they each probably slept for at least three or four of those. They had barely slept the night before, after having spent the better part of it tending Nellie. Maya’s wily little sister had been sneaking some of Mrs. Friar’s holiday treats from about the moment they had arrived at the house, and she’d paid the price for it later when she’d been sick. Though they’d been meant to spend this night at the Friar house, it had led Maya to return to her parents’ along with them. Under normal circumstances, it would have been the both of them, but they had both decided that it would be best for Lucas to stay and spend some time with his family, too, before they flew off for the next couple of weeks. So, he’d watched her drive off and he’d gone back inside.

It wasn’t that they weren’t physically able to sleep if the other one wasn’t there next to them, although they always came away from those rare, separated nights feeling not near as rested as usual… It wasn’t that, but then coupled with concern for Nellie, it made that even Lucas, who wasn’t with the Hunter Harts, tossed and turned for a while before finally heading down the stairs and busying himself in what way he could, cleaning up what little hadn’t been cleaned up at the end of the night. When that was done, he’d ended up on the basement couch, turning on the television and hoping that something would help him drift off. To his knowledge, he wasn’t sure he’d really slept except for dozing off for a few short beats.

Meanwhile, Maya was kept awake in a rotating match with her father, as they looked after the twins. They had insisted that Katy go and get some rest, so she’d gone up to bed, taking MJ along with her, keeping him in her arms as they slept. Meanwhile, in the twins’ room, Shawn and Maya had spent the night, sitting side by side on Nellie’s bed, him holding the sick girl who couldn’t sleep and her holding a sympathetic twin. They would sing for them, tell them stories… They would sleep for a while, and father and daughter would try and do the same, but sooner or later they would wake again and there’d be no point.

Lucas had made his way to the Hunter Hart house in the morning, driven by his father, and he’d found his exhausted girlfriend like someone adrift at sea finding land. The feeling was mutual, and it was followed by a solid bout of napping. Even so, their true rest went and happened far, far up in the sky.

When they landed in Boston, they were greeted by the glorious sight that was Nadine Zhu.

“You’re here!” she caught Maya up in a hug as they reached one another and very nearly lifted her off the ground for the strength of it. “It kept saying there was a delay…”

“There was?” Maya asked, looking back to Lucas, who shrugged. They hadn’t even noticed.

“Come on, let’s get your bags. Layla’s getting her car.”

They finally got to meet the girl in person, after having spoken to her through a screen for so long. It had almost been too easy to cast her as a potential issue after the breakup. They hadn’t known her, and they cared so much for Nadine and for Zay. The more they’d gotten to know her though, all they could see was that, whether she’d known Nadine for two years or eight and some like the rest of them, she wanted the best for her like they all did. By the time they’d move on toward New York, they would feel a whole lot closer to her than they had previously done, especially after she shared a piece of information.

“You have to talk to her,” Layla cornered Maya as they were settling in at the apartment. “She’s supposed to go with you to New York to spend Christmas Eve with all you guys out there, yeah?”

“Yeah…” Maya confirmed, even as she gave a sigh, understanding what Layla was trying to tell her. Nadine was thinking of staying back, not going to see all the others out in New York, so she wouldn’t have to see Zay.

“Hey, what’s…” Lucas started to ask when he looked up and saw Maya walking toward him, only to have her catch him by the arm and lead him out into the hall from the apartment. “What…”

“She’s not coming.”

“Who’s not…”

“Nadine. She’s not coming to New York with us.”

“Why…” She didn’t have to answer. One pointed look from her and he shut his eyes, understanding. “How do you know?”

“Layla. I think she tried to get her to change her mind but…” she shook her head.

“Okay, so what do we…”

“Maybe you should talk to her,” Maya told him. He hesitated.

“Why me?” he asked, his tone suggesting ‘why not you?’

“I don’t know, most times your… seniority as their friend isn’t called on, but this time I just feel maybe it should.”

“Alright, I’ll try,” he finally nodded. It wasn’t just about Nadine, but Zay, too. Lucas was his best friend, had known him for years before either girl came into the picture, and maybe that was what they needed today.

They had put on the TXNY Christmas album as they all worked to prepare dinner. Nadine had particularly loved the touch of those stockings with hers and Isadora’s names, there along with the other five. While Layla had requested Maya as her impromptu dance buddy – all the better to leave the other two alone – Lucas and Nadine had watched them, laughing, and encouraging them as they continued to work on the food.

“I have to show you the video I got of Dylan dancing to those,” Lucas turned back to Nadine, who burst out laughing at the thought of their friend’s dancing. It had been a longstanding mode of amusement to them, and she missed it. “Can’t wait to see what kind of moves the others will bust out when we’re in New York.” Nadine grew quiet at this, giving a slight nod but otherwise focusing on the dumplings they were filling.

“Layla told you?” she asked, after he didn’t push on.

“Not exactly.”

“She told Maya, and Maya told you?”

“Why aren’t you coming?” Lucas asked. Another silence, filled with Maya and Layla’s laughter as they danced.

“It’s better this way,” Nadine shrugged after a while. She never actually said it, but she didn’t have to. She didn’t want to come because she didn’t want to cause a scene. She believed her presence would wreck their Christmas, and she cared for them too much to let it happen… even if it meant she didn’t get to see her friends.

“They’re all anxious to see you, too,” he told her. “Aren’t you?” Nadine focused on the dumplings. “We’ve always spent the holidays together. It’s one of the best parts of the year, especially now that we’re all spread out the way we are. Are you saying you’ll just stop going, every year, until you just drift away, and we never see you again? Because you’re scared of what will happen when you see him again?”

“I’m not…” she looked at him, but he was staring back at her, and after a moment she sighed and looked back down.

“What do you think is going to happen when you see him, and he sees you?” he slowly asked. She shook her head. “Nadine, he misses you.” Her head lifted just a moment, but then she willed herself to look back at her hands, to focus on her task. “I talk to him three or four times a week, and we text one another every day. He doesn’t even need to mention you by name and it’s there. And when your name _does_ come up…” She looked over at him now. “Whatever you think will happen when you see him, I really doubt it’ll be anything to be afraid of.”

He dropped the subject after that, went back to the dumplings in a way that said, ‘make of that what you will.’ They carried on like that, until Maya and Layla came back to help them.

“Well?” Maya whispered, later, as they were getting changed. The four of them had decided to make this a ‘proper’ Christmas dinner, and casual dress would not do.

“I don’t know,” Lucas shrugged. “I said my part, after that, it’s up to her.”

Dinner was a lively affair, as Layla recalled to Maya and Lucas her discovery that, before her ‘retirement,’ Nadine had been in a band. It had come up, the previous year, when she’d shown up to hang out at the apartment while Nadine was on a Skype call with Farkle and Isadora. After that, she had insisted on hearing the music. She’d been given everything and more, as there had not only been the songs but the videos, too. They busted those out around the dinner table, and both Maya and Lucas laughed. Those four teenage girls singing and playing their songs seemed so much younger than they remembered it. They smiled to one another as they got to one video in which Lucas had made a cameo. They may have aged some, but the love was still there.

They talked about their lives down in Houston, which up until a couple days before had been primarily about school and work. Then there were the baby siblings on their way for both Maya and Riley. Nadine was so happy about this; both Katy and Topanga had always been so good to her. They’d have to wait until spring and summer to start being treated with a deluge of photos, but the prospect was already something. Nadine was learning to knit from avid knitter Layla – who insisted it was good to keep her fingers nimble – and she was already vowing to make something for the both of them.

Not wanting a repeat of the sleepy flight from Houston to Boston when they took off for New York, the visitors turned in early. The following morning, they woke up to the smell of breakfast foods working hard to pull them out of bed. Walking into the small kitchen, they found Nadine at the stove, while Layla sat at the kitchen table with her coffee. When she spotted the two of them, she held up her thumb and smiled. They just had time to breathe in relief before Nadine looked up and saw them, too.

“Morning!” she turned and grabbed a couple of cups, filling them and bringing them to the table. “We have to hurry and eat, I can’t stand the traffic out there,” she shook her head.

“No, yeah, wouldn’t want that,” Maya bit back a laugh.

They couldn’t say what had finally changed her mind, and they weren’t going to ask. They knew Nadine enough to confidently say it was her own choice, that whatever she had been told by others would not be the thing to sway her in the end. The important part was that she would be coming with them. Layla was lending them her car, and in a few hours, they would be in New York. As much as, deep down, they did wonder what would happen exactly, when Nadine and Zay saw each other for the first time in months, they were putting their faith in what they knew of their friends and maybe, just maybe, the power of a little Christmas magic…

TO BE CONTINUED


	220. Their Christmas With Zay

The drive into New York was destined to bring up some amount of nervousness from their uncertain third passenger, so Lucas had been selected to drive, while Maya and Nadine sat in the back, bellowing out Christmas songs to their dramatic hearts’ content. It did the job. By the time they were nearly to the apartment building, the mood was still way up there, with laughter and smiles. It was only as Lucas pointed out a restaurant and told the girls that they were just around the corner that reality went and reasserted itself. They were arriving, and soon they would see their friends, and Nadine would see…

“I, uh… Give me a minute, okay?” she told her friends as they were unloading their bags from the trunk. “You guys go on up ahead, I just need to…”

“Take your time,” Maya told her. “Just so you know though, if you’re not up in ten minutes I’m activating your tracker and I’m coming for you,” she teased, making Nadine laugh and nod.

Maya and Lucas wound their way up the stairs, making it halfway before the sound of steps from above brought down the Garcia twins to help them with their bags.

“Hey, it’s Broadway’s own Joey Garcia,” Maya smiled, moving up to hug the guy.

“Hey, it’s world sensation TXNY’s own Maya Hart,” he replied as he hugged her back, and she laughed, kissing him on the cheek as they pulled back.

“The stage looks good on you,” she told him. “Who would have thought?”

“Well, I didn’t,” Joey smiled.

“Well, I did,” Asher clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Come on,” he nodded to the others before starting them up the rest of the way. “Where’s Nadine?” he asked as they came on to their floor and headed down the hall. “Wasn’t she coming up with you from Boston?”

“She did,” Lucas nodded.

“She’s still downstairs, kind of nervous,” Maya explained.

“Oh…” Asher sighed, understanding.

“How’s _he_ doing with her coming?” Lucas asked.

“He was up all night cleaning the apartment. It’s never been this clean,” Joey informed them.

“He’s been trying to play it cool, but he ended up going for a walk earlier,” Asher added as they walked into the apartment. “He should be back any… minute…” he stopped, and the four of them looked to one another before taking off running to the window that would look down on to the street.

“Hey, you’re here, you… Where are you going?” Ray looked up as they cut by. He’d been sitting on one of the couches along with Rebecca, talking with Farkle and Isadora on the opposite one, but they all stood up and followed, wondering what was going on.

They all ended up crowded at the window, just in time to take in the scene far below. They could just see Nadine pacing about, and they saw Zay coming, before she saw him… before _he_ even saw _her._ Then he stopped, and a moment later she turned around and saw him, too. They were too far down for their faces to be all that clear, so the best they could do was watch and guess.

“Should we be doing this?” Isadora asked. The others shushed her. “We can’t even hear them,” she pointed out with a frown at being shushed.

After a moment, Zay started walking again, until he stopped a few steps away from her. Nadine didn’t move away, and it wasn’t easy to tell from where they stood, but it did look as though they started talking. How much was said and _what_ was said remained unclear. After a minute, they started to walk…

“They’re coming!” Rebecca declared as they all realized it, and they all moved away from the window, looking around the apartment like they desperately needed to find something to do, to make themselves look like they weren’t spying on their friends. By the time Zay escorted Nadine into the apartment, the scramble had only landed them all back to standing sort of bunched together and trying to look like they’d been talking all this time.

“Told you, didn’t I?” Nadine turned to Zay.

“You did,” Zay nodded, looking to his friends with a ‘disapproving’ shake of the head. “Good idea though,” he turned back to his ex-girlfriend.

“What idea?” Asher asked, trying to sound casual.

“I texted him earlier, asked if he’d meet me outside so we didn’t have to see each other for the first time with all you guys standing around,” Nadine revealed, leaving the others to look appropriately busted before giving the pair a variety of apologetic smiles.

“I almost didn’t get to get on the plane for bringing you GiGi’s care package, just saying,” Maya moved up to greet Zay with a hug.

“I appreciate the trouble,” he hugged her back. “Mostly I appreciate the cookies,” he admitted after a few seconds. When he turned to Lucas, the two old friends looked to one another, words passing between them without being spoken. Zay knew Lucas had played a part in getting Nadine to even show up today, and he was thankful. Lucas was just grateful to see the two of them, and to see them talking. Whatever they’d said to one another outside, they didn’t say, and no one asked.

They ended up going out to lunch at the restaurant Lucas had pointed out on their way to the apartment building. The trio who’d come up from Boston that morning was particularly anxious to get some food in them, as breakfast now seemed so far away. As they settled in around their table for ten, everyone tried not to look like they were paying so much attention to where Zay and Nadine sat. They did end up sitting almost across from one another, which was hard to interpret. Were they sitting on opposite sides, creating a divide, or were they across from one another, the better to engage conversation?

Whatever the two of them had discussed outside earlier, both Maya and Lucas came to suspect they may have joined forces in ensuring that the subject of conversation would not in fact center around either one of them. They did it so swiftly, too, that soon they were all talking away, and no one could really recall for sure whether the two of them had actually spoken to one another throughout the meal.

“Too bad Riley couldn’t come,” Nadine told Maya and Isadora later, as the three of them sat up on the fire escape, eyes turned up to the night sky. The group had returned to the apartment after lunch, where they had eventually been joined by a number of the group’s classmates, co-workers, and some of Joey’s cast and crew friends, for an impromptu party. The girls had ended up here to get some air. “We could have had a bit of an OG TXNY thing going.”

“Trust me, no one is more disappointed that it didn’t happen than her,” Maya chuckled. “But she wanted to be home with her parents this year, so…” she shrugged. “But hey, three out of four ain’t bad.”

“Didn’t you want to be with your mother?” Isadora asked Maya. “She’s pregnant, too.”

“Yes, she is,” Maya laughed lightly at this. Sometimes she really missed Isadora and her direct way of talking. “It’s not the same though, I mean I still remember when the twins were coming along, and MJ… She was a lot younger the last time she got a new sibling.”

“I guess so,” Isadora nodded. “That is a lot of babies in the same year.”

Maya and Nadine looked to one another, biting back a laugh together. If it wasn’t in fact the second time it had happened that day, they might have been left to wonder. For some reason, it felt like ever since Farkle and Isadora had gotten married two years prior, young Mrs. Minkus had developed a tendency to say things that left her friends wondering if she might have been cooking up a baby genius like her husband and her. As of yet, she wasn’t, but then she’d say something like that… Lucas insisted that someday it would come about that their friends _would_ be expecting, and no one would believe it until they were presented with an actual real live baby.

“Besides…” Maya bowed her head after a moment, brought back to reality by the simple truth, “I needed to be here this time… Now that I can, and…” _And while I can, maybe…_ Nadine reached over, taking hold of her hand, and Maya turned a smile toward her. After a beat, maybe understanding what she was getting at, Isadora reached out and took her other hand, too. Maya turned her smile over to her, too, squeezing both her former bandmates’ hands.

Inside the apartment, with the Christmas party all around him, Lucas could only look to where his girlfriend sat with their friends, hands linked with them. He couldn’t say for sure that they were discussing her birth father, but that was the feeling he got, and it made him want to be out there with her. She wouldn’t talk about it, most of the time, except with him and maybe with Riley, but she had decided to spend Christmas in New York with her father and her siblings, not just because they had invited her, but…

This past year had been something of a miracle for her, that she had bridged this long-standing gap between herself and her birth father, and now, knowing his situation, even _if_ he was better again… She wanted to spend this Christmas with all of them, with him, because for all they knew it would be her only chance. She could feel it in her gut, whether she said it or not. It was easy not to show it right now, around their friends, their families back in Austin…

But there’d be these quiet moments in between, when it was just the two of them, and he could see her just sort of… remember, and worry. She had spent how many years keeping the guy clear of her heart, and now that she’d let him in, she might lose him.

“We can still hang out after you guys head off to her dad’s place, yeah?” Zay appeared at his side, and Lucas blinked, turning to look at him.

“What? Yeah, of course we can.”

“Good. I miss seeing you guys, and Dylan, and Riley, and Sophie…” Zay told him. He briefly looked to the window leading out on to the fire escape, where Maya, Nadine, and Isadora sat, now joined by Rebecca.

“We miss you, too,” Lucas told him with a smile.

“But you most of all, yeah?” Zay turned a smirk to his oldest friend.

“Oh, definitely,” Lucas chuckled.

“Good, just checking.”

They weren’t headed on to Kermit’s house until the following afternoon, so once the guests had gone and left, leaving the group of friends on their own, the party carried on in a more casual spirit, right through until the sun came up to glow upon the world. After that, they all spent a good portion of the day laid out in whatever bed, couch, or bundle of blankets on the ground was available to them. It felt like one of their old sleepovers, except no parents, no restrictions, and a bit more hangover buzz going around.

Maya and Lucas both spared themselves that much, knowing where they were headed later that day, so they played nursemaid to the others, made them breakfast, which got to feel a bit more like brunch, before finally starting on their way toward Kermit’s house. As Lucas had told Zay, they would see them all again in the time they’d spend in New York. Deep down, they couldn’t help but wonder what those two weeks would lead to for some of them…

TO BE CONTINUED


	221. Their Christmas With News

Winter went and rolled out in full force as Lucas and Maya left the apartment building and their friends and started on their way to Kermit and Abigail’s house with their bags. They had been offered more than one ride, but they set out and took public transport, deciding it would be easier this way. It also gave them time to stop and be on their own before passing from one world to another.

“Having the car’s practical and all that, but I kind of miss this sometimes,” Maya noted as they got off the bus that took them to the corner of Kermit’s street. “You and me on a bus.”

“Something to keep in mind for next semester?” Lucas suggested with a slow nod.

“Definitely,” Maya agreed with a smile as he leaned in to kiss the side of her head.

As they approached the house, they found the signs of what was likely to have been a whole morning of the kids playing around in the fresh snow. There were three snow people of various sizes, one made to look like Santa, another like a princess, and a third that might have been a dog at one time or another. There were plenty of holes dotting the surface of the snow, boot prints from different feet, and there were snow angels still visible despite the continued snowfall. Coupled with the lights on the house and the wreath on the door, it looked like just the kind of house a kid might want to grow up in.

“Hey,” Lucas gave Maya’s hand a small tug, seeing the way she was taking the whole image in. Was it wonder… or envy? She looked up at him with a smile, and maybe it was a bit of both, though not in a bad way.

“Come on, my feet are starting to freeze,” she moved up toward the door, pulling on her suitcase, so he followed. “Looks like Cara’s coming,” she nodded to the upstairs window where a flutter of the curtains suggested someone had just left at a dash. Seconds later, the door flew wide open and a flash of blond hair ushered Maya’s younger half-sister, nearly barrelling her over as she hugged her. “Hey, hey…” Maya laughed, hugging her back, “I’m happy to see you, too, but you’re way underdressed for this.”

She hadn’t bothered with a coat to cover her dress and knitted tights… or any kind of shoes for that matter. The fact that it didn’t seem to register with her was one thing. The muffled sound of tears was the more disconcerting part. Maya turned to Lucas, indicated the girl in her arms with a tip of the head. Without a word, he stepped in, picked her up out of her big sister’s arms, and carried her inside, while Maya took his suitcase and her own and followed him.

Once they were inside, Lucas set Cara down and Maya resumed her embrace. She had a terrible feeling she knew what this was about.

“Hey, Carebear…” she folded herself over her sister in an enveloping hug, brushing back some of the loose strands of hair falling from the small bun atop her head until she could brush tears away instead. Finally, she got Cara to look up at her. Those calm blue eyes of hers were made suddenly brighter by the overpowering addition of red, puffing up all over the place. “Tell me what’s wrong? Where is everyone?”

“U-Upstairs,” Cara managed to say after a while, gulping and sniffling until she could collect her words. “Not supposed… not supposed to say…”

“About Dad?” Maya calmly asked, and there was a pause of surprise in the girl’s eyes, soon to be replaced by a sob and more tears. “It started again?” Maya asked. Cara nodded. Maya could feel Lucas standing over her shoulder, and right now she could only imagine that he was holding her, allowing her to work up the nerve to ask. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” Cara squeezed her tighter, and Maya took a deep breath, letting herself adjust to the sting of tears rising in her eyes. “Eliza and Wyatt don’t know?” Cara shook her head. “But you do now, like me and Sam. What happened?”

It took some time for the twelve-year-old to get the words out, but she worked through it, slowly regaining some of her composure. As she told it, two days ago, Kermit had come to pick her up from her guitar lessons. They had just made it home, and she’d gone up to her room to put the case back in its place, when she heard a noise from below. When she’d gone to find out what it was, she’d found her father passed out on the kitchen floor. Not knowing what else to do, with no one else around, she’d rushed out and gone for help from their next-door neighbor. The woman had followed her, called an ambulance, then stayed with Cara until someone came, also taking care to call Abigail and let her know what was happening.

The neighbor had driven Cara over to the hospital, where the two of them had waited for her mother, just outside the ER. It wasn’t until later, after Abigail had come, hugging her daughter before moving to see her husband, that Cara discovered the secret only her older siblings had known up to that point. Her father was sick, very sick, and he had been for a while, though not all the time. And now it was happening all over again.

“Eliza and Wyatt don’t know, we’re not supposed to tell them,” Cara sniffled. Maya guessed the frolicking in the snow that morning was one of a few distraction tactics put to use in the past couple of days. “Mom told them that he went away on business. H-He came home last night. He’s been sleeping on… on the couch most of the day,” she pointed. Maya and Lucas both looked now, just seeing the top of Kermit’s head over the top of the arm rest and a couple of pillows. They could just hear the television. “Mom wants us to say he’s got a bad cold.”

Lucas pressed a hand to Maya’s arm. She turned to look at him. He tipped his head toward the living room. _Go,_ it said, _I’ll stay with her._ He could see that fear in the back of her eyes, robbing her of years and leaving her a scared child contemplating a loss that hadn’t happened yet. Eventually, she took off her boots, hung her coat, and padded quietly off into the living room. After he’d done the same with his coat and boots, Lucas took Cara’s hand and led her to go sit on the stairs leading up to the second floor. He wasn’t sure what he could possibly tell her. He counted all his lucky stars that he had never had to face a situation like this. The closest he’d come to it was his grandfather’s fall… the accident with Maya… But they were still here, they had recovered. It was starting to look more and more like Kermit would not. What was he supposed to say to Cara?

In the end, he didn’t say anything, nor did he have to. He put his arm around the girl’s shoulders and let her set her head against his. It was impossible now to look at her and not see how much she looked like her big sister. She was just about the age Maya had been when he’d first known her, and it was like a blast from the past. Now, her lookalike little sister was asleep, as though the weight of pretending like nothing was wrong for the past two days had finally released once Cara was able to tell someone, tell her big sister. Lucas didn’t move, didn’t wake her, though his eyes could only drift over to the living room.

Approaching the couch, Maya could just hear the steady rhythm of her father’s sleeping breath. They’d been talking over Skype, regularly, for months now, and yet when she looked at him now, he looked different. Smaller, more fragile… He’d just turned forty, but suddenly he looked like he could have been a decade older if not more. Was she imagining things? How long did they expect to keep up this lie like everything would be fine, like this was nothing? She understood wanting to protect them, but… right now, he didn’t look like he would ever come back from this.

She tried to keep quiet as she knelt next to the couch and then sat on the ground, looking up at him, this man who had been… so many things to her over the years. She remembered a time when the mere thought of him would send her emotions spiraling down so many paths. So much had changed since then. She looked at him, lying here, and she didn’t see the man who’d walked away from her, the man who’d made her doubt herself, who had made her cry, and rage… She saw the man she had sung with, who had helped her discover new musical inspirations. She saw the eighteen-year-old boy who, despite what the future had made him out to be, had held his newborn daughter in his arms and loved her with all his heart.

“Hey… you’re here…” a sleepy voice made her look up, pulled her out of her head, her tears… Her father was awake, looking at her. “You know, this wasn’t how I imagined our Christmas together,” he told her, and a small laugh broke through her crying.

“Yeah, I came all this way and you’re laid out here,” she countered.

“I’m keeping all my best stuff for the twenty-fifth,” he told her, moving to sit up. Maya stood up at once, unsure if he was supposed to get up or not. “Can I…” he held out his arm, waving her in.

“Yeah, definitely,” she smiled, slipping into the hug, and returning it, not so tight. Was he in pain, she wondered?

“Where’s…” Kermit asked, as Maya pulled back. She pointed to the hall, where Lucas sat in the stairs with a sleeping Cara. “I didn’t want her to have to see me like this,” he sounded sad now. “None of them, but her…” Maya had to wonder – when Cara was born, and he’d held another baby daughter in his arms for the first time – if he’d thought of her. They looked so much alike, as everyone would remind them.

“How much does she know?” Maya asked quietly. Her father looked at her now, looked and seemed to debate what he should or shouldn’t say.

“This can wait, Maya,” he finally spoke. “You two are here now, the kids are so looking forward to having their big sister for the holidays…”

“Dad…” She hardly ever called him that. Most of the time, she still called him Kermit, and he accepted it, understood. But when she said it… Maybe for how unlikely he had once been to hear it from her, it was as though he couldn’t resist it. He had to be truthful.

“I’m really glad you’re here with us this year,” Kermit told her, and it was all she needed to know. Now… Now all she could do was grab hold of her mask, slipping it over her face with the shaky hand of disuse, as she worked to push down the reality of what she’d been told, knowing she would soon be seeing Eliza and Wyatt. She would see them, and hold them, and talk to them, all the while pretending as though she hadn’t just found out their father, the one who’d made them brothers and sisters, the five of them, would likely be gone by Christmas of next year.

TO BE CONTINUED


	222. Their Christmas With Feelings

A rush of hurried feet and the excited calling of names ushered in the littler siblings. Eliza and Wyatt weren’t nearly as little as they’d been when they’d first come into the picture, but they would always be the youngest of their quartet… quintet… Lucas looked over his shoulder as they were pounding down the stairs, while he felt Cara startle awake under his arm. In the living room, Maya looked up, sparing a look to her father before moving to greet her young brother and sister with a beaming smile. Before long, Sam and his mother appeared, too. Maya and Lucas both guessed the two of them had been talking in private before the kids’ shouts alerted them to their guests’ arrival. Maya did her best to find a way and hug them both in a sort of discreetly comforting manner that would say ‘I know what you’re going through right now, even if I’m pretending I don’t, and I’m sorry that it’s happening.’

What followed was nearly an hour wherein the guests were pulled this way and that, so they could be shown something, or be told about something. They got to see the tree, still sitting bare in the corner, with boxes of ornaments and lights lying in wait. Maya hadn’t even noticed them when she’d come in before. Eliza proudly informed her that they had waited to decorate it until she could be here to do it with them. Wyatt showed his sister a drawing he’d made the other day. It made her think of a conversation she’d had with Sam once, as they both seemed to agree that while their brother was still young and could yet develop more skill in his drawing abilities, they could not fault him on his imagination. They thought he might grow to be a writer.

Both Sam and Cara did their part to jump into the conversation, too, to play their parts, but Maya and Lucas could see just as well that they were struggling, just under the surface. Abigail and Kermit were much better at the concealment act, but it was not for lack of difficulty either. They would look to their children, knowing how their lives were all about to change, and helpless to keep it from happening, and it was a wonder that they weren’t losing it.

When they went up to the guest room to settle in, their first chance to be alone since they’d arrived, Lucas felt like they were on the last moment of a held breath before they finally had to open up and breathe in, or they would fall… or _she_ would…

He shut the door behind them, quietly turned the lock, and then he turned back to look at her. Her suitcase had been brought up and set on a towel, so the snow on the wheels wouldn’t melt on the floor. She had it open now, and she picked up a stack of her clothes, brought them to the small dresser in the corner. She moved with the intent of someone who wanted to just focus on a task, didn’t want to give any room to a thought that tried to get at her.

He wanted to say something, but… what could he say? Right now, the best he could really do for her was… wait, let her go through her motions until she couldn’t, until… she’d breathe. She was standing there now, holding one rolled up pair of socks in her hands, and looking at the curve of her shoulders, and the grip of her hands, the distinct impression he was left with was a need in her to break something, to throw something… The feelings were boiling over inside her and she needed to let them out, but she didn’t know how. She would have screamed if she could, but she couldn’t, could she? Not here, not with the kids downstairs, who didn’t know their father was dying, not like she did.

Now he knew what to do, and he stepped up to her, moved in front of her and closed himself around her. _Use me,_ it said. The socks fell from her hands, landing with a muted thump against the floor as she took two solid handfuls of his sweater, burying her face in the front of it. For a few seconds, there was nothing more than this, and then… a tremor, starting from her shoulders and sinking through her arms and into those fingers, gripping so much tighter that he suspected he’d find holes in the back of his shirt. It sunk into her lungs, too, and it emerged in a muffled cry packed with too many emotions to sort out before devolving into sobbing, crying… It all came with such a force that it echoed on to him until he was crying, too, quietly, for her. He kissed the top of her head, once, and again, and again. _I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’ve got you._

Eventually, they came to sit on the bed, still huddled together, emotionally spent but still just processing. Maya’s thoughts felt like a blur. She knew where they were, knew she’d been crying, knew why, but… Her head was like a dozen radios at full blast, playing their own songs until it was just a chaos of unintelligible sound, and if it wasn’t pressed to Lucas’ shoulder, it would bow under the heaviness of itself.

“I think I wrecked your sweater…” she finally spoke, her voice low and distant. She couldn’t help but look at the spot where her face had been pressed, which was now a mess of makeup, tears, possibly snot, and what looked like teeth mark, like she’d bit down on it at some point.

“I hadn’t noticed,” he looked at her while she picked at the small imprints with her fingers. She was quiet again for several seconds.

“I don’t know if I can go out there again yet,” she took a shuddering breath, gesturing vaguely at her face.

“You don’t have to.”

“I… I knew this was going to happen…” Maya whispered, shutting her eyes again. “It had to, didn’t it? Everything… everything was going too well, it couldn’t…”

“Hey,” he pressed his hand to the side of her face, lightly tracing his thumb back and forth.

“I know, I know, ‘don’t think like that.’ I try not to, okay? More than I care to admit, I try… but sometimes I can’t help it and I still do. And now it’s sitting there all smug in the back of my mind, because I let my guard down and now this…”

“But you didn’t,” Lucas insisted.

“A year ago, you would have told me that I’d be here, spending the holidays with my father and his family, that I would be happy to be near him, that all that old anger, and sadness, and disappointment, all of it would be a thing of the past, and I would have laughed in your face because it was… impossible. But we’re here now, and even though I had this thing in my gut that told me there might be bad news waiting, I was excited to be here. And now, I just… I feel…” she pressed her hand to her heart, at a loss for words.

“There’s nothing I can say that will make it better,” Lucas shook his head. “You’re here now, and you’ve got… a chance.” She looked up at him. “They’re going to remember this. Whether they knew it was or they didn’t… Their last Christmas with him.”

She slowly sat up as she considered this. Wiping at her face, she thought about her brothers, her sisters… Two of them were going into this time that was supposed to be joyful with this rotten reality spreading through their minds, while the other two were being kept blissfully ignorant, that they might have what the rest of them so wished they could… a happy, normal Christmas. Next year… It wouldn’t be the same, and they didn’t even know. And then there was her. Big Sister Maya, who’d flown out from Texas to be with them, and she knew, too, but she had something that the rest of them didn’t. As troubling and life changing as the news was, she could find a way to… to pull herself together and try to make sure this was a good memory for them. It wasn’t going to fix anything, but it could soften the blow.

With this idea in her head, she could breathe a little easier again. She had a goal; that was a place to start. There was still the thought playing in the background, the truth of her father’s condition, and every once in a while, it would pinch at her heart, but there was nothing she could do about that.

“When we go and see the others again, I don’t want them to know,” she told Lucas. “It’ll just bring them down.”

“No, I get that,” he assured her. “When _are_ you going to tell them?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “Maybe after New Year’s, before we leave, or… maybe after,” she shook her head. The thought of leaving here, of going back to Texas, just reminded her of all those people they’d be going back to. Their roommates and their friends in Houston, and in Austin, his family, and hers… Her mother… Whatever she felt about Kermit now, what she’d felt after he’d left, their history together went so much further, and she’d be losing him, too. _I’ll have to tell her, too._

There was a knock at the door then, and Lucas could see her tense for a moment. Was it Eliza? Wyatt? They couldn’t see her like this, they would…

“Maya?” Sam’s voice was heard, and she got up at once, unlocking and opening the door to let him in. Their eyes met, and the way they hugged now, it wasn’t the kind of hug they’d had earlier, both of them playing the part of the unaware. Now they were a brother and sister sharing in a common grief. Lucas quietly stepped out of the room, shutting the door again. “I’m glad you’re here…” Sam told his sister as they pulled back to look at each other again.

“So am I,” she promised him, taking in his face now, released of the pretense, and of all the things that could have come out of this, what stood out right away was just how much he’d grown since he’d first come into her life. He’d been ten years old, when she’d seen him out in that crowd of kids, at her old middle school, and now he was about to be fourteen… He could be a wrinkled old man though and he would always be her kid brother, the first she’d ever had, her little Sam. And right now, he was hurting. “How are you doing?” she asked him. It sounded like such a silly question, but it didn’t mean she could _not_ ask it. So much of his life these days was about not talking about the situation with their father, she would never rob him of the opportunity to let it out.

“It’s like I have two families… The one that doesn’t know the truth and the one that pretends they don’t. When Cara found out, I was… glad,” he shook his head, expressing his shame for that feeling. How could he feel happy that his little sister was now sad like him?

“I get it,” Maya told him. “She was going to find out sooner or later. They all will…” she frowned to herself, hating to even conjure up what Eliza and Wyatt would soon go through. “At least now you have each other. And right now, you’ve got me,” she willed her face to raise into as much of a smile as she could muster. “So, let’s do this, all of us. Let’s merry the hell out of this Christmas, for us, for them… for him.” Sam looked at her now, and the determination grew in him, too. They would get through it together.

TO BE CONTINUED


	223. Their Christmas With Friends

The next few days, on the whole, were nothing like what any of them had imagined, before they ever flew out from Texas. It wasn’t that they were bad, by any means. They still did some of the things they’d said they would do, but still… One way or another, the news… the _secret_ about Kermit had forced them to turn a lot of things around.

For one thing, Maya and Lucas did not get to spend as much time together as they would have expected to. It had always been the plan that, while they _were_ staying with her family, they would also go and hang out with their friends while they were in New York. Only now, with everything that was happening with the family, Maya had no choice but to choose between one and the other, and really there was no choice. She was needed at the house, with her siblings, and her father and his wife.

Lucas would have just stayed with her, no questions asked, but she insisted he should go and be with them anyway. Much as he tried to say he wouldn’t mind staying, she rightly pointed out the fact that her staying to help around while her father was ‘laid out with a bad cold’ would be one thing, but both of them doing it would only raise suspicions that there was something more going on, and she didn’t want that. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t go and be with them sometimes, and over those days she did get to go a couple of times, but it made her feel better, knowing that he still got to be with their friends.

In the meantime, Operation Last Christmas was in full swing. They didn’t actually call it that, none of them, but it was echoing in the back of Maya’s thoughts whether she liked it or not. She and Sam would go about it, for the most part, by figuring out on the night before what the following day would be. The first order of business was of course the tree, which the five siblings decorated together, with all the excess of magic it deserved. Maya also guided her brothers and sisters in the fine discipline of hand-made ornaments, and the tree – and surrounding living room and hallway and banister areas – was all the better for it.

Both Kermit and Abigail joined them in this activity, and Maya would look around the table as they all sat there, as a family, cutting and gluing, and coloring and sprinkling, and she genuinely felt like she would remember this, for years to come. It took all she had not to cry for it, thinking about how Sam and the others would remember it, too, but she held it together. She could see her father, making an effort to look no weaker than he was expected to, though it didn’t come without some struggle.

Following days included a great big mess of a breakfast, nightly movies, a lot of singing, dancing, pictures, videos… Somewhere in all of that, Maya could almost forget what it was all really about.

By the time the morning of December 24th rolled around, it did finally sort of sink in. Everything so far had been a prelude to the big day, and that was upon them now. As she lay in bed that morning, she was left to wonder whether or not she would go with Lucas that evening, for their friends’ ‘Christmas Eve Christmas Night,’ instead of sticking around the house to be with her family. She must have had the thought right there, printed on her face, because even barely awake Lucas took one look at her and he knew.

“Hey…” he slipped his hand under her back, from where it had already been, draped over her, as she lay staring at the ceiling. Her face eased into a smile as she let herself be pulled closer to him, before finally turning on to her side in order to look at him. She didn’t let him speak right away, instead shutting him up with a kiss. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what he would say.

“You were saying?” she casually asked.

“Actually, I’m having trouble remembering,” he grinned, making her laugh as she kissed him again. Notorious as they were for bantering about, right now it seemed that much more important to give her extra cause to smile and laugh. “You need to come with me tonight,” he finally declared with a kind smile. Maya breathed out, hesitating. “I know you want to be here, that you feel that you have to, but even _they_ would tell you not to miss out on this.”

“I know…” she breathed out, running a hand through her messy morning hair. Of course, she knew. There was no one stopping her from going out there, from having fun with her friends, except her. They wanted her to go, but she thought she should stay. “All of a sudden it feels like there’s a countdown on my chances to make up for lost time. It’s not just that I want to help around here, that I want them to have a good time… I want to spend time with my father,” she confessed, turning her head back to him.

“I get it,” he promised, pressing a kiss to her shoulder. Before they knew it, they would have reached the end of their vacation out here, and then they’d be flying back to Texas, while he stayed out here, out of her reach if not across a screen. And then who knew when they’d get to fly back up here? What if there was no next time, before… “I’m so sorry it has to be like this,” he sighed. “If you really don’t think you can go, I’ll stay, too,” he told her. She opened her mouth to protest, but he went on. “I’ll be there in body, but my spirit will be wherever you are.”

“Doesn’t sound like a fun night,” she sighed, bending back her arm to graze the side of his face with her fingers. “Maybe…” she started, pausing to think and sighing again. “We can go, but not for the whole evening.”

“I can work with that if you can,” Lucas promised.

“Mmm…” she slowly nodded. “Alright… I’ll go,” she told him. He smiled, turning his face to lay a kiss in the palm of her hand. “If I start turning into a party pooper, you need to get me out of there,” she demanded.

“I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of there,” he promised, making her laugh.

“Take it down a notch there, cowboy.”

Morning was spent with her siblings, making enough cookies to fully and finally nudge Santa into a sugar coma, while afternoon was spent getting ready for Christmas Eve with their friends. Kermit and the family were gearing to receive a few family friends, some of the kids’ friends, too. Seeing her birth father pull together something like a presentable look for their guests, hiding away the lingering illness as best he could, was the one thing to momentarily make Maya debate whether or not she really would go. But then it must have been there on her face, because Kermit just gave her a shake of the head that said it plain enough. _Go out there, have fun tonight, don’t worry about me._

This was not going to be like the party they’d had days ago. It would just be the ten of them, celebrating the holidays the way they were meant to be spent when you couldn’t fly home to your family: with your other family.

“Uh… Lucas?” Maya stopped all at once as they were reaching the building’s front entrance, bringing him to an unexpected stop, as he had been holding her hand.

“What…” he started to ask, until he saw she was pointing to a notice in the glass by the door, advertising a room to rent available in the building, with a request for anyone interested to contact Asher Garcia, at the number they knew to be his cell. “What?”

They hurried into the building and up the stairs, reaching the apartment door just as it opened, bringing them to nearly collide with Zay, carrying a garbage bag out to the chute. There was a smile on his face, an overwhelming state of ease about him, the likes of which they hadn’t seen in months.

“Merry Christmas!” he set the bag down and threw his arms around both of his friends, who blinked and seized up a bit from surprise.

“It’s still the 24th,” Maya told him with an only slightly exaggerated ‘help, I can’t breathe’ rasp in her voice.

“It’s Christmas somewhere,” Zay would not be deterred. He scooped up the bag again and marched off to the garbage chute, as Maya and Lucas shared a look and took a few tentative steps into the apartment. The place just swam in the aromas from the kitchen, courtesy of Rebecca’s putting her culinary school skills to good use.

“Hello?” Lucas announced their presence, and they were soon joined by Farkle and Ray.

“Merry Eve,” Ray greeted them.

“We saw a paper in the window downstairs?” Lucas asked them, figuring one of them had to know what it was about.

“Yeah, us, too,” Farkle told him, nodding to where Isadora stood, assisting Rebecca, and looking much more like she was inspecting everything with the intent to understand how it all worked. When he didn’t give them anything else, and Ray just nodded without a word, Maya sighed.

“What does it mean?” she asked the two boys. Ray just shrugged and ushered Farkle away, with a distinct ‘not mine to tell’ look on his face. Lucas struggled not to chuckle at the look of stunned frustration on his girlfriend’s face, just as Nadine came sweeping toward them, giving a tight hug of her own as she also wished them an early merry Christmas.

“I know, it’s early, but it’s Christmas somewhere, you know?” she shrugged, grinning.

“Yeah that’s what he s… oh… Oh! Oh?” Maya cycled so smoothly through realization, and excitement, and curiosity, but Lucas followed the progression even as it all dawned on him. When Nadine’s already beaming expression brightened even more, coupled to a quick nod, her former bandmate had her own first solid smile in the past few days. It really shouldn’t have taken them that long to put two and two together, understanding that the notice for the room had gone up due to the fact that someone was moving out, and that someone was Zay. He was going back to Boston, because he and Nadine had reconciled.

As they soon learned, it had been brewing for days now, from that first encounter outside the apartment. They had been completely out of contact with one another for all this time now, and this separation, coupled with their reunion, and the days they’d spent under the same roof for the first time since the summer, had managed to put a number of things into perspective, primarily that their lives had never stopped being miserable without each other, not for one day. They weren’t suggesting that they would move forward like this time had not happened, not at all. They had suffered for their separation, and they were going to put some work into making sure it wouldn’t happen again.

“I’m really glad I came,” Maya whispered to Lucas later on, as the ten of them were piled around the living room couch, watching a movie. He smiled back at her, and as she set her head to his shoulder, he let out a breath. As hard as the choice had been for her to step away tonight, he had a feeling the next day would carry its own difficulties.

TO BE CONTINUED


	224. Their Christmas With Family

Maya and Lucas were both awake early the following morning. While the rest of the house had not yet awakened to this Christmas morning, there were some who were already up and about in a house in Austin, and neither physical distance nor a slim time difference would get in their way. Sure, it was even earlier for all of them, but then they’d made this plan, when they’d had to tell the twins that their big sister wouldn’t be with them that morning.

“Maya, he came!” Nellie whispered in that very specific way that was neither a success nor a failure in keeping quiet. She was perched on her knees on one of the kitchen chairs, giddiness keeping her on a wobble that explained the presence of Shawn, just barely in the frame, ready to jump in if she ever looked like she’d fall off. Meanwhile, Gracie was also on that chair, smiling, elbows on the table where the laptop was set up for them to talk to their sister. Sure, she had figured out the truth about Mr. Claus, but she wouldn’t say a word, and so her twin was able to keep on believing.

“He did?” Maya asked with an only slightly exaggerated voice of amazement. “Did he eat the cookies?”

“Mommy said he ate the cookies, _and_ he ate the last of the cupcakes, too,” Gracie informed her.

“Did he…” Maya couldn’t help but smirk, especially when, unbeknownst to his little daughters, Shawn moved into the shot and gave a shrug like ‘I don’t know where they get their information.’ They could see now that he had MJ held to him, the small blond boy sleeping in his father’s arms.

“Did he come to you, too?” Nellie asked.

“I don’t know, did he?” Lucas turned to Maya with such a goofy sort of clueless look on him that it took all she had not to burst out laughing. “Too much?” he whispered. She stuck her free hand over his mouth before turning back to look at her phone.

“We’re going to go and find out, but you have to be quiet, okay? Everyone is still sleeping here, so we have to be museum quiet.” Her sisters understood this very well, and they nodded, so Maya and Lucas got up, walking silently out of the guest room and down the stairs toward the living room.

Wyatt had expressed hesitation over their father sleeping down on the couch again, on the logic that Santa might not come if there was someone next to the tree. He’d been told this very same thing when he’d tried to sleep here the year before, he knew. ‘Big cold’ or no, he might have gone back and slept upstairs this one time. He didn’t know, same as Eliza didn’t, that Kermit had been sleeping down here for the last few days to spare himself the trip up the stairs, but also because he simply slept better down here.

So now, as Maya and Lucas ‘accompanied’ the twins into the living room to see if Santa Claus had visited them, too, they were quiet not only for those sleeping upstairs but also for the one sleeping right there in the room.

Of course, Santa _had_ come along, garnishing the space around the tree with many presents. The fact that some of these presents surprisingly had the exact same wrapping paper as some of their presents somehow went right over the twins’ heads.

Back in the safety of the guest room, the girls gave their father a chance to talk to the pair off in New York, running off to find their mother as they waited for the time to open their presents, which would only happen once everyone was awake on both sides.

“Did I see Kermit back there?” Shawn asked, absently rubbing at his sleeping son’s back. Maya looked to Lucas for a moment. She hadn’t even realized they would possibly see him in the background when the two of them had gone into the living room, and now that it was out there, she didn’t know what she was supposed to say. They didn’t want to have this conversation, not now, not like this.

“Uh, yeah…” Maya slowly replied, looking back to her father on the screen.

“We watched a movie last night,” Lucas provided. “He dozed off, and we didn’t want to wake him.” Whether or not Shawn was convinced, they couldn’t say, and they didn’t dwell too long on the subject, instead diverting on to the news of Zay and Nadine’s getting back together, and then asking after the Matthews family, as they would have been out at their house the night before.

It would be a half hour more before all parties were awake and primed for presents. The Skype call had been transferred on to a laptop they could plant somewhere for the group in Austin to see the one in New York, and now they could all open their presents together, one big family with Maya as the link element in the middle. It was sort of funny to see just how much all the kids seemed to mix together, showing one another what they’d received with enough fervor to make the distance feel as though it no longer existed. It reminded Maya of the day when Eliza had asked her if their being sisters made it so that Nellie and Gracie got to be hers, too.

After they’d finally wished one another a merry Christmas and ended the call, the day continued on with about everything the organizers of these most memorable holidays could throw together. There had been a new snowfall over the night, like the skies had decided to do them a solid, and over the next few hours, it was both the front lawn and the backyard that got the treatment of snow sculptures and snow angels, and a snowball fight to end all.

Kermit and Abigail participated here and there, where they could, though mostly they watched as the kids and Maya and Lucas played, especially with the snowball fight. On one side, Maya and Cara and Eliza, on the other, Lucas, Sam, and Wyatt…

“Dad, you saw when I got Sam?” Eliza asked excitedly as the six of them were in the process of shedding their soaked coats, gloves, hats, boots, and any excess snow caked on them just inside the door.

“Yeah, I saw that,” Kermit laughed while Abigail patted at their younger daughter’s head with a towel, absorbing out the snow melt with a chuckle. “You’ve got quite an arm there, El,” he declared, getting a proud grin from the girl.

“She almost tossed it in my mouth,” Sam complained, not so amused at their side. Maya gave him a shoulder tap and he finally went ahead and smiled.

After a warming lunch, they carried on their activities indoors, and the day kept on in this quieter fashion, leading on to dinner, which was the big affair, everyone putting on their best looks before the ‘feast.’ This led to an impromptu sort of fashion shoot/parade, which amused the kids, especially as they witnessed their parents ‘letting their goofs out.’ As many of their nights together had ended this week, they sealed the day with movies. Little by little, the group started to shrink, as the kids would drift off and be carried off to their beds for the night. When Abigail detached herself to go and clean up in the kitchen before turning in herself, Lucas went along to lend her a hand, which left Maya and Kermit, and then Cara, who was fast asleep, curled up to her father.

“I can get her upstairs,” Maya offered, nodding to the other blond head.

“Not just yet, it’s alright,” Kermit told her, looking down to his middle daughter. “She used to just grab on to me like this when she was a baby,” he remarked with a smile. “Like I could just walk around, and she wouldn’t fall. Little monkey…” he carefully nudged the girl’s hair behind her ear. “Thank you, Maya,” he turned back to his eldest now. “For today, this whole week…” She smiled, tipped her head, though she could also feel her heart caught in a tremor. It was all so easy to go ahead and pretend like they didn’t know what was coming, but when they actually acknowledged it…

“I hardly get to see them, I just…” she tried to shrug it off, but he reached out one hand, took one of hers. It dislodged a sort of muted sob from her.

“I mean it,” Kermit told her. “With the kind of news we got, I didn’t know what this Christmas would be like. I _wanted_ it to be like this, but I didn’t know that we’d actually pull it off. But you did that, I know you did.”

“Sam helped a lot, too,” she pointed out, giving credit where credit was due.

“I saw that, too,” Kermit promised. He went off somewhere in his thoughts for a few moments, and Maya could only imagine what he’d have to be thinking, as he contemplated his children’s lives after he’d be gone.

He looked at her then, and she could see in those eyes… so much of that old regret, where she was concerned. It was one thing to think about the things he would miss through no fault of his own, but then he couldn’t forget the things he _had_ missed, those very much because of his actions… his inaction… They may have succeeded in putting that part of their lives behind, but it didn’t erase its existence or its impact. He looked at her with the eyes of someone who felt he might have lived decades more, and still it wouldn’t be enough, because there would always be those years where he hadn’t been able to be her father the way he was meant to be.

Maya didn’t have to respond to this with words. She only looked to the kitchen, where they could see Abigail and Lucas drying dishes and talking, then to the sleeping Cara next to Kermit, then to so many pictures on the walls… _Would you trade all this? Would I?_ She knew _she_ wouldn’t, wouldn’t trade Shawn, the twins, MJ, and the baby to come, wouldn’t trade Texas. And she wouldn’t trade Lucas… Kermit understood all this, and he let out a breath. He wouldn’t trade Abigail and their children either.

With Christmas behind them, they still had a week or so before the flight back to Houston, and they would be memorable days as much as those they’d already spent here. The turn of the year always got to feel like a threshold, between what had been and what could be, with the steps of their lives moving ever onward. The tail-end of this current year had already effectively set down a lot of what the next one would be, for Maya, for others… Births and a death, last times, and firsts…

“Part of me’s ready to just be back in Houston, in our own room, back to school, back to work, everything…” Maya let out a breath, the morning of the 31st. “But the other part doesn’t want to leave here.”

“We’re not gone yet,” Lucas reminded her, his small smile showing plainly how there wasn’t much more he could say or do to remedy this feeling.

He also couldn’t bring up the thing Abigail had let slip, as the two of them had been washing dishes on Christmas night. She hadn’t meant to let him in on it, and she’d asked for him not to say anything about it, not even with Maya, not until it was more than a thought she and Kermit had had, while they’d watched the kids playing in the snow with their big sister that morning. The thought was there though, the thought that, after the time came and he was no longer with them, Kermit had put the possibility out there that Abigail might take the kids and move them down to Texas, that they might gain their big sister on a permanent basis.

“What do you want for this year?” Maya quietly asked, setting the unease aside.

“Start it with you, end it the same,” he declared, to start them off. She laughed, nodded. _What else?_

He wasn’t about to bring up the start of their ‘last (blank) in Houston’ parade, which would start somewhere around summer. Last summer, back to school, Halloween, anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year… in Houston, before their eventual return to Austin… That was sort of the last thing she needed to be thinking about, with how she was feeling at the moment.

“I mean it though,” he carried on. “I could come up with a load of things I could be doing next year, but… none of those would matter as much as… this,” he lifted up his hand, which had gone and clasped itself with hers without their really seeing it. “This year’s just made me think about us a lot. Some of our friends got married this year, started a family, others split up and spent a long miserable time apart before coming back together. And here, everything that’s happened and that’s going to happen…” he shook his head. “It all just makes me want to… hold on a little tighter.” He looked up to her again, found her smiling at him. “Being a bit corny again?” he guessed.

“You? Never,” she scoffed, smiling on. “Mind if I co-sign on that plan of yours? Start and end…”

“And end, and start, and end and start again,” he nodded.

“And again, and again…” she kissed him.

When the morning finally came that the two of them were bound for the airport, that pull of wanting to be here as much as in Texas came in stronger than ever. There’d be Eliza and Wyatt, who simply didn’t want the two of them to go because they liked having them around. Then there’d be Sam and Cara, who couldn’t help but feel a little stronger moving forward while their big sister was there with them. And Kermit…

The way he held her, before they got in the car with Asher and Ray, who were driving them to the airport, Maya knew he had the same thought she did, that it might be the last time. She held him back just the same, tears rumbling in her chest. She didn’t want to let go, it wasn’t fair, they were finally in a good place…

“Call me if you can’t sleep, okay?” she told him when they finally pulled away, thinking of those nights when she’d come down for something to eat or drink in the night and found him clicking through channels, awake despite himself. He chuckled, tapping tears from her face with his finger.

“I swear,” he told her. She carried that promise with her all the way back to Texas, and he kept it.

TO BE CONTINUED


	225. Their New Year of Houston

Their flight home had not come on the end of a sleepless night this time around, though on the whole it also got to feel like a blur, like they wouldn’t remember it all that much. By that point, all they could really think about was how good it would be to be home again, with their friends, in their house… The one thing they _would_ remember was this knowledge in the back of their minds about what news they were carrying along with them, and what it would mean for the people who needed to hear it.

When they’d booked their trip, they had initially gone in with the intention to fly out of and back into Austin, driving home after a stop to see their parents again. In the end though, they had arranged it so that they would fly straight back to Houston, after which their parents would make the drive in to see them, marking in one go their return from New York and the impending start of their new semester.

“They’re on the road now,” Lucas told Maya, as they were stepping out into the airport and he checked his phone. She looked at him and he showed her his screen. Tom Friar had texted to let his son know he and his wife were tagging along with the Hunter Harts on their way up from Austin.

“Good, okay,” Maya nodded. She was nervous, he got that. She wasn’t looking forward to having to tell everyone about Kermit, but her mother especially, and if there was any way around it, any way he could spare her that… But he couldn’t. All he could do was exactly what he was already doing, which was to stand by her side. He held her hand for now, as they went and found their welcoming committee, in the form of Sophie, Chiara, and Rosa.

“Welcome back!” Sophie was first up to hug them both, and they happily returned the gesture. Even though they’d all had the occasional Skype call over the past two weeks, it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as actually seeing their roommates again, holding them even as they were held by them. Chiara was next up, they suspected, as Rosa figured it would give her the chance to take her time.

“Riley and Dylan are back at the house, getting everything ready for everyone coming over from Austin,” she informed them. “Do you need to stop anywhere on the way home?”

“Not me,” Lucas turned to Maya, who also shook her head. “We just want to get home.”

“Then home you will go,” Chiara nodded, and the five roommates were off.

With their luggage retrieved, they left the airport, packing into Sophie’s car, where the two returnees joined Rosa in the backseat. The drive home consisted mostly of a retelling of how the return flight had gone, what they’d eaten, the movie they’d watched… They’d put it on mostly as a way to kill time and not let their minds wander too much, so they’d picked something they’d already seen, figuring they wouldn’t remember anything new if they tried.

When they reached the house, they were greeted with a pack of eagerness both human and canine. Trix, Lou, and Peanut were all yapping at their heels, riding right into those petting hands as they came. Then Dylan came around, wanting confirmation that what he’d heard about Zay and Nadine was true, and finally Riley was upon them, with the news that she and August were to have a baby brother.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Riley asked, when Maya’s hug got to feel particularly tight, a few seconds into it. Maya wanted to tell her mother first, but now here they were, and she couldn’t take it upon herself to lie, especially seeing as she would be telling them all later anyway, so she decided to come right along with it.

“It’s, uh… it’s my father… Kermit, I mean,” she specified. “He’s sick again, and, uh… he’s not… he doesn’t have…” She shook her head, unable to say the words, but then she didn’t have to. She’d said enough that they understood what she was getting at, and now Riley was hugging her again, a more enveloping one than before, the kind that made the world feel like it had disappeared, and it was just the two of them. Maya held on to her friend, the one who’d been by her side from nearly the very beginning of this saga of her birth father and her.

She didn’t want to have to tell the whole story twice, and so her friends agreed to wait until the families arrived before hearing the rest. Maya and Lucas went up to their room to start unpacking as they waited. They could both foresee something of an awkward pause when her parents and his both saw the looks on everyone’s faces, so they had to hope that, somehow, their friends were able to keep it together for a while.

If nothing else, the hug with Riley had made Maya see she’d need to be more careful when the others arrived, unless she wanted them to spot the fact that something was wrong the moment that they saw her. This was aided somewhat by being rushed at once by Nellie, Gracie, and MJ. It was impossible not to smile when she saw them, when she felt their little arms around her. After so many years as an only child, she had been blessed with a deluge of siblings over the last few years, and now she couldn’t think of a time when she didn’t have them.

The hugs didn’t end with those three rushing both their sister and her boyfriend in turn. There were the parents, too, a succession of embraces, and queries after the flight home, and expressions of how they had been missed, and tales of Duke the pup’s first weeks in his new home… Seeing her mother, Maya could only smile, seeing already how much she was getting to show, and she tried to hold on to that feeling as they hugged, rather than to let anything else out. She already hated having to spoil the day with what she had to tell all of them. She _could_ have waited, told them the next time she saw them, but she couldn’t see herself carrying that weight for so long. Sooner or later, it would show on her face, or… or her father’s condition would worsen, and then…

“Where are the others?” Melinda Friar asked, as the four parents sat around the kitchen table.

“Uh, I think they’re upstairs,” Maya turned to Lucas. They’d already discussed the need to find a way to get the kids somewhere else for a few minutes, the better not to either confuse or frighten them. Now he had his way.

“I’ll go tell them you’re here,” he nodded to the four of them before turning to the kids, still crowded around Maya and him. “You guys want to come help me? We can surprise them, and maybe we’ll see the dogs,” he suggested, picking up MJ in the process.

“Come on!” Nellie grabbed her twin’s hand, and just like that, they were off. Maya chuckled as she watched them go, favoring Lucas with a smile as he looked back at her. _Thanks_.

“So, how was New York?” Tom Friar asked.

“Uh, you know, lots of snow, peak Christmas,” Maya shrugged, feeling a rise in uncertainty.

“Maya? What’s the matter?” her mother asked, even as her father’s eyes seemed to ask the same question. She sighed.

“It’s… Kermit,” she told her, told all of them. “He’s not doing very well right now, he’s…” She took a breath. She’d never actually said the words out loud, and even though it felt like this would be the time for it, she still had no idea how she would do once she actually said them. “He’s… he’s dying.”

For a beat, the silence reigned over the kitchen, blotting out anything but the sound of the twins seeking out the roommates and the dogs upstairs. When Maya bowed her head and lost the edge on holding back a sound of any kind, the first to rise and move to her was Lucas’ father. He’d been sitting nearest to where she stood already, but even so, when the truth was told, Shawn turned to Katy, and so did Melinda, which was really what Maya wanted anyway. She’d had her time to process the news, two whole weeks of it, and still… This, telling _them_ , it was different, and she knew it, felt it now.

Next thing she knew, there was her mother, pulling her into her arms, and maybe right then those two weeks hadn’t done nearly as much of her coping with everything as she thought. All the others, as much as she appreciated their support, it just wasn’t the same, was it? Now, with her mother, who had been with her through all of it, who knew better than anyone the role Kermit had played in her life, in his absence as much as his presence… Without a word, she could tell her the things she felt, the sadness, but really the anger, the frustration. The time they’d lost, the time they’d wasted, and the time they’d never get… It all got to feel like the universe was laughing at her for walking blindly into all of this.

Lucas’ father joined him upstairs soon after, the two of them devising a plan of taking the kids along with them to go and pick up dinner. In the meantime, Maya would be able to tell the others what she needed to, recounting the events of the past two weeks where her birth father was concerned. In time, they would return, and they would all eat, crowded into the kitchen and diving for whatever subject they could besides the Kermit of it all. Eventually, the Austin group would have to hit the road again, leaving the seven roommates to finish out their night as they pleased.

Having started the day out in New York and sat through a long flight before they’d even received a single guest, both Lucas and Maya were spent, and they turned in within minutes of their families’ departure. In the morning, they’d have to jump right into pre-semester start mode, and Lucas felt it might be just what they needed right now, what _she_ needed. After she changed, she went to sit on her side of the bed, phone in hand. He could tell from a distance, seeing the colors of the chat bubbles, that she was writing to Sam. He went about changing, too, moving to join her just as she breathed out and set her phone aside.

“Did he write back?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah. He said Kermit’s asleep now, though he napped most of the afternoon, after we left,” Maya replied, slipping under the covers but looking in no part like someone aiming to fall asleep.

Lucas recalled her last words to her father before they’d left, how he could call her when he couldn’t sleep. Did she plan on staying up all night in case he did call? Everything Lucas had seen of Kermit in the past two weeks suggested he was most likely _not_ to call, so she could sleep. Even so, Maya might not see it that way. She was determined to be there, as much as she could, to do her part even though she was so far away from them.

On this night at least, exhaustion would win out in the end, and he’d watch her fall asleep shortly before he drifted off, too. What the next night would be, and the ones after that, he couldn’t say. This new year was barely started, and already they were hitting the ground running, headed toward… probably a lot more change than they’d ever anticipate or care to see.

TO BE CONTINUED


	226. Their New Year of Friendship

The winter break really got to feel as though it ended the day they flew home from New York. The couple days that followed were really much more of a weekend than a vacation, and then they were over, and all of them who had school were suddenly back in school.

On that first day back, Lucas actually didn’t have classes until the afternoon, but he still got ready and left with the others as they drove off to the university. They all stuck together for a time, then little by little they broke off to head to their respective first classes, until it was just Maya and him, as he walked her to _her_ first, which was in fact a TA period, with Professor Robinson.

“You’re free for lunch?” Lucas asked before she could be on her way.

“Uh, can’t say for sure,” she could only shrug. “Depends if the professor needs me in her office. We didn’t get the chance to talk all that much yesterday.” The two of them had been communicating through e-mail over the break, what with Maya being out of state, and the professor being out of the country… with Lucas’ grandfather… and the Hillards. They _had_ a meeting the previous afternoon, but beyond that… “I’ll let you know?”

“Okay,” he smiled, especially as she leaned in and kissed him. “Have fun in class.”

“Have fun lounging around,” she squinted at him with a smirk before heading off into the classroom. He watched her go, then, with a sigh, he started back on his way down the hall.

He didn’t want to be that hovering kind of boyfriend, though the instinct was tough to ignore. Ever since they’d come home from visiting her father, come home with the knowledge that the man was terminally ill, he could just see the fretful concern grow in Maya. She was here, and he was way out there, and now that the two of them were actually getting along, building something neither of them had expected… he was dying. It was like the worst, least funny joke in the world.

Lucas spent the next couple of hours mostly reading through some of his books for the day, familiarizing himself with the topics while he had time to kill. After twisting himself into unnecessary concerns over his finals in the fall semester, he had received his grades as something like a sign. He was right on track, and all he really needed to do to ensure that he stuck the landing into the next part of his journey was to keep doing exactly what he’d been doing, so that was what he’d do.

_Maya: Sorry, no lunch. Making up for it later, promise. 366!_

After replying to Maya’s message, he went and grabbed lunch to go and ended up sitting outside his first class of the day and of the semester. He was only a few bites in when he heard someone call to him. He looked up, and there was Bishop Nicholas, strolling toward him, eternally imposing in stature, and making up for it in smiles.

“I wasn’t sure you’d make it on time,” Lucas smiled, reaching out his hand. Bishop clapped it before lowering himself to sit next to him on the ground.

“That makes two of us,” he breathed. “Right from the airport to here, no time to go home, or change, or… shower,” he sniffed at his shirt, which seemed to be deemed passable.

“Or eat?” Lucas guessed, holding out half his sub. Bishop let out another tired breath and accepted the offering with a gracious tip of the head.

“Very bad commute, I don’t recommend,” he laughed before taking a bite of the sub. “How about you? How was New York?”

“It was… complicated,” Lucas declared, planting both his drink and his chips in the space between them, in an opening to share these as well.

“Good or bad?” Bishop asked before taking another bite.

“Both. Our friends who broke up over the summer got back together,” Lucas told him, and Bishop gave a solid nod to say ‘that’s good’ while his mouth was too full to speak. “And Maya’s birth father is dying,” Lucas flatly added. Bishop stopped chewing for a moment, staring at him wide-eyed. He reached for the cup, took a gulp of soda, then once he’d finally swallowed his bite…

“What?”

“Yeah,” Lucas confirmed, suddenly feeling a bit less into his sandwich. “No saying exactly how long he’s got, but as far as they know, he won’t make it to the end of the year.” _Last Christmas… Here we are, lamenting our second to last this or that in Houston, and Kermit is facing his last something or other… ever._

“Damn… I’m sorry, that’s… How’s Maya doing?”

“Hard to say. As close as we are, there are some things she keeps closer to herself, and I get that, I respect that. Right now, it just makes me worry, makes me wonder if she’s okay. The physical distance between us and them is kind of the big issue right now, not being able to be near her family out there…”

“Right, I get that…” Bishop nodded. Of course, he would, what with most of his family back in France, where he’d just been to visit over the holidays. The whole reason why he was cutting it so close coming back today was that he’d decided to stay out there a few days more than planned, a few more days with the people he loved and missed.

“She’s back in class now though, it should be good for her,” Lucas went on, wishing he didn’t sound so much like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. It would divide her thoughts, keeping half of her spiritually off in New York, while the rest of her was here, especially when she’d start hearing anything to suggest his condition was deteriorating.

When it came time for them to head into the classroom, Lucas started to think how Maya wouldn’t be the only one with her mind in two places. He’d be divided, too, between his classes here, and her out there, wherever she was, contemplating what was happening back in New York. He had to focus. Somehow, he had to hit pause on that other side and focus on the one at hand.

It could be deemed lucky for him that, after a few minutes of his classmates and him wondering where their professor was, they were joined by Hank Hillard.

“Alright, listen up,” he clapped his hands together to get the classroom’s attention. “Due to a personal situation, Professor Carlisle has been forced to withdraw for the length of the winter semester. I will be taking over her class, I am Professor Henry Hillard, for those few I see who aren’t already in my classes,” he pointed to those unfamiliar faces before giving them all a smile and a nod. “Let’s get started.”

For a guy who had been given a few hours’ notice – as Lucas would later discover – before stepping in to teach this subject, his uncle was doing very well, which probably explained why they’d picked him to take over the class now in need of a professor. Lucas couldn’t have asked any better. This now meant that he’d be sitting through two classes back to back with his uncle/professor. If he’d needed something to hold his focus, this would do the job.

“Lucas?” Hank called to him, after that first class was over. The summons was as good as his uncle’s asking if he wanted to walk with him as they moved from one classroom to the next, so he soon fell in step with the man. “I spoke to your father last night. He told us about Maya’s father back in New York, I’m sorry to hear about his condition.”

“Yeah…” Lucas bowed his head. Part of him felt weird about fielding these questions, like it wasn’t his place, but at the same time, he kept thinking that it would make things easier for her not to have to air it out over and over again. “It was sort of unexpected, although Maya kind of had a feeling there’d be bad news waiting when we got there.”

“Your grandfather was stunned to hear it, too. He cares a lot about ‘that little girl,’” his uncle reported, briefly imitating Pappy Joe on the end. It made Lucas chuckle.

“He does, yeah,” Lucas confirmed, momentarily heartened by the notion.

Pappy Joe had as good as adopted her as family, as his very own granddaughter, for about as long as he’d known her. He’d always gotten on so well with her, and the feeling of course was entirely mutual. Lucas recalled that day, after his grandfather had fallen and ended up in the hospital, how she’d come rushing along. Sure, she’d been under the impression Lucas himself was the one who’d been hurt, but she had been instrumental in Pappy Joe’s recovery, of body and of spirits. “I think I can easily say the feeling goes both ways.”

“Right, well, he wanted me to pass along the message, saying he’d love to have you guys over to the house for dinner, or to go to you if it makes it easier.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t just show up,” Lucas smiled, more so as his uncle laughed.

“He _would_ be the kind to pop in out of the blue, wouldn’t he?”

“He would,” Lucas agreed. “And, uh, I’ll talk to Maya and let you know.”

Before he knew it, he had his first two classes behind him, and the whole of his first day back. He was expecting to be on his own again for dinner, before he was due off at the bookstore for the evening, but then just as he was queuing up to buy his food, he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He turned around, and he smiled.

“Dinner for two?” Maya asked, and they walked off together.

“How was your first day?” he asked. By now, she was done with her classes, too, and also like him, she was working tonight. But she _had_ vowed to make up for her being unable to meet him at lunch, and now here she was, making good on her word.

“Pretty relaxed, I guess. Professor Robinson brought me a box of candies from her trip. I may or may not have eaten about three quarters of it already,” she revealed with an innocent smile that felt a little less innocent than intended.

“So, when you say ‘relaxed,’ do you mean ‘sugar rushed?’” he asked, smirking. She just grinned.

“I would share, but I don’t want to spoil your dinner.”

“No, yeah, we wouldn’t want that,” he leaned over to kiss the side of her head. He couldn’t deny, seeing her like this made him feel a bit more at ease again. “By the way, my grandfather either wants us to go have dinner at the Hillards’ or to come and see us at the house,” he informed her.

“Either would be great… or both, I’m not picky. You know I love the guy, he’s family.” Lucas smiled, thinking back to his uncle’s appraisal on Pappy Joe’s own affections for Maya.

“I’ll let him know,” he promised.

After a quick dinner, he dropped her off at the restaurant before heading up to the bookstore. With one day behind them, the semester was officially on. None of them knew where it would take them, by the time summer rolled around. All they could really do now was keep doing… well, this. They just had to keep showing up, keep going through their days, one after the other, without getting too tangled up in the things looming up ahead, still very much out of their reach.

TO BE CONTINUED


	227. Their New Year of Mentorship

Even as the previous semester had been coming to an end, Maya had been looking forward to this next one starting. That was easily a new high for her, and she had been eager to run with it. And then New York had happened, with the news of her birth father’s condition having turned terminal, and everything had changed. She was still looking forward to the new semester, she really was, although the motivations…

When she’d gone in for her meeting with Professor Robinson, a couple days ago, she had carried on like business as usual, but on the inside, she couldn’t ignore a rise in something like doubts. Should she tell her? More importantly, should she resign her TA post? She was already afraid that everything with Kermit was going to distract her from her own classes, so the last thing she wanted was to be responsible for letting both the professor and her students down, too.

She hadn’t made up her mind, so she hadn’t said anything, but now… Lucas had mentioned how Pappy Joe wanted to invite them or come to visit them, whatever worked, which immediately was as good as telling Maya that Pappy Joe was aware of her situation. And if _he_ knew, then there was a good chance he had confided in his special lady friend… Patty Robinson. When Lucas had brought up the invitation the day before, Maya had been left to think back to her interactions with her mentor earlier that day, looking for indications that she might have known the truth and been pretending as though she didn’t. Nothing really stood out to her, but then again, she could see the woman as having an excellent poker face.

So now, here she was, on her second day back, with a pit of uncertainty in her stomach. What was she supposed to do? The moment she spoke to the professor and the truth was out, one way or the other, she was going to have to decide what to do, carry on or quit the post, and part of her really didn’t want to have to make that choice. On the one hand, it felt like she should, but on the other… she loved it too much to let it go.

Her day started with office hours. With the semester still just kicking off, the visits tended to be few and far in between, more so than usual, and if they happened, they were generally simple to handle, so, in the meantime, she was free to dive into some of her own readings. She had a feeling that, even outside her hours, she would come and study here a lot this semester. _Unless I quit being a TA…_

“Wow, so this is what the high life does to you?” She raised her head and sat up all at once, from where she’d been hunched over her textbook, relaxing a moment later when she saw Franny standing just inside the door to the office. A moment later, she was nudged in so that Kayla could drop in next to her.

_“We figured there wouldn’t be many people so we came to keep you company,”_ she explained with a smile, before reaching into her bag and pulling out a small paper bag, which she moved to deposit on Maya’s desk. She could smell cinnamon and sugar and something baked, and it made her smile. It was still warm.

_“Thanks,”_ she signed back as her friends went ahead and sat on her two ‘receiving’ chairs. They were technically the professor’s, but when she was the one holding the office, they would be moved to face her corner desk instead.

“This one’s new,” Franny remarked, indicating one of the pictures stuck to the wall above her desk.

“Yeah, I took a bunch of photos and videos over the holidays,” Maya explained.

The picture had been taken on Christmas Day, after she and Lucas and the others had put on their clothes for dinner, coming off all fancy when just hours earlier they’d been pelting one another with snow. All the giddy joy of the day still radiated off of them, and it made for an image that truly came to life. They stood two by two and four to a row, Maya with Wyatt stood before her, then Kermit with Sam, and Abigail with Cara, and Lucas with Eliza. The shot replaced another picture showing her New York siblings with their parents, which had previously been there on the wall. It was the first one she had here on display where she stood shoulder to shoulder with her birth father.

She tried so hard not to think it, she really did, but looking at the picture there, thinking about it as she did, the thought came loose, absolutely unbidden and inevitable. It had been the first, and it might well be the last, the only. And all of a sudden, she was bowing her head and pressing her hand to her mouth, attempting desperately to hold back this rumbling in her like she was about to cry. She was finding more and more that, all this time, while she was in New York, where she thought she’d gotten used to the news, had only been half of it. Now that she was back in Houston, it was like she was realizing it all over again. It was still fresh, the sting hadn’t healed, and now here she was, fighting tears after little to no provocation.

Kayla was the first to move up, and without waiting to be told or to understand what was making her act this way, she was hugging her friend and bandmate, and Maya greeted this without restraint. She let herself be held, until the shudder had passed and she was more or less in control of herself again.

There were no two ways around it, she had to explain it to them. It wasn’t that she’d been aiming to keep it from them, but… maybe the thought had been nice for a while, that a part of her life could remain untouched by all of this. Deep down, she knew it couldn’t happen like that, knew that sooner or later they’d have to know. Still, she could have done with being in control of herself for a little while longer.

“Look, I, uh…” she sniffled, blinking when she saw the time on her computer screen, “Professor Robinson should be back any minute, my time’s almost up. I need to pull myself together and…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Franny told her, signing over to Kayla to say they should go. “We’ll see you in class later, okay?” They were both staring at her like they needed confirmation she was fine before they would leave her, so she gave them a smile and a nod.

“I’ll meet you there, yeah… Thanks for the donut,” she nodded to the as yet untouched treat. In all this, she hadn’t gotten around to eat it, and it had probably cooled down entirely by now.

After they’d gone, Maya used her phone camera as her mirror, to inspect the ‘damage’ caused by her breakdown. She did her best to make herself look as she’d done before. Whether or not she’d succeeded was up for debate. She thought she still looked a wreck, but others might not notice.

“Do I smell donuts?” Professor Robinson walked in a few minutes later.

“Donut, singular,” Maya informed her. “Here,” she held out the bag. As thankful as she was for the gesture, she didn’t feel like eating it right now, and she would rather it go to someone else than to see it just sitting there.

“The day I say no to a donut,” the professor smiled, taking the bag before having a seat across from her student and assistant. “Are you sure you don’t want to share?” she asked, tearing the thing in two.

“I’m alright, thanks,” Maya shook her head. The professor looked at her, looked in that way she had that made you feel like she could read your soul, and if she didn’t already know via Pappy Joe, now she knew enough to guess something was happening and it wasn’t good. “Look, I…” she started to say, letting out a sigh as she sat up a bit straighter. “I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I think… maybe it would be best if I resigned. I could probably recommend a few people to replace me, I’m really sorry, it’s just… I’m afraid my head might not be in it this semester and…”

“Maya, now, you wait just a moment,” Professor Robinson cut in, setting the donut half back in the bag and the bag on the desk, keeping hold of the napkin to remove the sugar from her fingers. “This is because of your father’s situation, I’m assuming?”

“So Pappy Joe _did_ tell you,” Maya nodded.

“Unintentionally, but yes,” Patty told her, and there it was, in the back of her eyes, the ‘I’m so sorry’ look she’d been hoping to prevent. “Now, if you really think that there’s no other way, I will understand, but I think you might want to think on this for a little while. The semester’s just started, it shouldn’t be too overwhelming for the time being…”

“It kind of is though,” Maya breathed, looking to the woman who’d been the absolute highlight of her two and a half years at this university. “I’m here… and everything in me wants to be _there_ ,” she gestured off in the distance, though really toward the new photo on the wall ahead of her.

“I understand needing to feel helpful right now, I do. Maya, from everything you’ve told me about your birth father and what your relationship with him has been over the years, what it is now… I can’t speak for him, but probably the best thing you can do to help him is to try and go on living your life. There’s no telling when things might… take a turn, but right now…”

“No, I know,” Maya promised. “But I won’t be any help to you, to your students, when I’m this way.” This was the right thing, wasn’t it? She didn’t _want_ to quit, but for everyone else’s sake…

“It won’t always feel this way,” Patty promised her. “It seems like it right now, but in time… When my husband was hospitalized, when it became clear that he wouldn’t come back to us,” she shook her head to herself, as Maya looked at her, listening attentively, “I was in the middle of a semester teaching, and I would walk the halls feeling like a zombie, like… I wasn’t here. My body was here, but my mind, my heart…” the professor reached out her arm to her own far distance, hers reaching back in time as well as space. “I stayed, I kept going, because it was the thing to do, and for a little while I couldn’t stand it. I was going through the motions.”

“Yeah…” Maya breathed out.

“In time, you fall into another rhythm, the one where the other side starts to get familiar. It is what it is, and you just carry on, because what other choice do you have? The one thing you would like to change the most, it won’t happen, will it?”

“Nope,” Maya could only agree. If she could, wouldn’t she just make it so he didn’t end up dying?

“Now, you and I, we will be honest with one another from here on out. If you need to talk, you know where to find me. If you need us to make some changes, or if you really think you can’t go on, we will deal with that. And if I see you slipping, too, I will tell you. How does that sound? Doable?”

“I… Yeah…” she nodded slowly, a small smile easing on to her face.

“Good,” Patty smiled back. “Now, go on,” she took up the bag again, taking her half of the donut and holding out the bag. After a breath, Maya picked out the other half.

TO BE CONTINUED


	228. Their New Year of Music

The next day was to be the band’s first practice day of the new year, and Maya was just a bit concerned. When she woke up that morning, after waiting what felt like a sufficient amount of time, she couldn’t wait any longer, and she turned and gave Lucas’ shoulder a shake until he’d wake up, too. He startled, blinking for a moment before looking down at her.

“Hey, what’s…”

“I’m not turning into the sad girl, am I?” she asked plainly. He stared at her for a moment, trying to focus his barely awakened mind into understanding. Finally, he let out a breath, closing his arms around her and pulling her close. She was afraid she’d bring down the whole band with everything going on with her, with Kermit…

“I’d be more concerned if you weren’t a little…”

“No, I know,” she sighed, taking full advantage of this moment to hold and to be held by him, “It’s just that I don’t want it to turn into _all_ I’m about, and these days it sort of feels like it is. And then tonight…”

“Say the word, I _will_ sit down there and flash you a smile whenever you need it. You know, one of these?” he demonstrated, immediately causing her to giggle when she saw it. “See? It works.”

“Maybe I need to put that as my lock screen,” she told him.

“You haven’t already?” he asked with mock afront.

“Not that the current one isn’t doing it for me either,” she pointed out, reaching back blindly to snatch up her phone and show him what currently showed up when she lit the screen. It showed the two of them along with her New York siblings, the six of them standing in the doorway of their house, just coming in from their snowball fight, caked with snow and a little frozen looking but also smiling brightly.

“So, what do you want me to do about tonight?” he asked, smiling again as he looked at the picture and then at her. “I’m serious, I will sit there if you want me to.”

“I know you will,” she breathed, quietly browsing through her photos. The first time he’d seen that she had a whole folder dedicated to pictures of him, and of him and her together, he had teased her relentlessly for a good couple of weeks. He was just so clearly amused and touched by it though that she’d let him carry on. How was she supposed to be annoyed at seeing him with a smile on his face anyway? “But all I’d be doing would be to draw attention to… needing a boost,” she pointed out, smirking as she held up her phone to show him one of the pictures in the ‘Hucklegallery’ before setting it as her new lock screen.

“Okay, well, look, the offer stands, if you need me tonight, I’ll be there. For your sake, I hope you won’t. Maybe you’ll find another way to keep it together.”

“That’d be nice,” she sighed, quietly smiling at the new photo on her screen.

The day would actually be a good one, which wasn’t to say that the previous two had been bad, but it was the first one where she did feel a bit more in control of herself, of her thoughts and her emotions. For that, she didn’t really think about the evening’s practice until right before her last class of the day, which was one of her TA classes.

Maya went on toward the classroom, making a pitstop at Professor Robinson’s office. When she approached, she quickly guessed that she’d missed her and would only see her when she reached class when she spotted Aminah Ali, turning away from the door like she’d knocked and waited and gotten no answer.

“Did you need something?” Maya asked when the girl spotted her and stopped.

“No, well, I… I was supposed to pick up something from Professor Robinson, but I must have missed her,” she explained, indicating the door. Maya reached in her pocket and pulled out her keys.

“Hang on,” she told Aminah, opening the door and walking in to look across the professor’s desk. There was an envelope sitting on the corner with the student’s name on it, so she picked it up and brought it out to her. “I assume this is it?”

“Yes, thank you,” she tipped her head with a shy smile before slipping the envelope inside her bag. They took off together now, on their way to class. As they walked, they happened to run into Rosa and her friends, and Maya’s roommate and bandmate took the opportunity to say that she might be twenty or so minutes late to band practice, but she’d definitely be there. “You’re in a band?” Aminah asked, when the two of them continued on.

“I… Yeah, I am,” Maya told her, unable to hide some of her surprise. It wasn’t that she expected every single person on the face of the Earth to know about TXNY, but she’d gone on for so long now being constantly surprised with the opposite of what happened here, with someone randomly revealing that they knew the band, whether they were actually fans or not. Coming across someone who had no idea whatsoever was odd… and kind of nice. “There’s me, and Rosa,” she pointed back to where the girl had walked off, “And Kayla, who you met at the library that one time, and Willow, she doesn’t go here, and Riley, another of my roommates.”

“Is it strange, I have never met anyone who was actually in a band, like it’s something only people in television do,” Aminah declared, laughing lightly.

“It’s true, we exist,” Maya intoned dramatically, making her laugh again. Suddenly, she had a thought, and maybe out of that concern she’d expressed to Lucas that morning, suddenly she heard herself say it aloud. “We’re having practice this evening, you’re welcome to sit in and listen, if you’d like.”

“Is that… allowed?” Aminah asked. “I mean, you’re a TA and…”

“It’s music, not test results,” Maya shrugged. After a few seconds of what looked like the shy girl’s trying to tell herself to take a chance for once, she finally accepted.

They went to class, where Professor Robinson saw the freshman and apologized for not meeting her at her office, but when Maya cut in to let her know she’d grabbed the envelope for her, the professor looked relieved. It wasn’t until after class, as they made their way to the house, that Maya discovered what was in the envelope and why it had been so important for Aminah to get it now. It was a cheque, for a fundraiser she was part of. The professor had happened to hear about it, and she’d vowed to contribute.

It was for a hospital, as Maya learned, when she asked about this fundraiser. Specifically, it was for the hospital where Aminah had received treatment when she was seven years old. It was what had brought the Ali family to the United States, where they had remained, and where Aminah’s sisters were born.

As ever, arrivals at the house – especially where strangers were introduced – were met with a rush of giddy barking dogs. Aminah was taken with them at once, and seeing her light up this way made Maya smile, too. Of the three, she bonded most easily with Lou, who was not near as fretful as she’d been when she’d first joined the house but still kept some of those old qualities. In Aminah’s arms, she looked more at peace than they’d possibly ever seen her.

Willow was the first to arrive and be introduced to their audience for the day. Then came Kayla, and then Riley along with Chiara, and then Rosa, who’d ended up no more than five minutes later than expected, thanks to catching a ride home with Lucas. By the time she came bounding down the stairs, everyone was more or less ready to go, with the other four sitting around and chatting with their guest.

“Oh, hey, I saw you earlier,” Rosa remarked. “Sorry, I didn’t have time to stop and say hello, but now you’re here, so… hello,” she waved.

“Aminah, this is Rosa. Rosa, Aminah,” Maya did the introductions.

“Hello,” Aminah nodded and waved back.

“She will be sitting in on practice today, so…” Maya added.

“So, I should be on my best behavior?” Rosa cut in, picking up her bass.

_“I didn’t catch all of that, but I swear I saw her say ‘best behavior?’”_ Kayla signed, smirking.

_“I don’t know what she’s talking about,”_ Rosa signed back innocently.

In due time, everyone got into place, and they started out with a bit of warm up music before figuring out their plan for the day’s practice. Having Aminah there, who had never heard any of their music, became something of an unexpected motivator, as they would go on and decide what songs to do by means of thinking up which songs they most wanted her to hear. The more they played, the more she seemed to be enjoying herself, and so they would keep on going. By the time they were through for the day, everyone was in a good place. And Maya, well… Once they went upstairs and she saw Lucas, she finally realized that she hadn’t once stopped and thought of her father and his situation, and that was… okay.

“You can stay for dinner,” Maya told Aminah as they were climbing up from the basement. “Everyone sticks around on practice days, you’re very welcome to join us.”

“Thank you, but I should go, I need to help my mother with my sisters.”

“Alright, well, I’m glad you came, really…” _You have no idea._

“I’m glad I did, too. You all were amazing. You wrote all those songs?”

“Most of them, yes,” Maya nodded.

“I used to want to learn how to play the guitar,” the girl went on to confess.

“Hey, I’d be happy to teach you,” Maya shrugged as she walked her toward the door.

“Oh, well…” Aminah started, then, again, willed herself to say yes to something, “I will see.”

After she went, Maya shut the door and let out a breath, turning around to find Lucas moving toward her with a smile. She remained leaning to the door until he’d walked all the way up to her before lifting her arms to drape around his shoulders.

“Made it through practice, uh? You guys sounded great.”

“Did you sit next to the door the whole time?” she took a guess, indicating the basement.

“Not at all,” he laughed. “You didn’t need me, you had this handled. I knew you would.”

“Right,” she slowly nodded, making it clear with the squinting of her eyes that she didn’t believe him for one second. “Well, whatever you did or didn’t do… and I think we both know which is the right answer… This was good,” she breathed out. “I got to feel a bit more me for a little while, and I really needed it. I know it won’t make everything better, but it did sort of put things in perspective just a bit.”

“Like how?” he asked.

“Like maybe, if I can hold on to this feeling, I can make it through the next few months, and maybe I can keep on working with Professor Robinson.”

“That’s good,” he nodded, brushing his hands along her back.

“Things will probably keep changing,” she went on. “Whatever happens back in New York, I don’t… we can’t know for sure.” He shook his head, agreeing. “At least I know I have one thing to remind me.” When his face raised in a question to ask what that thing was, she smirked and pulled up her phone with its new lock screen.

“Oh, that guy,” he nodded, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

TO BE CONTINUED


	229. Their New Year of Bonds

It was quickly decided that they would take up Pappy Joe’s invitation by heading over to the Hillards for lunch on Saturday. As their first week back at school drew to a close, without being overly stressful, they could not wait to head over and spend some time with Lucas’ family.

“Is the professor going to be there?” he asked Maya as they were leaving the house on Saturday morning.

“I don’t know,” Maya started to say, then just as quickly amended, “Well, actually, she might not, her son’s birthday is in a few days, I think she was going out there to be with him and his family.”

“Speaking of birthdays,” Lucas smiled. She snorted.

“Yeah, what do you know, it’s that time again,” she sighed dramatically. “You really don’t have to make a big deal about it, you know? It’s not a milestone or anything.”

“Says the girl who spent a week giving me double peace signs after _I_ turned twenty-two.”

“Keep it up and I’ll be giving you a lot of this in a few months,” she declared, holding up two fingers on one hand and three on the other and waving them all in his face. He just laughed and tried to dodge.

His instinct might have been to point out how her mood had improved over the week, which he was happy to see, but at the same time he figured they would be better off, _she_ would be better off, if he didn’t bring attention to it.

It wasn’t as simple as to say that, after a few days of getting back into the rhythm of home, and school, and everything else, she had somehow gotten over the reality of what was happening back in New York. She was still deeply concerned over the state of her birth father, and her siblings out there with him, whether they did or didn’t know what was going on. Just last night, Lucas had been awakened, same as Maya was, by the tone of an incoming call. He had been confused, while she’d just reached out and grabbed her phone.

“Hey,” she answered, and Lucas could just see Kermit’s face on the screen.

“I woke you, didn’t I?”

“No, that’s alright,” Maya promised. “You couldn’t sleep?” she asked, then, off his hesitant look, like he couldn’t admit it, “I’m glad you called, I…” She looked over to him, staring back at her, finally noticing he was awake, too. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, leaning over with her arm still stretched away, to touch her forehead to his. “Go back to sleep,” she told him, kissing his forehead before rising out of bed and taking herself and her phone out of the room.

He couldn’t say how long they’d ended up talking. He ended up falling back to sleep before long. When he woke again, it was morning, and she was back next to him, still sleeping. He let her stay that way, unsure of how much or how little sleep she’d gotten after the call had ended.

The important part was that she was finding her pace going forward. So long as she was at peace, so was he.

They reached the Hillard house, and Maya was barely out of the car that she was summoned up by Sarah and Evie, standing before their open bedroom window and calling out her name as they waved their arms. So, once they went inside, taking off jackets and boots, she went up the stairs, while Lucas followed his aunt and boss over to the kitchen. There, he came upon his uncle, busy at the stove, while his grandfather sat at the table along with the younger Hillards. By the looks of things, he was attempting to show eight-year-old Henry and six-year-old Maggie a card game.

“Oh, see here, one of my finest students,” Pappy Joe declared with a laugh. “Sit now, Lucas, we can start again, two by two,” he gathered up the cards, getting just a bit of complaint from Henry, who by his count was on his way to a win. “Who wants to team up with me?” the man looked to the boy and girl.

“Me! Me! Can I?” Maggie raised her arm with great energy. Pappy Joe laughed again before turning to Henry.

“That alright with you, Junior?” he asked the boy, who turned to look at Lucas.

“You’re good at this?” Henry asked.

“I know all his tells,” Lucas declared as he moved to sit with Henry. “We’re going to crush him.” This seemed to satisfy his cousin, who turned a wicked grin to the man pairing up with his sister.

“You hear that, Margaret?” Pappy Joe tipped his head to the girl in the process of ‘shuffling’ the cards. At the sound of her full name, she looked up, like she thought she was in trouble.

“Huh?” she looked up to Pappy Joe.

“You and me, we’re going to show your brother and your cousin who’s boss, yeah?” he held out his hand and she shook it with a grin. “Yeah, there it is. Hand me those cards.”

Once the cards had been shuffled and dealt, the two teams huddled in for a whispered conversation with their partner before the game could officially start. As they settled into the rhythm of it, Lucas was not surprised to find his grandfather would turn the subject on to the girl currently upstairs with the elder Hillard girls.

“How are things with Maya and everything out in New York?” Pappy Joe asked. Going by his words and his tone, Lucas took this to mean they were trying not to say anything that might upset the children sitting with them, even if they had not met Kermit and likely never would.

“Uh, good, well…” he stalled, shaking his head to himself. That really wasn’t the right word for this, was it? “Getting better,” he decided.

“That’s good to hear,” Pappy Joe told him, pointing to one of the cards in Maggie’s hands, which she pulled out from the ones she held and deposited where he pointed next.

“Did we win yet?” she asked.

“Not yet, but we’re getting there,” Pappy Joe promised her. Henry looked up to Lucas, who leaned to whisper at his ear. The boy smiled, inspecting the cards _he_ held and pointing one out. Lucas nodded, and Henry played it.

Being here, with his cousins, his aunt and uncle, his grandfather, Lucas didn’t know how not to go and start thinking about what Maya was going through at the moment. Here he was, with his own bit of lately-found family, and the thought that he might lose any of them, that he might be far from them as it happened… There were his parents, too, of course, but this wasn’t the same, was it? He was just getting to know the Hillards, and though the circumstances of their estrangement were by no means the same, there would be times where he really got to feel for all those years where they had been living just two hours away without knowing it, all those years they could have been close. He could have seen his cousins grow up, more than he now did.

And these were his cousins, this was – truth be told – his father’s cousin and his wife. At some point, it just didn’t stack up the same way as Maya with her birth father, and his wife, and her half-siblings. It did not mean the same thing to him as it did for her, and it never could. So, whatever he felt for ever possibly losing someone here…

Somewhere along the line, it really got to be that he loved her so much that her being in pain would go and echo out on to him. He never wanted to see her ache, and he might not have been able to make it all go away, but he could be there with her, he could feel with her, and so he would.

“Look,” Henry whispered, showing the cards he’d drawn like he wanted to be sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. Lucas gave him a small nod. Henry looked at his cards, at the ones on the table, then at his sister and Pappy Joe. He raised his cards so that they hid his face. “We win?” he whispered even lower. Lucas gave him a thumbs up under the table. Henry looked at his cards again, and to the table, and to his little sister, squirming in her seat the way she’d get when she was excited about something. She may learn to master this game in time, but poker might be another story…

When Henry played his card, Lucas barely had time to blink, that suddenly Maggie was smacking a card of her own on the table, climbing on to her chair, and doing a happy dance, shouting ‘We won! We won!’ Pappy Joe was watching her, making sure she wouldn’t fall off, but at the same time he would also look to Henry, same as Lucas did. The boy casually slipped his cards back into the pack, his air of disappointment fooling absolutely no one. He’d thrown the game. He’d let Maggie win.

“It’s one game,” he shrugged, looking back to Lucas. “Don’t tell her, okay?” Lucas chuckled, producing a fist for his cousin to bump.

“You did good,” he promised. The more the younger Hillard boy grew up, he very much carried some of his older brother’s qualities, his manners, especially with regards to their sisters, though he was absolutely more likely to end up in trouble for his efforts. Last summer, he’d wanted to give Sarah this book he’d seen at Coleman’s, and he had done so… He’d just forgotten the paying part. Rosa had been the one to spot him in the attempt, and she’d brought him to Lucas.

When he had told his tale, Lucas had chosen to trust his words as genuine and they’d made a deal. He would loan the money for Henry to buy his sister the book on two conditions. He would have to pay him back from his allowance, and he would have to tell his parents about what he’d done.

Lunch was served, which finally brought Maya back among them, along with Sarah and Evie. Whatever they had needed her for seemed to be some kind of massive secret, and Lucas knew very well just how much Maya loved to play along on things like that, dangling the fact that there was something she knew and he didn’t in his face. That was all fine by him though. He kind of liked the bantering for his part. As they all took their seats, Lucas learned that his eldest younger cousin would not be joining them, as he was hanging out with Leigh. Joseph had been quietly pining after Rosa’s friend and classmate since the two of them had met, and after Halloween had started them forward, it seemed as though the holidays had allowed for a few more strides, leading all the way to New Year’s Eve and a midnight kiss. They were still testing out what to call one another, but there had definitely been a couple of dates and loads more kissing.

“Your grandfather looked like he wanted to hug me the whole time,” Maya told Lucas as they were leaving, after the meal, both of them making a quick stop at home to change before heading in to work.

“I saw that,” he chuckled.

“Kind of wanted him to do it,” she admitted. “The guy gives good hugs.”

“Yeah, he really does,” Lucas agreed. “I’m still number one though, right?”

“Why, are you scared about your title there, Champ?” Maya turned a grin up to him that made him laugh. “Relax, there’s no dethroning you.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	230. Their New Year of Home

Their current schedule didn’t make for too much sleeping in on weekends, but it did give them _some_ extra time to just lounge in and relax before they headed off to work, to study, whatever they had to do, and they were absolutely going to benefit from it while they…

“Clocking two! Clocking two!”

The call, coming from somewhere outside their room, was so sudden and loud that both Maya and Lucas jumped. Thinking maybe that the other was going to ride that surprise right off the edge of the bed, they both reached for one another to ensure they wouldn’t fall. This turned into more of a collision than anything, and there was a chorus of yelps and apologies before they could stop and kind of laugh. A second later, there was a quick knock at their door.

“You guys decent?” the voice now registered as Sophie’s. Maya and Lucas looked to one another. Maya gave her shirt collar a tug, tipping her head as though to say ‘I have half a mind to say no.’ Lucas shrugged. Much as he wouldn’t be against hiding back here with her, they all respected a call of ‘clocking two,’ code for ‘incoming parents, we need to get the house ready.’ If they opted out, next time it was _their_ parents coming along, they might find themselves scrambling without help.

“A gentleman as always,” Maya whispered with a sigh before releasing her collar and turning to the door. “You’re clear!” she called out, and a moment later the door opened. “Your mom coming over?” Maya asked. Sophie nodded. “Is she bringing Walt?” There was a flicker in their friend’s face.

“No, just her. You want the upstairs or errands?”

“We can do the errands,” Lucas volunteered, stealing a look to Maya, who gave a nod.

“Good, thanks,” Sophie told them before moving back into the hall and knocking at the door across from theirs. “You awake?” they heard her ask. Maya turned to swing her legs off the bed, setting her feet on the ground and getting up before turning to look to Lucas, who had done the same.

“I’m not even going to ask why they get a ‘you awake’ and we get a ‘you guys decent,’ what is going on with her mom and her boyfriend?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Lucas told her, his voice showing plainly he was equally curious. Sophie had definitely dodged them there.

When they had all gone on their way for the holidays, the two of them in New York, Rosa sticking here in Houston, the others back in Austin, Sophie was taking Chiara home to her mother. The prospect here was that Diana Zvolensky and her new boyfriend, Walt, would be bringing their respective families together, spending Christmas all together. Already going in, Sophie had been a bit apprehensive on the matter, but only so far as she might be expected to react, still holding a long-dead father close in her heart.

Upon their return from New York, Maya and Lucas had caught up with their roommates, asking how their own holidays had gone. Sure, their own hadn’t gone exactly the way they would have expected, but they still wanted to know about the others’ celebrations. Rosa told them about the party at the house, and about Christmas day with her mother, while Riley and Dylan shared a few stories of the time they’d spent with both her family and his. When it came to catching up on what had gone on with the Zvolensky house and the big joining of the two families, Chiara had deferred to her girlfriend, while Sophie had been sort of… dismissive. She said it had been good, but beyond that there wasn’t a whole lot. Since then, they couldn’t really recall her bringing up anything to do with her mother or Walt, right up to this morning.

“Do you think he’s not coming today because he was busy or because he and Sophie’s mom broke up?” Lucas asked as he and Maya walked into the grocery store with a list in hand.

“I don’t know, but I’m almost afraid to ask?” she admitted, her voice raising into a question. _You know?_

“Yeah, no, me too,” Lucas told her. She sighed. “Before Shawn, did your mother have like…”

“Other boyfriends?” Maya asked. He nodded. “Sort of, sometimes,” she replied. “Never anything too serious. I mean, I think I met maybe one or two over the years, and they weren’t around long enough to leave an impression.”

“Were you okay with it?”

“Well…” she breathed out, thinking back to those days. “I wasn’t exactly… properly informed at the time, you know?” She still believed what her mother had let her believe, that she was the reason Kermit had left, the reason Maya didn’t have a father.

“Right,” he nodded, sort of regretting the question for where it was likely to lead her thoughts now. She just smiled at him, moving along with the list as he pushed the cart.

“I can’t really compare my experience with hers though, can I? Maybe she just needs more time to get used to the guy, or he’s a jerk and there’ll be no getting used to him, or he’s out of the picture already. Whatever it is, we will act in consequence.”

“Meaning you’ll give him the good old New York stink eye if it’s option two and he shows his face?” Lucas guessed, earning himself a chuckle.

“Me and Riley together, ooh, look out,” she shook her head.

They made quick work of the list, the better to return with everything and help some more before they had to get ready and go to work. They wouldn’t actually be there to even get to see Sophie’s mother. By the time they got back, she’d be gone, probably already back in Austin and in her own home.

They both sort of hated having to leave, feeling that it would be much more important to stay and be with their friend. By the time Lucas came to get her from the restaurant at the end of the night, Maya was as eager to get home as he was.

“Any word?” she asked as she slid into her seat and over to kiss him hello.

“Not really. Dylan just wrote earlier to say that Mrs. Zvolensky had gone home and the five of them were going out to the movies. They should be back or almost back by now.”

“Went to the movies because they felt like it or went to the movies because Sophie was down, and they were trying to cheer her up?” Maya asked.

“He didn’t specify,” Lucas shrugged.

They arrived to find no more than the dogs to greet them. Lucas ended up putting in a bit of reading for one of his classes while Maya hopped in the shower to wash off the scent of a particularly hectic work shift. She was just out of there, combing through her hair, when they heard the door from downstairs, followed by mixed voices, as their roommates returned. They came to find them, plopped down across the large couch, still talking about the movie they’d just seen.

“Hey, how was the movie?” Lucas asked.

“Maybe not the best choice for a late showing,” Rosa smirked, looking back to Riley, sitting shoulder to shoulder to Dylan like she needed to know he was there so she wouldn’t be so freaked out.

“It was really good though,” Sophie declared with a smile. She didn’t take long to notice the way both Maya and Lucas stared at her, nor did she need an explanation as to what those looks were seeking to ask. “Thank you for helping this morning, everything went great with my mom here.”

“That’s good to hear,” Maya told her with a nod. “I mean, it was the first-time you guys saw each other since the holidays, yeah?” In a game of asking without asking, she always knew where to strike. Sophie caught it just as swiftly. She looked as though she was considering a few things, and after a few seconds she let out a breath.

“Look, it’s not that big of a deal, and you all shouldn’t make it into one either,” she started. The way Chiara was looking at her though, as far as _she_ was concerned, the fact that she had kept it to herself this whole time said otherwise. “On Christmas day, we were all together at the house, me and Chi and Mom, and Walt and the rest of them. And at one point, I was talking with one of Walt’s sons and he sort of… made a pass at me.”

She was shrugging like it was nothing, but she was also looking at her hands. Both Maya and Lucas tensed up at this, the instinct always being to protect their friends. Looking around at the others, who’d had no more idea about this than the two of them did, the feeling was more than mutual.

“I reacted on instinct when it happened, like I was back in self-defence class. It was kind of too much, really. And then, two seconds later, everyone was just there, his nose was bleeding, he said he wasn’t doing anything, there was a lot of yelling…”

“A lot of it was me,” Chiara volunteered.

“Thing is though, Walt was good about it,” Sophie admitted, looking up. “He didn’t buy his son’s story for a second, looked like he was ready to go in for round two with him right then and there, and he kept looking at me and apologizing. His other son was the same, and he made his brother leave. The night ended pretty quick after that.”

“So, your mom and Walt…” Riley asked after a few seconds.

“Taking a breather, is what my mom called it. She doesn’t know if she’s ready to call it quits, I mean he backed _me_ up, and it wasn’t his fault what happened, but she still needs time. She says she needs to decide if she can keep this up, knowing his son stays in the periphery, or if it’s just too much. To think, I was the one who wasn’t sure about the guy, and when he does something that makes me finally see him for who he is, it might all be for nothing.”

The night would draw on longer than it usually might, with all of them having either class or work in the morning. They would say it was to ensure that Riley wouldn’t have nightmares about the movie they’d seen that they put on a comedy, all seven of them now taking up the couch. It didn’t change the fact that they took this moment to back up one of their roommates, whether it was the one they claimed to be backing up or not. It went and turned into one of those rare nights where they slept their way to morning like this, waking in the morning with a few body aches but finding no complaint in them.

“Hey…” Maya stalled Sophie as the others went to get a start on breakfast, or shower, or to walk the dogs. The redhead turned back to her, and Maya hugged her. Everything she wanted to say, how Sophie could tell her anything, anytime, that she didn’t need to be embarrassed, was in that hug, and Maya knew that Sophie felt it, and understood it, and was thankful for it.

“Next Christmas, let’s just keep it really simple, yeah?” Sophie suggested, making Maya laugh.

“I was just thinking the same thing. I’m not even getting dressed up. Have you ever actually roasted chestnuts on an open fire? We should do that.” Sophie laughed now, too.

“So long as we’ve got Smores or something, in case the chestnuts are a fail.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	231. Their New Year of Plans

The second week of the semester went by with what felt like renewed energy. They had gotten past the sort of strange beginning brought on by the holidays’ less than cheerful turns. Now, they could look forward to as much of a regular stretch of months as one could expect, even though all the while there was this ticking clock above their heads, a swinging pendulum to keep them constantly hyper aware.

As far as Lucas and Maya were concerned at least, they had something to make them look forward to the end of that week. Waking up from their couch ‘sleepover’ on Monday morning, when they’d gone up to their room to get ready for class, Maya had turned around at one point and put a ‘lowercase d date’ on the table. When she’d asked why he was smiling, he had explained that he’d been about to make more or less the same suggestion. Specifically, he knew that, unless anything changed along the week, they should have the house to themselves on Friday night. If they wanted to have themselves a more relaxed, casual date, then a couple’s night in, on one of those rare occasions where all five of their roommates were out, was all they could ask for.

So, they’d gone through their week, the anticipation for Friday night taking shape in ideas they tossed around every morning as they woke, for what they would do on their date.

“Are we cooking?” Lucas asked on Tuesday morning.

“Well,” Maya turned on her side to face him just as he was facing her. “I mean, sure, it’s a lowercase, but it’s still going to be a date, and I don’t know about you, but I have a feeling I’ll be too tired anyway.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” he nodded. “Order in?” he asked, getting a smile as a response. “That’ll make things easier, getting what we feel like on Friday night.” Their chain of nods continued with her here, though Lucas just smiled. “So, pizza?”

“Probably, yeah,” she gave him a look like ‘you figured me out.’

Wednesday started with one of those feelings in them like they could forget about the whole world beyond their room, beyond the very narrow space of their two bodies, as one good morning kiss stretched into a second, and one more that just kept on going, and going, and if they let it keep on going…

“Okay, we really need to…” Lucas finally managed to say, striving for breath. Maya laughed lightly, nipping along his jawline, because why would she ever let an opportunity to mess with him go by when it was presented to her like that? “What do…” he started to ask, trying to direct them toward conversation that might ensure they’d get to class on time, only to lose track for a little while. “What, hey, okay…” he finally took initiative by pulling her into a roll until he was the one looking down at her. She just laughed, looking back at him with a grin.

“What’s the matter there, Huckleberry, forget how to speak?” she asked.

“You would know,” he smirked. “Now, tell me what you want to do on Friday night.” She lay there for a few seconds, making a good show of pondering her options.

“Well, first… I need you to move a bit, you’re kind of crushing my leg and…”

“Oh, sorry…”

“Okay, better,” she breathed. “Now, Friday, what could we do, with the house to ourselves?”

“I don’t know what’s going on in your head right now, but the look on your face is telling,” Lucas declared.

“What, I have a _vast_ imagination,” she defended herself with a shrug. “Not all my ideas are in that area though,” she promised. “Then again, I _have_ been wanting to try sketching you and… Well, anyway,” she got back to the point, while he told his face to shift back, too. “We _have_ been meaning to have a go at that movie list Kermit made up.” She didn’t say the words ‘I’d like to get through them while he’s still here to hear my thoughts,’ but he understood.

“Sounds good,” he agreed.

On Thursday morning, they got into a lengthy discussion about movie snacks, first about how much and which kinds they would get for the following night, then soon enough about which ones were better than the others. This followed them from shortly after waking up, through getting dressed, eating breakfast, and then driving to school and heading off to their classes. Their roommates attempted to jump into the conversation in the beginning, but quickly realized it was pointless to try. By the time they were in the car, the three in the backseat looked like they’d had enough of hearing it… and also, they really wanted candy.

It continued throughout the day for Lucas and Maya though, via a continual series of texts, some pictures pulled from the internet… By the time they were turning in for the night, they had more or less decided on what Lucas would pick up for them the next day on his break.

Finally, it was Friday morning, and as he woke and felt only an empty space next to him, Lucas opened his eyes to find Maya standing in front of the closet, ticking her way through her selection of dresses as quietly as she could. He didn’t think she would realize he was awake, but then…

“Should I wear something different for the day and change once we’re back here?”

“Uh…” he blinked, then, “Whatever you feel like, I guess. It’s supposed to be casual, so if you don’t want to have to change, I don’t mind.”

“Just because it’s casual, doesn’t mean I don’t like seeing that grin on your face when I step out,” she gestured. “Don’t think I haven’t appreciated how that happens whether I’m dressed for a special occasion or not,” she pointed at him before turning back to her options. “Maybe I won’t tell you if I’m planning on changing or not. Then, you’ll have to wonder.”

Friday turned out to be the kind of day that couldn’t end soon enough for both of them. It wasn’t that everything was bad, but the things that made the day long carried enough weight in them to make the whole thing into one big ‘make this end’ chorus. Plus, well, their date would be the thing they looked forward to the most no matter how great class went.

“Hey, you exist for real,” Lucas greeted her with a great ‘I’m so much taller than you’ hug.

“Did you doubt?” she laughed, taking full advantage of this hold.

“I don’t know, for a minute there I thought I’d made you up,” he joked.

“Wow, that bad, huh?” she asked.

“I don’t know, you tell me,” he reached into the backseat of the car and produced the bag of candy he had gone to collect.

“Woah!” Maya’s eyes turned to saucers as she weighed the load in her arms. “Are you trying to put us in a diabetic coma here, Doc?”

“My mother always says not to shop for food when you’re hungry. I think ‘annoyed’ counts, too,” he shrugged.

“Take it back before I tip over?” she asked with exaggerated strain in her voice. “Might want to hide that in the trunk before the others show up.” As he went to do so, she followed. “What got you pounds-of-candy annoyed?”

“Professor Hitchins,” Lucas shook his head as he shut the trunk again.

“Oh, that guy,” Maya frowned. She’d heard plenty about the guy in the last two weeks. He was a new one for Lucas this semester, and already he had been proving himself A Challenge.

“You know in Harry Potter, when Snape subs for Lupin?” he asked. She had to bite back a chuckle at his use of the reference.

“Yeah,” she told him. “So, like that?”

“Pretty much. Except he was saying things about Hank. I guess the two of them don’t get along.” He didn’t have to go into details for her to understand how that would have made him feel, especially when it was aimed toward someone he looked up to, especially his uncle.

“Look, forget him, okay?” she went up and hugged him again. “He’s not worth your time. Besides, right now it’s just you and me,” she smiled up at him, and there really was no resisting that.

“Already forgotten,” he assured her, leaning in to kiss her, just as the others arrived and joined them at the car.

Once they reached home, all they had to do was to wait for the others to leave, for them to start their ‘house to ourselves’ date. Sophie and Chiara were driving off to Austin, to spend the weekend at the Zvolensky house, and they were taking Riley and Dylan with them. Riley was set to help her father fix up the nursery for the new baby, and of course Dylan was on board to lend a couple more hands. This only left Rosa, and she was headed to Leigh’s house, to spend the night with them and Colton after working on a project for one of their classes.

“Right, Sophie’s car just pulled away, they’re dropping off Rosa on the way, so date night is a go,” Maya appeared at the door to their room. “Go grab the boulder of sweets from _your_ car, and like… take your time a bit?” she requested.

“Yes, ma’am,” he tipped an invisible hat to her as he crossed her and headed down the stairs.

He had a pretty good idea of what she was going to need time for up there, so he went to get the candy and sat on the couch as he waited for her to be done changing.

“Right, let’s see what you have in your bag of treats,” her voice announced her arrival more than her steps did, as she came down barefooted. He turned his head, and she had been right, he did sort of smile at her every time she came around in a new outfit. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice, when she came in looking the way she did…

“What’s that on your arm?” he frowned, curious, when he spotted a patch of color on her skin, just below the inside of her left elbow. He hadn’t seen it earlier, he guessed, thanks to her jacket at first and then the sleeve of her sweater. She looked to where he was looking and smiled, like she’d forgotten all about it.

“Well, you weren’t the only one who had an off day,” she shrugged. “You bought loads of candy, and I drew on myself. Everyone’s got their thing.”

“Let me see,” he got up and went to her.

She held out her arm for him to see and he held it, discovering that what she’d drawn were two birds in flight: an owl and a nightingale. He recognized the little bird because it was associated with his birth month. When he’d been little, his mother would tell him about all the things, like the stone, the flower, the bird that had been tied to the month of May, and she would buy little trinkets that showed those items. Seeing it here on her arm, finely drawn by her hand, he couldn’t imagine it was random, just as he understood what the owl might be about.

“Okay, now I’m jealous, I don’t have anything,” he gave her a look, holding up his arms.

“Right, we can’t have that,” she laughed. “Hang on.”

One trip back up to their room and down later, she had the pens she’d previously used to trace on her own arm. They sat facing one another on the couch, where she reproduced the owl and the nightingale on his arm, in the same spot except on his right arm, as it proved to be easier. The touch of the pens would tickle, but he did his best to play it cool.

“There,” she sat back up after a while, only to lean over his arm and get tracing again. When she sat up now, she set herself to her own arm again, he saw, adding the extra detail to her own skin, which he saw to be the number 366 in the space between the birds, with a circle around it. It renewed his smile once more. “Who needs fancy dress now?” she asked. “Hey,” she prodded his head with her finger when he hadn’t looked away from his birds yet.

“I’m getting this idea right now,” he finally looked up at her. At the intrigued look on her face, he looked to her birds and his and then back up again. She did the same, and finally she got it.

“Oh!” she blinked.

“I mean, only if you want to…”

“No, yeah,” she nodded. “I _had_ been thinking about it for a while,” she went on to admit, a bit of a thrill in her voice. “Right now?” she asked. He shrugged. _I’m game if you are._ She looked at their birds again. She had as good as clinched it when she’d added that encircled number.

The movies and the mountain of candy were forgotten, as they left the house and got into the car. As he drove, she did research on her phone. She texted Franny, asking about where she’d gotten hers done and received a quick response with an address and a request for pictures when it was all done. There was no guarantee this would happen tonight if they didn’t have space for walk-ins, in which case their change in date plans would have reduced the night in needless driving. But, as it turned out, the girl who greeted them was the very one who’d done all three of Franny’s tattoos, and when she saw the drawing on their arms she asked if they could wait an hour. She’d be happy to fit them in.

“You drew these?” she guessed, looking to Maya. When she nodded, the girl, Cheyenne, looked even more motivated.

They wiled away that hour – which turned out to be a bit closer to an hour and a half – looking at the photos of previous works done in the parlor. It was like a whole other kind of museum stroll for the two of them, and they enjoyed it just as well. Finally, they were called over to sit in Cheyenne’s chair. Lucas went first, and Maya sat by, watching the whole process with fascination. There was her art, forever a part of him. Cheyenne called on her opinion for certain details as she filled in the parts Maya had left mostly blank. When the whole thing was completed, she almost cried. It was actually so perfect.

Now it was her turn, and she and Lucas swapped seats, as he watched Cheyenne do her work all over again. He could hold that hand with his own now, and their birds would meet in the middle.

Later on, they returned home, sitting back on the couch, and looking to their arms, covered with a transparent bit of plastic wrap stuck in place.

“This is going to take some explaining,” he told her, thinking of how everyone would react… like his parents. She only interlocked her fingers with his, leaning her head to his shoulder. He smiled. The owl and the nightingale… “Movie?” he asked. She nodded.

“Candy,” she pointed to the table.

By the time they’d drag themselves up to bed, they would have barely made a dent in the snacks lining the table, but as ‘lowercase d dates’ went, this one would be as memorable as the ink on their arms.

TO BE CONTINUED


	232. Her Days of Colors

Semesters, especially the winter ones for some reason, had a way of hitting their stride after a couple of weeks, until suddenly they were already midway through February and barrelling through to their eventual Spring break. _This_ winter semester, despite its more… rocky start, was no exception.

This wasn’t to say that those weeks had gone by without anything to offer that was memorable. Certainly, the appearance of the owl and nightingale on both Maya and Lucas’ forearms had made a stir. All their roommates were away for all of the weekend on top of Friday night, and the two of them left behind took full advantage of that. So, the presence of the ink on their arms had had time to become something they were just used to enough that, by the time the others came back, they didn’t immediately think to show them.

Then, on Monday morning, as they were all coming down to the kitchen for breakfast, Maya opened the fridge door, before she heard the vibrating contact of a spoon to a bowl, like someone had dropped it. Barely awake, it made her jump. She turned to look and found Rosa staring at her and, following her line of sight, she understood what she was looking at.

“When did you get that?” Rosa asked, and the others presently at the table – Sophie, Chiara, and Dylan – all looked up to Rosa, and then over to Maya, where they reacted in kind.

“Uh, we went Friday night,” she explained, letting the door close again before walking over to show them. “It wasn’t planned or anything, I’d just drawn it in class, and Lucas saw it. Then I drew it on him, too. It was actually his idea,” she smiled, recalling.

“Wait, he got one, too?” Dylan asked before dashing off in search of his old friend to get a look at _his_ arm, too.

By the time Riley joined them, she must have run into the guys upstairs first. She made a beeline for her oldest friend and picked up her arm without ceremony.

“We said we’d get one together one day, didn’t we?” Riley smiled approvingly.

“Uh, no, _I_ said we should, and you were in, too, right up until you heard they were done with needles, and you went all pale. You looked like you would faint,” Maya smirked.

“I was ten,” Riley protested. “Anyway, it’s different now, I mean…” She paused, hesitating. “How bad was it, did it hurt?” she whispered.

“It was a bit odd at first, but I got used to it pretty quick.” Riley didn’t look entirely convinced, one way or the other, but Maya could see how she was still going to be thinking about it for a while.

The bigger reaction they were inevitably curious about was the one from their parents. It wasn’t like they were ashamed of what they’d done, and if they’d been in any way hesitant to let them see then it could have come off that way. What they weren’t looking for were any comments made that would boil down to ‘why would you do that to yourself?’ On the whole, they weren’t too worried about the vast majority of them asking that. They were due for a visit the following weekend, and this one would see the two families come up from Austin rather than the two of them heading over there to see them. Maya surprised no one by taking the initiative to get the reveal done with before long, lifting her sleeve to show her parents even as they were taking off jackets and boots from themselves and the kids, with her assistance. Nellie, Gracie, and MJ all saw it and thought it was a pretty drawing, while their mother and father were more aware of its permanence.

As far as Katy and Shawn were concerned, surprised though they were, if Maya had been sure enough to go through with it and she was happy, there was nothing else to be said. This sentiment was shared by Tom Friar as well once he got a look of his son’s arm. As to his wife, she was immediately just a bit more indecisive, like she wanted to make herself like the idea of it more than she did upon first seeing the ink on his arm. Cheyenne had done beautiful work on the both of them, that couldn’t be denied, and the design was all Maya, of course. One look between father and son, and both had a feeling that the real ‘blow up’ would happen on the ride back to Austin at the end of the day. Lucas could only give his father a silent apology on that part.

The birds were a big hit with Maya’s family up in New York, too. Wyatt thought it was just a drawing, too, while the other kids knew it was more than that. Sam looked at it on the screen with what Maya would teasingly call his art face.

Kermit found it immediately beautiful and perfect for her, expressing a wish that he might have thought to get some of her art on him, too. He had a few of his own, which she’d seen over their last couple visits. The most prominent was on his forearm as well, something she could tell had been added to several times, with symbols dedicated to Abigail and then to each of their children as they came. The oldest one he had though, was laid over the front of his shoulder. It showed the outline of a small hand, like someone had carefully drawn a marker all along each delicate finger. Underneath it was a series of numbers: her birth date…

“You would always lay your hand just there whenever I’d hold you,” her father explained when she first saw it. She could believe that; she’d seen it in the videos he’d given her on the drive last year. “Got it done when you were a year old.”

He was getting worse. By now, Eliza and Wyatt couldn’t be kept completely in the dark, it was impossible. They could see their father’s ‘big cold’ was not going away, and there were so many things he just couldn’t do anymore. They knew something was wrong with him, but that was as far as it went. As far as they knew, the doctors were doing everything they could to make him better. Wyatt was still young enough that he more or less accepted this, though from what Maya was hearing, the little guy would keep looking at his father with a quietly curious face.

Then there was Eliza. The younger of Maya’s New York sisters may have been kept in the dark before, but she was bright enough to recognize there was something going on. When she’d been told that her father was ill, she had gone and put two and two together. She had ‘confronted’ Kermit and asked him point blank if he was going to die. He’d been so taken by surprise by this that he hadn’t been able to do anything else but tell her the truth. She wasn’t dealing with it in any one way, according to Sam and Cara. To them, it was like she was going through the stages of grief on a constantly repeating cycle.

What Maya had been seeing more and more, with the passing weeks, was how her father almost seemed most at ease discussing his situation with her, the things he was going through, what he was feeling, especially with regards to how his wife and the kids here would have to deal with everything moving forward once he was gone. He always felt like he had to be strong for all of them, but with her… With her, it was like he was allowing himself to show he was afraid, because he owed her so much honesty after all those years he hadn’t been in her life.

He was starting to take her up on her offer more and more often, calling her in the middle of the night when he couldn’t sleep, and she would talk with him. They had quickly instigated a rule that those calls were not to devolve into ‘sick talk.’ Instead, they had started watching a show together, talking along like they were sitting side by side instead of almost clear across the country from one another.

“How many episodes did you guys do last night?” Lucas asked this morning as he came down to find her just waking up on the couch. He leaned over the back of the long seat to put his arms around her and kiss the top of her head.

“It was only going to be the two, but then there was a cliffhanger, and it was the end of the season…” she explained, holding on to his arms so he couldn’t let go. “Couldn’t just leave it there. And there was a cliffhanger there, too.”

“So, like five,” he guessed. She made a ‘mmph’ noise. “Six?”

“Sure, let’s go with that,” she yawned.

“Maya, you can’t keep this up,” he warned. “He’s not working anymore; he can sleep the morning away. You’re going to fall asleep in class… again.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I just… I can’t say no. How many more opportunities like this am I going to have?” she asked, bowing her head.

Much as she had managed to adjust to the knowledge of what was to come, there were still moments where it would hit her hard again, would try and pull her back down into that dark pit to remind her that, just when she was making strides in having a relationship with her birth father again, he was going to be taken from her. She now had a sketchbook specifically dedicated to letting all those feelings out. She hadn’t shown it to anyone, not even Lucas, though he knew it existed. It was meant to be private, like a diary, and so it was.

The things she drew in there weren’t necessarily about anger, though some of them definitely were. A lot of it came from a well of sadness. Some of it was a lot more colorful, a lot sunnier, than anyone would expect, but it had its place, too, across those pages. Those were the ones she drew to remember the moments they shared, the ones she wanted to remember. They mostly reflected bits and pieces of their late-night conversations/TV times. She had drawn him as one of the characters, to remember how he would do a great impression of the guy, which had gotten her laughing on more than one occasion.

The more the weeks brought them closer to Spring break, the more she considered asking Lucas if they might spend that week off in New York, with her father and the others. The considering came into play because she knew full well that, were she to ask him, Lucas would easily say yes. He wanted to make her feel better, and she loved him for it, but then she had to ask herself if this _would_ make her feel better, if she wasn’t better off keeping her distance, keeping things the way that they were now. It had taken some work for her to recover after seeing him over Christmas, and she wasn’t sure she could put herself through that again just now. It felt so selfish to her, and she’d gone so far as to confess it all to her father, on one of their daytime calls.

“It’s alright, Maya,” he told her. “Really, you should stay in Texas, spend time with Katy and the others over there. Focus on that future, that new baby brother or sister you’ve got coming. We’ll keep doing our thing you and I,” he smiled, which made her smile back. They had a thing… She liked that.

TO BE CONTINUED


	233. Her Days of Murals

Returning to Austin for a weekend would get to feel sort of like a resetting of the clocks. They’d be back among family, back in the homes where they had grown up, for a sizable part of if not their entire lives, in the neighborhood that held all those old memories… They’d be in the city they knew would be home again in a little over a year. The closer they got to it, the more it got to feel like her mind was already starting to transition. A lot of it went back to those times when they went back out there, to visit their families.

Every time they went out there, it would get to feel like something reminded her of what was to come, the moment they would settle back in Austin again. Some of it had to do with the places, the spots that had gotten to mean a lot to her, and to Lucas, too, in the years they had spent there, like the park, and Ma Maggie’s, but most of it went back to the people, no doubt to it.

The one thing she’d been thinking about especially, in recent weeks, was her new baby sibling. He or she would not be born for a few months still, but then there’d been this thought… It had come to her out of the blue, and it had become something of a game changer for her. ‘Baby Hunter Hart #4’ would not even be a year old by the time they moved back to Austin, which meant that he or she would still be young enough that they wouldn’t even remember a time where their big sister Maya wasn’t around.

It felt weird to think about it like that, like it made that sibling better off than the others, and part of her didn’t like to create the distinction, but at the same time… it was almost a relief? Technically, she guessed MJ could be grouped into that, too, though it would remain to be seen. He’d be three and a half when she came back, so her being gone might be little more than a vague notion in the back of his mind.

But then there were the twins. Oh, how she remembered how torn she’d been at the thought of leaving them behind, the thought that she would miss so much of their growing up. That was kind of part of it, too, wasn’t it? She had seen so little of MJ in the first years of his life. He hadn’t even been born when she’d left, and when she’d come back, he’d be… he’d be three and a half already. Nellie and Gracie hadn’t been quite two years old when they’d made the move to Houston, and she knew they didn’t remember her living at the house, that their old room before the construction of the second floor had originally been hers.

They’d be almost six when she and Lucas came back. They’d be starting kindergarten in the fall that followed, which was just blowing her mind. It had seemed so far away when they’d been babies in their cribs, and now they were just growing further and further into being individuals, with personalities and likes and dislikes and skills…

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Nellie at four and a half years old was always in for throwing a ball around, and after watching her big sister throw that orange ball at that hoop way up high as long as she’d done, she could often be found trying her luck. She was still learning how to dribble, and her throws were more likely to hit a wall or an unfortunate flowerpot, but she was trying. Both twins were in gymnastics class, and while Gracie gave it her top effort, as she did in anything, Nellie was the one really hitting her stride.

They also had ballet classes, because Melinda Friar had gotten them all Nutcracker tickets a year ago, and according to Katy and Shawn, Gracie had come out of there just twirling and hopping about, the way she’d seen the dancers on stage do. Shawn had sent Maya a video of her doing it, and all she could think was ‘Leave it to the Rat King to make my Mouse-Mouse dance.’ Never to be parted, when the possibility of classes had been presented, it was not just Gracie who was asked if she wanted to give it a try. She and Nellie both had been at it for nearly a year now, and the fever had not come down. It was her favorite time of the week. Nellie wasn’t exactly as invested as her twin, but like with gymnastics the other way around, she gave it all she had.

Now, this weekend, Maya and Lucas were driving in with a very specific task at hand. Her parents were in the process of rearranging things in order to create a new nursery for the baby. Even though they still had months to go, they had decided to get a head start. Shawn was going to be working on some big secret project he was insisting was ‘a surprise,’ and so he wanted to see to the nursery in case things got too hectic later on.

When they reached the house, they found the place already in high activity. The Matthews were here to assist with everything that needed to be moved out of the room and everything that needed to be carried into it. MJ’s crib had been stashed in the basement when he’d gotten his own ‘big boy bed,’ and now Shawn, Cory, and August were all working together to carry the pieces upstairs. They had a couple of dedicated assistants left in charge of marching up ahead, each with a small object, so long as they were very careful as they climbed the stairs. MJ was there, too, watching them like he was very curious about what they were doing, though when he saw his big sister, he made a mad dash for her arms.

“Hey there, Future Big Brother,” she smirked, reading the front of his shirt. “Who got you that, huh, was it Auntie Mel or Auntie Topy?” she asked, jostling the two-year-old around. He pointed over to the living room, where the two mothers-to-be sat on the couch, watching a movie by the looks of it. “Ah, yes,” she nodded before stretching her arms up, and her brother along with them, until Lucas was able to get a hold of him, so she could go say hi.

“Hey, man, do you know what they’re doing over there?” Lucas asked, pointing to the parade leading up to the second floor.

“I wanna see!” MJ twisted about, so off they went. Meanwhile, Maya approached her mother and Topanga, who must not have even heard her and Lucas arrive, invested in their movie as they were. Now Katy got up to hug her daughter after hitting pause.

“Your own personal artist, at your service. Do we have a theme yet?”

“Oh, a few things, yeah,” Katy nodded.

They made their way upstairs, with Topanga following behind them, looking like she was getting to hate the stairs. The pieces of the crib were piling up in the hall, stood against the wall, as the others started back for the next bits and things to bring up. She got herself a hug from Shawn and Cory both as they went along, a wave from August, and a pile up of arms around her legs from the twins, before they had to dash off again because, as Nellie told it, ‘We’re helping!’

They must have been at this for a while already. The room had been cleared, and there were a few boxes already stacked in the closet, things waiting to be placed.

“Okay, so what do you…” Maya started to ask, until something momentarily registered with her and she looked to the boxes again. She’d helped make these, a couple years back, when her parents had finally tackled storing away some of the twins’ old things, the stuff they could still get some use out of and couldn’t part with… just in case… _Just in case they had another girl…_ “Mom?” she turned back around, with eyes set on ‘cautiously big.’ “You…” she pointed to her mother’s belly, looking to the boxes again. When Katy nodded, with a big old grin on her face, Maya made a noise that came off like a squeak and she moved to hug her again. “We’re not putting Cora in the name pool again, are we? Please?” she asked as they pulled back. “Did you guys decide yet?” she turned to Topanga.

“Cory insists that the baby will be named after Shawn one way or the other, because clearly someone wanted to hold him to his old promise,” Topanga replied with a shake of the head and a sly smile.

“Your father and I already nixed the Cora situation when the twins were coming around, and this girl here is going to be the last of them,” Katy informed her daughter, “Besides, as Shawn pointed out to him, Cory’s already _got_ his namesake, so the ball’s in his court now.”

“Good,” Maya laughed. “So, you didn’t pick a name yet,” she guessed, thinking of the name plate for the door, to match the ones on her siblings’.

“Oh, we did,” Katy nodded with a casual tone that sent her eldest’s jaw to grow slack for a second.

“And you were just going to leave me hanging how long?”

“It was just yesterday afternoon, alright, it hasn’t been weeks,” Katy defended this. “We’re still tossing ideas around for the middle name, but we both saw Haley and we thought… That’s her name,” she nodded with a smile.

“Haley…” Maya repeated, and her lips rose into a smile. “That’s a lot of H’s,” she declared.

“Which is where we’ve been struggling,” Katy pointed at her and looked to Topanga for a beat, like ‘there, see?’ “We can’t decide if we should just give her an H middle name, too.”

Now that these two new pieces of information had been put in Maya’s hands – and Lucas’, too, once he rejoined them – they were also told about what Katy and Shawn had in mind for the nursery walls, and so they got to work on Maya’s littlest sister’s room. That was what she would be, wouldn’t she? With her parents saying she would be their last, and with Kermit… No, she wasn’t going to go there, not today. Today was about building up a world for Haley middle-name-pending Hunter Hart. Personally, she was kind of siding for all H’s, but it wasn’t up to her.

They worked for hours on the walls, on Saturday and eventually a bit of Sunday as well. As ever, the rule was that no one was to gain entrance until they could take in the finished effect. Maya and Lucas quickly recruited Franny and Kayla, who happened to be in town, visiting their families as well, to lend a hand, when the task proved a bit more ambitious than anticipated. The finishing touch was to be the plaque for the door, printed with the five letters that would make out the newest member of the family’s name. In previous occasions, the name had only been known after her siblings were born, and though they’d still been babies there had been a sense to their personalities which helped to direct what the design would be. Sunny Nellie, Gracie the Mouse-Mouse…

_What are you going to be, Haley girl?_ _Always the smallest, with so many people there to love you, to protect you, to see you grow and join the world…_

In the end, she surrounded the letters in a mass of blooming flowers, and it felt right. When it was dry and ready to hang, she placed it over the door. The way time was going lately, she would be here in no time at all…

TO BE CONTINUED


	234. Her Days of Assistance

The whirlwind of the Winter Semester carried on, lifting them up in its wake to carry them ever closer to Spring Break. All Maya could think, as she would look to her schedule and see they were one day closer, and another, and another, was that – as hectic as things could get around this time, she was actually really glad to be doing the work she was doing.

Thinking back to the start of the semester, when she’d come this close to resigning her TA position, she was thankful for Professor Robinson’s input, and how she’d stuck it out. To be sure, she still worried a great deal over her father in New York, her siblings and Abigail, too, and she hated being so far from them some days, but she was doing okay. Eventually, she’d had to find a way to compensate for the middle of the night marathons and how they got in the way of her sleep. She would just have to multitask.

She was honest with Kermit in the fact that, while they’d speak, while they’d watch their show, she would be working on some school things. He understood, both her need to do it and her need not to abandon him, and so he encouraged it, sometimes bypassing the television altogether and instead asking for her to tell him about what she was studying at the moment, what she was working on. Maya would happily oblige him.

It would still tax her in the day, but rather than keep it to herself, she trusted in her knowledge that Professor Robinson would rather have her be honest about it all than suffer in silence. She had told her about the late calls and had asked if she would mind very much if she sat at her desk in the office and napped during her breaks, provided the professor didn’t have office hours or anything.

Patty had insisted on it at once, and the next day, when she’d shown up, Maya had found a pillow and folded blanket set neatly on the small couch in the corner. The cushioned seat had always been there, but as long as she’d been coming into the office, the thing had been buried under mountains of books and papers and thus unusable in its given purpose. Now, it was cleared. She really didn’t know what she’d do without that woman sometimes…

Thanks to the middle of the night studying, and the daytime naps, the balance had finally managed to be reset, enough at least that she wasn’t running the risk of dozing off in class.

So now, here they were, days away from Spring Break. She wouldn’t be flying to New York, but that was alright. She would be where she needed to be, she could get some rest, and as she told Kermit, they could have themselves a proper marathon any and every night for all they cared; she had the time to rest in the morning.

“Maya?” She looked up from her notes to find Aminah standing at the office door.

“Hey, come in,” she smiled, indicating the chair by her desk as she sat back in her own. “How are you? Did you finish that project?” It was for another class, another professor, but Aminah had mentioned it a couple weeks back, expressing her uncertainties over whether she’d actually pull it off in time, the way she wanted it. She was enough of a perfectionist to make others reconsider whether they were worthy of the title. The project was due today if Maya wasn’t mistaken.

“Yes,” the girl smiled as she sat down. “Thank you for the book,” she pulled the volume from her bag and set it on the desk.

“I’d suggest looking into getting a copy of your own, it’s been a lifesaver sometimes,” Maya smiled, tapping the cover before slipping it into her own bag to bring back home. “I happen to know a guy who will give you a solid discount if I ask him nicely,” she grinned, knowing Aminah would understand full well who she was referring to.

“I actually ordered it already,” Aminah told her. “It should arrive tomorrow.”

“That’s great,” Maya told her. “So, are you doing anything over Spring Break?”

“Well,” Aminah bowed her head with a smile before looking up again, “At the risk of sounding like a cliché of myself, mostly studying.”

“Don’t you want to use a bit of that week to, you know, have some fun, relax a little?” Maya chuckled. Aminah looked shy all of a sudden. “I’m sorry, it’s just…”

“Oh, no, it’s alright,” Aminah promised. “Sometimes I do think I need to relax more, too, but then… I can’t help it. Sooner or later, I end up thinking ‘oh, no, I should be doing something more than this.’ And then, I usually do. I’ve been that way for years.”

“What’s holding you back?” Maya asked, feeling like she was channeling the professor all of a sudden, in a good way.

“Combination of a few things, I guess. When I was little, I was sick for a while before we ended up coming here. My condition was… specific enough, that doctors back home didn’t know what to make of it, but then there was a specialist who heard about my case, and my parents flew us out to meet her. And she did what she said she’d do. It meant settling here, and _that_ meant leaving our old home behind, but we did it. I never want that sacrifice to be for nothing. And I also want to make my life matter, I want… to do something for the world, and I know I will accomplish it here… if I really apply myself.”

Maya couldn’t fault her on this level of dedication, this debt she felt she owed. And she couldn’t speak for her results in her classes beyond Robinson’s, but she’d be willing to bet Aminah was acing those as well. She could easily go a bit… well, easier on herself, keep more time to herself, but it wasn’t for Maya to make her decide as much. Still, she could open the door to a possibility or two.

“You know, you’re welcome at the house anytime,” she told Aminah with an honest smile. The girl blinked. “Really,” Maya nodded. “Here,” she reached for a blank index card in her drawer and wrote down her number before holding it out. “Just drop me a call or a text, you remember the address?”

“Uh, yes…” Aminah still looked surprised as she took the card.

“Good, use it whenever you’d like.” After a beat of consideration, she smiled and nodded before slipping the card in her bag.

Aminah stuck around a little while longer, talking along with Maya about this thing and that. They’d been getting to hang out more, though usually still for academic purposes, save for the time she’d sat in for band practice. And even though on the whole she still looked to Maya as Professor Robinson’s assistant, she was getting to relax in this formality, as Maya would have hoped. She was a very reserved person, but that didn’t make her any less interesting to talk to. When they would start on a subject that she was very motivated about, she could start talking with so much passion in her that you just wanted to listen to her and forgot all about saying anything in return. She had the makings of becoming a lecturer as enthralling as Patty Robinson herself. Now if she could just carry that confidence all the way into the classroom… She was getting much better at it, she was, but she still had a long way to go, and Maya only ever wanted to find a way to help her in that direction.

After Aminah left, Maya only had a few minutes left of office time. As she waited, her phone sounded, and she reached for it, knowing who the message would be from. She had set a specific ringtone and bell for Kermit and another for Abigail and Sam and Cara. She realized that hearing either of those made her jump a bit every time, like in her head she could only think ‘this is it, something’s changed, something’s very wrong,’ but if that was the case, then she wanted to ensure she didn’t miss it when it came.

This was nothing bad, far from it. The message was only a single picture, showing Kermit sitting up on the couch back at his house, holding up a couple of DVD box sets with a smile on his face like ‘look, I got them.’ It made her chuckle. He would never go so far as to put in a call to her just so they could keep going, but it was plain to see how much he was enjoying both the activity and the show itself, and with her break coming up, they were going to put in all the watch time they could muster.

She was smiling because of her father. Sometimes, this still sort of blew her mind a little. She was looking at the guy’s face in that picture, and the leading thought this was producing in her head was ‘He is such a goof…’ She almost never got stunned by that anymore, it was just the truth now. The only thing that could still give her pause would be that sharp twist that reminded her he was dying.

She was not okay with it, she knew that, and some days more than others it really got to feel like she was doing everything in her power to let everyone else believe she was doing much better than she actually was. The eventuality of it all, whenever it would come to fruition, felt like a volcano bubbling away, waiting for the slightest crack to form. As soon as that crack even existed, it would burrow deep into the volcano, until it could punch through and let all that fire spread and tear everything in its path down to ashes. She could not crack, not now… She would not crack… She couldn’t…

When her time was up – not one minute less, nope – she picked up her bag and her keys and headed out, ready to lock up. She paused though, smiling, when she saw someone was waiting for her.

“Sorry, office hours are done,” she intoned, turning to lock the door as Lucas walked over and leaned to the wall, staring down at her with a smile of his own.

“I only have one quick question,” he played into it, and she tipped her head as though to indulge him. _Go on, make it quick._ “Want to grab coffee with me?”

“Oh, that’s a very important question, and I intend to give it my undivided attention,” Maya declared before slipping her hand around his arm and falling in step with him toward the coffee cart. She couldn’t even pretend that she didn’t need it at this point. Her day was far from done, with a shift at the restaurant that evening, and she already felt like she needed to make a trip to her napping couch. He noticed it, too.

She could see him trying not to look at her with that curve to his brow. She just held on to that arm a little tighter, her way of saying how his being there was doing all that could be done, to make her okay. It was so engrained in him to worry for her when something was going wrong, and now here they were, with something more wrong than ever.

“You know what I think?” she asked him.

“A lot of things, probably,” he decided, making her chuckle.

“Yeah, absolutely, but also, I’m thinking maybe it’d be alright if you joined Kermit and me on a marathon or two. If you’re up to it.” Her smile was like a premonition of the one that would come from him.

“But they’re your thing,” Lucas pointed out. She gave him a shake of the head, a correction.

“And I want to share with you.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	235. Her Days of Spring

The first morning of break always sort of felt like a fluke. They would wake up and it would take several seconds for them to stop and suddenly realize ‘oh yeah, I don’t have to go in today.’ If they weren’t going to Austin, or New York, or anywhere else, and their work hours didn’t change – which they didn’t, this year at least – then they had the whole day to themselves, until late afternoon/early evening, where they’d be due for a shift.

The first morning of _this_ break started in convincing the house as a whole to get up out of bed and head to the Nook for breakfast. Some were more difficult to convince, so devoted as they were to sleep in some more, but in time they piled into the cars and headed out to the restaurant.

“We should just get a minivan… or a small bus,” Dylan declared as they all rejoined in the restaurant’s parking lot. “Then we wouldn’t have to take two cars.”

“But then wouldn’t we have three vehicles to deal with?” Sophie replied. “We don’t all go together that often.” Dylan considered this, letting out a slightly disappointed sound when he reached the conclusion that, yes, perhaps that was true. Mostly, he looked like he would have loved to drive the small bus.

As soon as they were in the restaurant and they had taken their spots around the table they were led to, Riley had her phone out and was checking to see if she had any messages, ensuring that the sound was on, that her data was on… Topanga still had a few weeks to go before being due, but knowing that this didn’t always mean the baby would be coming at that specific time, she was now on High Baby Brother Alert. She and Dylan were actually driving down to Austin for the week after breakfast ‘just in case.’

“Nothing?” Maya asked with a kindly smile.

“No,” Riley sighed.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Rosa asked. “The closer they come to their due date and all?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Riley replied, still sounding mildly disappointed.

“Are you all going to spend the summer in Austin then?” Chiara asked Maya and Riley and – by extension – Lucas and Dylan. “To be with your new siblings?”

“Well, mine isn’t due until July,” Maya reminded her. “We haven’t really figured it out yet,” she added, turning to Lucas, who gave a nod in confirmation. “I know I definitely want to be there as much as possible once she comes along,” Maya went on, trying very much not to let her mind finish that sentence along the lines of ‘so long as nothing goes wrong in New York, then I don’t know what I’ll do.’

“You’re going to see your families sometime this week though, yeah?” Sophie asked. “You’re supposed to help your sisters with something?”

“The garden,” Maya nodded with a smile. “Yeah, we were thinking like Friday or something.”

“We’ll head down with you then,” Sophie nodded, too, turning to Chiara who did the same. “My mother and Walt want us to try sort of a do-over kind of thing, just the four of us this time,” she revealed with a small smile.

“So, they’re trying it again then?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah,” Sophie confirmed. “They actually really missed each other, both of them. I convinced Mom to call him, talk to him, and when she did, they talked it out. What happened at Christmas was one thing, and none of us is going to forget it. But we shouldn’t miss out on something good on account of one idiot. Besides, I kind of broke his nose and now, apparently, he’s too scared to come anywhere near me,” she added, with a smile that didn’t lack for pride. The rest of the table laughed.

By the time they returned to the house, the five of them remaining in town for the week decided it was time for some aptly named Spring cleaning. To their credit, both Riley and Dylan had been left to hesitate about leaving the task to them while they’d be gone, but it wasn’t as though they were just skipping out, and so they left with their roommates’ blessing.

They started with the windows, which went a lot faster than they might have anticipated. With five of them working together, taking them down, cleaning them, and putting them back up would be little more than a few minutes’ job. It didn’t take long that Rosa started to sing aloud to make the whole thing a bit livelier. Maya smiled and joined in, while the other three would join in here and there, giving little mind to whether or not their voices held up with the two bandmates’. Chiara and Rosa would throw in an Italian song every once in a while.

After the windows, they tackled the floors before splitting off to do the kitchen and the bathrooms. Maya and Lucas volunteered to deal with the bathrooms, deciding of the five of them they were the least squeamish. Not that the bathrooms were either of them gross, but generally they could get away with less cringing and apprehensive touching.

“So, what _do_ you want to do this summer?” Lucas came to ask as they climbed down to start on the basement bathroom.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t even know where to start planning for that,” she told him, and there was no room for wondering where her head was at. The whole situation with Kermit made the prospect of long term plans a bit unwise. What if he was on his last leg by then? What if he was already gone?

“Start with the things we know for sure?” Lucas suggested, understanding as much. “We’ll be in Austin for your mother and the baby in July.”

“Yeah,” she found her smile at this thought of her Haley girl. She wasn’t missing that… _Unless…_ She shook that thought right out of her head. Focus on July, focus on that new baby sister. “I’d like to be in Austin with them as much as possible once she’s born,” she stated. It wasn’t entirely necessary, not like anyone suspected otherwise, but it did feel to her like she wanted and needed to state it. “Can we…” she started to ask, hesitating for a moment. “Can we afford it though? Being away from our jobs out here for all this time?”

It wasn’t as though they hadn’t taken extended vacations before, and certainly both Tracy and Isabel had been great with them on that front. But with just a little over a year left before they were done in Houston and moving on to the next step in their lives, to where it would just be the two of them supporting each other, not their parents, not themselves with the additional benefits of a loaded house of roommates… They’d been left having to start to think about what it would mean. They had one aspect sorted out for them at least, thanks to Pappy Joe leaving his house to Lucas after he’d moved in with his son and his daughter-in-law, but that wouldn’t make that much of a difference if they couldn’t afford the rest. And taking time off work, unpaid, for that long, suddenly didn’t feel like something they could or should do anymore.

“I could talk to Nando, see if he might have an opening for me,” Lucas suggested.

“You?” Maya couldn’t help but chuckle. “But you’ve never waited a table in your life. And what about me? Where am I in this?”

“At your parents’ house, with 4H Haley,” Lucas smirked. “And I can learn. You could teach me,” he pointed out, knowing the prospect of the task would be sufficiently enticing for her to find merit in it.

“I will teach you,” she nodded. “But only if we can see if he’ll take both of us on. I appreciate the gesture, I do, but I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing while you’d be working all this time. Besides, we’ve never actually worked in the same place together before… It might be fun.” He had that look on his face, like they were one second away from forgetting they were meant to be cleaning, in favor of devoting all their attention to a kiss… and another… and some more… and she was left to somewhat grudgingly be the adult, calling up some level of focus. “The shower and the toilet, want to flip for it?” she asked, brandishing a brush and aiming it toward him.

“Which one do you want?” he asked, taking a step toward her that felt like a challenge.

“Toilet’s yours, Huckleberry,” she countered this with a look of her own, asking if he was ready for the consequences if he didn’t get to work right away. She needed that look; it was either that or letting her face betray the drumming of her heart in this loaded little moment. He took the brush from her, taking good care to let his fingers brush against hers, long enough to let the moment stretch on, before he went and got to work on his assigned chore. “The nerve…” she ‘scolded’ before moving to start on the shower, even as her face couldn’t quite shake the grin that made her cheeks ache.

“Guys, I say we call it for the day,” Sophie told the other four, hours later. “We can do the rest in the morning, yeah?”

“Don’t see me arguing,” Maya breathed. They were beat, all of them. “Pizza sound good?”

“When doesn’t it?” Rosa nodded at once. The idea won in a landslide.

Soon, they were sitting around the kitchen table with a pizza box open before them as they fished out their first slices. They all had the ache in them from a day of cleaning. After the rush that had led to this break’s start, this wasn’t exactly what they would have wanted to feel right now, but then it was better that they got it done and out of the way early on, to leave the rest of the week open. Anyway, it wasn’t all of them on break. Sophie still had to go in, following a schedule entirely different from theirs. In a few months’ time, she’d be out there, uniform and all…

They were still working through the last of their slices when, having decided to put a movie on, they went to click through options on the television screen. Maya’s phone gave off a chirp, and she moved to get it back from the kitchen table. When she saw who it was from, she smiled and started typing one-handed as she took another bite of her crust.

“Hey, mind if someone comes and joins us?” she asked the others.

Aminah arrived ten minutes later, dropped off by her mother. By that time, they had cleared off the leftovers, cleaned up in the kitchen, and brought dessert to the couch as they waited to start the movie. Maya was glad to see her make this attempt to get out of her shell a bit more, and she would make certain it hadn’t been done in vain.

“Were you cleaning?” she asked.

“How’d you know?” Rosa asked back.

“Everything looks freshly cleaned and everyone smells like cleaning products,” she replied, looking immediately a bit concerned that she shouldn’t have said that.

“Observational skills, always good,” Sophie smiled, making their guest instantly more at ease.

“We were about to start a movie,” Chiara told her. “We haven’t managed to decide, maybe you can help us.”

Now that they had settled in, the accomplishments of that first day on break really got to feel like what they’d needed. And as they watched a movie along with Aminah, it was a reward well earned.

TO BE CONTINUED


	236. Her Days of Love

It started to dawn on her, after Lucas instigated their going out on a ‘capital D Date’ a couple days later, just how much of her mind had been circling around the situation with her father in the last few months. This wasn’t just about awareness for her part, because how could she _not_ be aware of that, but rather for Lucas.

As easy as it was for her to get caught up in the whirlwind of it all, she had to think about him, too, and how it had to be affecting him, that she was so focused on that and… maybe less on him, unintentionally. He’d never bring it up, of course, he wouldn’t, because he was her good Huckleberry, and he would never fault her for her mind being caught up in her father’s illness. That almost made it worse though, didn’t it? It was like when they had been moving forward from their maybe baby drama. He’d been hurting, and he wouldn’t say a word, wouldn’t want to ‘get in the way’ of _her_ hurting.

So, when he asked her for the Date, not only did she say yes – absolutely – but she made a vow to herself, that she would make it worth both their while, that this night would be for him and her alone. No distractions, not anything that would take away from him and her. She even went to shop for a new dress.

“What’s that?” he asked when he saw the bag through the open closet door.

“ _That_ is none of your business,” she declared, pointing a finger and a gaze at him. He looked to the bag again, then back to her. The guy was getting in touch with his mischievous side more and more lately, for real… _Guess that’s what he gets for living with me all this time…_ The thought would always make her smirk to herself. “Don’t you dare, Friar.”

“Oh, I’m in trouble now, huh?” he made a face like ‘ouch.’

“And not even the good kind if you’re not careful.”

So, the new dress remained in its hiding place until today. Lucas took all he needed and made his way down to the basement to shower and get ready, so she was free to start and do the same. She was kind of glad that her hair was starting to get on the longer side again. Much as she had loved her short style for a while, she wasn’t sad about having more options again. For today, she recruited Chiara to ‘crown’ her with those intricate braids she knew how to do. Rosa stood by the whole time, partly to ‘assist,’ and partly out of curiosity to learn.

“There goes my brain,” Maya cringed briefly, adjusting to the tightness on her head. “Thanks,” she smiled back to her roommate, who replied with a few Italian words she took to mean ‘you asked for it.’

The new dress had been hung in the far back of the closet, out of sight, and now it finally was able to emerge and be pulled on to her. The rest of the look was easy to accomplish once this was done, and she stepped out of the room, walking to the top of the stairs.

“You ready?” she called down.

“And waiting,” he called back before appearing at the bottom of the stairs and looking up to her. She started on her way down, finding the grin came easy as she could see his eyes follow her the whole way. As she reached the last steps, his hand was offered up to her and she took it.

“And this is what patience gets you,” she smiled before he kissed her. “I’ve been patient, too, you know? So, where are we going?”

“I thought we could go for a classic,” he explained, arms still locked around her waist, as hers remained around his neck, like the two of them were about to start dancing. Maya thought about this for a moment before getting an ‘ah-ha!’ look. There _was_ a new exhibit at one of the local museums, and she’d been meaning to look into it, but then… well, she’d sort of forgotten about it, after a few days on late-night Kermit watch in a row. If that wasn’t a sign that she needed this evening, she didn’t know what was.

Museums had been such a part of their story together, Lucas and her. Even before that first date with the unfortunate rain incident, they had bonded in a search for ‘weird stuff,’ as much as in an appreciation for art. Going to a museum, just the two of them, always felt like a reminder, and she loved that. Today’s stroll through the new exhibit did not disappoint on that front. As though to remind them of that infamous first date, there was the start of rain just as they were coming up toward the door to the museum. Nothing torrential like that other time, but enough that they hurried for cover, stopping and looking at each other, laughing for a beat before heading inside.

“You had braids back then, too,” Lucas recalled.

“Don’t blame the braids, they’re angry tight,” she touched the side of her head.

“I appreciate the effort,” he smiled.

“But you would have loved it even without those, I know,” Maya smiled back. “Come on, we’re not leaving here at least until it stops raining,” she declared, tossing a look out the large windows like ‘go on, skies, do you worst.’

The rain granted them a leisurely stroll through the exhibit by increasing and carrying on for a few hours. Maya and Lucas spent the last stretch of it standing outside, under cover. They actually kind of loved the rain, when they weren’t caught in the middle of it, so they stood there, his arms around her like a sweater draped over her back as she leaned to him for warmth.

“Hungry?” he asked.

“I might look all fancy right now, but I’m going to go all ravenous the second someone puts food in front of me,” she hummed. “Where are we going?”

“It’s kind of far,” he admitted. “Still in the city, just not nearby. We could go somewhere else though,” he suggested, in that voice that said plainly ‘I can go anywhere so long as it’s with you.’ She considered her options, while they went on watching the rain fall.

“See, now I don’t know. Half of me says ‘food now!’ The other half is more ‘capital D Date all the way.’” He said nothing, and she couldn’t see his face, but she could tell he was smiling. “If I had a snack to hold me over… Just don’t tell your mom I ate before dinner.”

“Why _my_ mom?” he laughed.

“Oh, mine wouldn’t mind, she’d get it,” Maya shrugged. “I think it’s stopped now,” she held out her hand to feel for rain.

They hurried back to his car. One stop for snacks later, they were on their way to the restaurant as planned. They happily reasoned that, by the time they got there, and were seated, and ordered, and were served, the snack would be a distant memory.

It turned out to be well worth their troubles. They had never been to this place before, and now they almost lamented the fact that it had taken them nearly three years of living in Houston for them to discover it, right when they were going to be moving away again before long. They spent most of the meal discussing waiter/waitress tips and techniques, in anticipation for the summer and their time working back at the diner. Asher and Joey’s uncle had been all too happy to take them on for a few weeks. He took the opportunity to ask Maya for some more TXNY albums to keep by the registers. His display did not often remain stocked for long.

“Think I’ll be ready?” Lucas asked as they got back in the car and started for home after their meal. The streets still showed signs of the rain, which had made a brief return while they’d been eating.

“Oh, yeah,” Maya beamed. “You’ll be an ace up there, with your apron, and your t-shirt…”

“Do you just have a sketchbook full of drawings of me in different professions?” he asked with a laugh. She paused, her eyes saying ‘well, I don’t, but now that you mention it…’

They made it back to an empty house. Maya wasn’t aware of the others having plans to go anywhere, and she had to wonder if this had been their idea to give them the space to themselves, or if Lucas had had any part in it. Either way, she wasn’t about to complain. Sometimes, you really preferred not to have roommates all over the place…

“Want me to…” Lucas asked, pointing to her head. She breathed out. She could tell herself she wanted to ‘hold on to the look’ a little while longer, but who would she be kidding?

So, they sat in the living room, with him on the couch and her on the ground in front of him, as she walked him through the deconstruction of Chiara’s braids. The more it started to come undone, she would just breathe out with a new relief, though nothing made her quite so happy as when, upon finishing the whole thing, he’d slide his fingers through her loose hair, giving the top of her head some relief of its own.

“You are very curly right now,” he informed her. She laughed, pulling herself up from the ground until she could sit up on the couch with him.

“You like?” she asked, shaking her head.

“I’m not really difficult when it comes to you,” he pointed out, and he got a look upon seeing the smirk that spread over her face, like ‘Walked right into that one.’

“Are you saying… you’re easy?” she asked, keeping his gaze.

“I just really want to be kissing you right now. Does that answer your question?”

“I don’t know, but this might…” she leaned in and pressed her lips to his.

They had little awareness or care for the world beyond the island of this couch for some time after that, getting lost in each other’s arms, in this kiss that was slowly and gladly stealing their breath away. There were no worries here, no distractions, just nearness, and contact, and love… They had just gotten to the point where, in allowing themselves the space sufficient for taking in the air that would keep them from passing out, they were left with only one notion in them, and it was to withdraw back to their room and their bed for something more than this.

And then Maya’s phone rang. The ringtone was the one she’d set for her New York siblings. As soon as she recognized it, she felt like she’d just been yanked forcefully back into reality. Part of her still wanted to resist it, to stay with Lucas, stay in this moment, just go upstairs, and forget… She closed her eyes, panting for breath.

“It’s okay…” Lucas told her, catching his own breath. “Take it.” She looked at him, eyes full of apology. “Go,” he insisted, pressing a small kiss to her lips again before she got up to retrieve her phone.

It was Eliza. Her little sister was upset, just wanted to talk to her big sister. Maya couldn’t tell her no, so she went back to sit on the couch with Lucas, talking with the girl who was still trying to find a way to cope with the things she’d learned. By the time they hung up, the old moment was gone, and with all the thoughts of Kermit now returned to her mind, there was nothing to be done for it, not tonight.

“Hey,” Lucas called to her attention. She looked back at him. “Did you have a good time tonight?” She smiled, nodded. “Good,” he smiled back. That was all they needed to hold on to.

TO BE CONTINUED


	237. Her Days of Earth

They had been preparing for this for over three months. It had started back over the Christmas break, so it was almost fitting that it should finally come about on their next break. There had been some wonder as to whether the twins would either forget or lose interest in the project before it ever got to happen, but with their big sister helping them prepare for it all, they only got more and more invested in the creation of their own little garden.

The idea had started after the twins had learned about how some Christmas trees had been alive and what happened in order to get them in people’s homes. Even after Maya and Lucas had gone off to New York to spend the holidays with their friends and Maya’s family, both Katy and Shawn would let their eldest daughter know about some of their misadventures with Nellie and Gracie, whenever they’d come across a tree that wasn’t artificial.

Before all this however, before leaving for New York, Maya had promised the girls that the three of them could make a garden together in the Hunter Hart backyard, and there they could grow flowers, and vegetables, and herbs, whatever they wanted, within reason. She knew better than to promise infinity to a couple of small children when it couldn’t be achieved. They could plant their selections, and care for them, and all would be well.

For Maya, at least, it was something to pull her focus away from other things since the start of the year. Every so often, she would pull out the small notebook where she’d been putting in her own research and her sisters’ wishes. It was easy for the twins, who only had to say something like ‘we need more flowers!’ or ‘can we make a banana?’ They would be given options to choose from, or they would be told… well, no, they couldn’t do that, but maybe they could look into some other fruits.

Maya’s job then became about finding out everything they had to get, and what they’d have to do with those once they had them. It was actually kind of interesting. Plus, she’d been getting pointers from a few people, like Professor Robinson, and Hank Hillard, and Melinda Friar.

Now, finally, the big day had come. At least, for the twins, it was the big day. There had been some preparation happening already, supplies acquired, and some work in the yard done in advance by Shawn, under Maya’s instructions.

“They’ve been counting down the days on their calendar like it’s Christmas or their birthday,” Maya told Lucas as the two of them drove out from Houston to spend the last few days of their break in Austin. “Every night they’ll either ask Mom or Dad how many days are left after they get to cross out the one that’s done.” They’d had the calendar since the previous fall when they’d seen it in a store. They’d had Shawn write down all the special dates in it. He’d gone one step further and added small photos, especially for birthdays. The calendar was stuck to the side of their bookcase, so they could stand more or less at eye level with it. Crossing out the days (one line across from Nellie, and one from Gracie) had become tradition.

“Is it too early to give them a date to count down for when we move back to Austin?” Lucas asked with a smile.

“It’s over 400 days from now,” she pointed out. “And they are four years old. I’m not sure they would even understand how many days that is except ‘a lot.’”

“Can _we_ start a countdown?” he countered without missing a beat.

“Bit early for that,” she smiled in a way that said, ‘but I like that you’re thinking about it.’

Arriving at the house, they found their young gardeners ready and overflowing with anticipation. The way they rushed at their sister and her boyfriend, they looked as though they would just pull the two of them straight into the yard where they might get their hands in the ground, no hellos, nothing.

“I like the outfits,” Lucas declared as he and Maya took in the twins. They each wore matching overalls, tucked into their rain boots. They had what seemed to be kids’ gardening gloves, though one quick look suggested their hands were still too small to really fit. Their crowning glory was a pair of big floppy hats planted over their heads, with their chocolate-colored hair done in a pair of braids.

“You two look ready to get your gardening on,” Maya laughed, giving their hats a small pat each, even as she looked to their father. She had a good feeling that all they’d had to do was to look up at him with those bright eyes of theirs and ask to have everything they’d need to do this right, and he would have taken them to the store before they were even done asking. The guy was putty in their hands, and MJ’s as well, and probably baby Haley when she’d come along… Maya loved him for it.

“Pappy Joe got the fruit plant!” Nellie declared.

“The what now?” Maya asked, stealing a curious look back to Lucas, who had no more idea than she did.

“He said,” Gracie started, “He said there’s going to be raspberries in it.” She said the word with all the slow attention of someone who had stumbled over it one too many times.

“Come see!” Nellie demanded and, much more commanding than her twin, she took both Maya and Lucas’ hands and started leading them to the backyard.

Here they found the giver of those raspberry bushes himself, sitting along with Katy and with MJ in his lap. The small boy climbed right down when he saw Maya and Lucas, running over to them, where he was caught up by his sister. Once they would all start actually working on the garden, he’d be there, watching them as he tended to watch pretty much anyone at work, like he was trying to work it all out. Every so often, they would give him a small task and he would scurry forward to do it at once.

Maya and Lucas would do most of the work, of course, all the while ensuring that the twins felt genuinely involved in the construction of _their_ garden. They had been assured that, most of the time, their parents would be there to help them in the upkeep and the care for their various projects, from the raspberry bushes to the vegetable patch, the small herb garden in its planter, and then the flowers out in front of the house. They also had their neighbor, Mrs. Talbot, who was all too happy to help Nellie and Gracie in whatever way she could. And then, whenever she’d be around, they would get to show their big sister how well they had been taking care of everything.

“You have to keep doing it, remember?” Maya told her sisters when they were all done, tired, and dirty, but overall, very satisfied. “They won’t stay alive otherwise.” This made the girls stare up at her in a momentary panic. “But I know you’ll do great,” Maya quickly reassured them. After a few minutes, she felt she needed to give them at least a small warning on that front. “If you ever end up losing some of them though, you can’t worry yourselves too much, okay? Sometimes, these things just happen, and it wasn’t something you did. Do you understand?” She had Nellie sitting in her lap, laid out against her like she was her own personal lounge chair. The girl tilted her head back to look at her and Maya smirked, reaching to scrub a bit of dirt from her face. She looked like she was one good blink away from falling asleep. Gracie had already thrown in the towel on that battle. She was presently curled up asleep in Shawn’s arms. “You go ahead and tell her what I said later on, okay?” she turned back to Nellie, but now _she_ was asleep, too. “So much for that,” she looked to her father.

“Do _you_ need a nap?” he teased.

“I’m good, thanks,” she laughed. Looking back into the open area of the yard, they could see Lucas being ‘chased’ by an enthusiastic MJ. They didn’t look too tired either.

“Are you?” Shawn asked. She sighed. She had a feeling it would come to that sooner or later. Her parents could play it real cool, but she knew they worried over her with everything going on with Kermit.

“As much as I can be, I guess,” she replied, shrugging internally rather than jostling her sleeping sister. “It’s a special kind of messed up.” Shawn of all people would know how complicated something like that could feel, wouldn’t he? After everything he’d gone through with his own parents. And then _his_ dad…

The next morning, Maya was awakened by the tug of a small hand at her sleeve. She was already smiling by the time she opened her eyes and spotted those two faces staring back at her expectantly. She held a finger to her lips before holding up her side of the blanket. They dove in at once, trying to keep their giggles to a minimum as they were covered again.

Someday, she hoped she could explain to them how special they were to her. Even though most of her New York siblings were older than the pair of them, she hadn’t known them back then. Nellie and Gracie had been her first siblings, the first ones in her life, and they had been a wish granted from the day they were born, from the day she’d known they would be coming at all. They had created this whole other existence for her, made her into someone’s sister, and they had her whole heart for it.

“Time to feed the garden yet?” Gracie whispered.

“Garden’s still sleeping, let’s give it more time, okay?” Maya told them, and they nodded.

She knew Lucas was awake when she felt him moving closer to his edge of the bed, pulling her along in the process and opening up more space for the twins next to her, which they didn’t hesitate to crawl into. She smiled, laying her arm over the one he had wrapped around her waist until their hands were joined.

“When do we eat the raspberries?” Nellie asked.

“Only when Mom or Dad or I say it’s okay,” Maya replied.

“What about Pappy Joe?” Gracie asked.

“Him, too.”

“Mrs. Talbot?” Nellie asked.

“Yup.”

“MJ?” Gracie giggled. Clearly, she had gotten the gist of ‘ask an adult,’ but it amused Maya to realize she was able to turn it around like this.

“He can’t even say ‘raspberries,’” Nellie insisted. “He says… he says ‘rasbabies.’” Maya burst out laughing, and Lucas gave himself away as awake by laughing along with her. At once, Nellie climbed up to peek over her sister’s shoulder. “Hi!” she greeted him, no longer whispering.

“Hey, Nellie,” he waved back. When another hand stretched out and waved from across Maya, he chuckled. “And Gracie, too.”

They spent a lot of this day outside, too, though they took things very easy compared to the previous day. The twins took great care to inspect their handiwork, while Maya chronicled the whole thing with her camera. As she told her sisters, they would be able to compare, as time went on, how everything grew. Next thing they knew, they were getting the photos printed and working together to create a photo album, just for the garden.

Odds were that the next time Maya and Lucas came out here for more than a couple of days would be over the summer, for the birth of their new sister. The way they were going on about her, it felt as though her little sisters really couldn’t wait for her to arrive… They had so much they wanted to show her.

TO BE CONTINUED


	238. Her Days of Music

They returned to Houston on the night before classes were to start again after Spring Break. Maya had just made it up the stairs and into her room when her phone rang. The caller ID showed a number she was getting to know pretty well. It belonged to the club where TXNY had played most often since their introduction into the Houston scene. If they were calling, then it likely meant a new performance coming up for them.

It wasn’t one performance: it was three. Three alternating Fridays, the first a week from now, as per their selection in an ‘Up and Coming Talent’ showcase. Maya had entered them for it, weeks ago, though truth be told she’d sort of forgotten about it, never thinking they’d actually be picked no matter how confident she was in their act.

After hanging up with the man, she texted Willow and Kayla and asked them if they could come over for a bit. She wanted to wait until they arrived to tell them what it was about, which prevented her from giving any kind of urgency to the message in order to convince them they _had_ to come. Luckily, both her ‘out of house’ bandmates accepted the invitation and promised to be over in a half hour’s time. The challenge now was going to hold all this giddiness in without letting Riley or Rosa in on it before the others arrived.

“Are you okay?” Lucas asked, with just the start of a laugh in his voice, as he walked in to find her standing there a bit fidgety, gripping her phone in front of her mouth. When she let down her arm, there was a grin on her face. To his credit, he put all the evidence together and came up with the right answer. “The club?” he asked. She nodded. “You got it?” he set down their bags, which he’d carried up from the car. When she nodded again, he came over and scooped her up like the awesome boyfriend he was. Now she could spend that immediate burst of excitement and hold off until she could tell the others.

Willow and Kayla arrived within five minutes of each other, each of them greeted by surprised friends, who had no idea they were coming. When Willow arrived and got that ‘what are you doing here?’ reaction from Rosa, she got this look like _she_ was doing some detecting of her own. She managed to keep her composure though and say that Maya had a book for her, which was actually true. As soon as the two of them could share a telling look though, Willow turned to her with a question clear on her face. Maya held a finger to her lips, tipped her head. _Shh, later._

_“Are you here for a book, too?”_ Rosa signed when Kayla showed up.

_“What?”_ Kayla asked, confused.

So, Maya finally told them about the call, the quintet soon erupting in a burst of excitement. They’d have to figure out plans for rehearsals and set lists, but they could take this moment to celebrate, them and the rest of the house.

X

The following Friday, TXNY played the first of its three performances. Already, two days before, a local fan had taken a selfie in front of the club, the sign perched on the wall over her head showing a picture of the band, with the three dates listed. Over each date, a sticker had been added: SOLD OUT. If their learning that they’d been chosen for the triple engagement had caused a reaction, it was nothing compared to that. All three shows _sold out!_ There was so much crying and hugging that, when the guys walked in on the scene, they thought Maya might have gotten bad news out of New York, until they caught on to the fact that there were smiles under those tears.

They took several pictures in front of the sign themselves upon arriving at the club, recorded a quick video to thank everyone for coming to see them that night and over the next two shows. They came before people would have start to show up, but by the time they did all that, they were approached by a small group of girls, a couple of them with TXNY shirts on. This led to more pictures, and then autographs… It may not have been the first time, but it still sent a thrill like exclamation points in their heads to think anyone would want that from them. Next thing they knew, there were others, and others, and by the time they managed to actually get into the club, they’d been out there for about an hour.

“If we keep this up, we’re going to be passed out before we even get to go out on stage,” Riley declared as they made their way backstage.

“Are you kidding?” Maya laughed. “Right now, I’m so ready to start the show, I can’t keep still!”

They didn’t pass out. Rather, more in line with Maya’s present ‘stage readiness,’ they gave what felt like one of their best performances ever. They thrived on the energy shared between the five of them, and they never had to fear for a loss of energy, as the audience went on feeding them with some of their own. By the time it was all over, they still felt like they could have gone on. Sooner or later, everything would get realigned and they’d feel the exhaustion, so it was just as well the others were there to drive them home, though they did make a stop for food, as they often did, at the twenty-four-hour diner nearby.

“Oh, there she goes,” Willow chuckled when a sleepy-looking Riley finally set her head on Dylan’s shoulder, as they all sat around the booth. He was all too happy to give some literal support to his girlfriend, so he didn’t complain, only smiled.

“Great, give me her fries,” Maya spoke just loud enough to see…

“No, no…” Riley sprang back up dazedly, making them laugh.

_“I can’t believe Zola will be a year old by the time we give our third performance,”_ Kayla looked to Willow. The young mother’s face got that bittersweet look she’d get whenever confronted with how fast her daughter was growing.

“I know,” Willow spoke and signed, looking to Lion, sitting at her side. “We went shopping for a few things for her birthday party before dropping her off to my grandparents’ tonight, and I nearly had a breakdown looking at all those ‘1’ things.”

“You and me both,” Lion admitted with a nod before taking a gulp of his milkshake. “Me, it’s how she’ll look back at us with that smile when she goes around walking, like she’s making sure that we’re still there and that we saw her go, too.” They’d been getting more and more videos of little Zola’s walking progress, from those first teetering steps to now, and they could absolutely understand why it would make Willow and Lion emotional. “Trying to speed up now like she wants to run…” Lion shook his head with his own ‘dad smile.’

They finally cleared out of the diner and headed off on their own ways, the seven bound for the house in Lucas and Sophie’s cars. Maya was only vaguely aware, as she’d officially ‘surrendered’ to the crash and started nodding off on the ride back, though the next morning she was told by an amused Chiara how she and Sophie and Dylan had joined forces to coax both Riley and Rosa out of the back of the second car, where they had dozed off in a pile, and up to their respective rooms.

For her part, Maya caught a ride on Lucas’ back all the way up the stairs and to their room, with an enthusiastic if slightly drowsy rendition of their last encore song. She was deposited on to her feet again, where she made quick work of shedding ‘band Maya’ and transforming herself into ‘PJs Maya,’ presently declared as ‘the best Maya’ as she crawled up to her pillow.

“Spoon?” she asked in a pitiful voice, which worked every time, no matter what Lucas might suggest with regards to his willpower.

“Right here,” he promised as he turned off the lights and came to join her. She hummed and turned back around to snuggle up to him.

“I’m going to be asleep in like ten seconds, so…” she mumbled, turning her head to whisper at his ear, like somehow anyone would hear. One way or the other, she kept her word. As she swiftly dozed off, Lucas was left with the promise of words that did nothing for putting him to sleep…

X

The next two weeks went by in what felt like the blink of an eye. Now it was Friday again, the night of the second performance. Zola’s birthday party was the following afternoon, though she wouldn’t be one until the following Tuesday. They were all at the apartment, before heading to the club, and they helped in preparing decorations and food for the guests, before getting changed and heading out to the club. Maya spent most of her time in party prep with her small goddaughter perched on her knees and trying to grab her marker as she worked on her banner.

“Alright, Zozo, you want to help me? This part’s going to be all yours,” she told her before breaking out the paint. The soon-to-be one-year-old laughed as the paint was brushed on to the inside of her hands and fingers before being carefully pressed to the paper, one in the middle of the O and one in the open space of the L in her name. “There, that’s perfect, well done,” Maya smiled before carrying her like she was Simba in the Circle of Life all the way to the sink to wash her hands, before she could put them where she shouldn’t.

The change in wardrobe helped some in getting the five of them to ‘shift gear,’ though the ride to the club and the belt out sing along in the car helped loads more in getting them pumped and ready to go by the time they arrived.

“Woah, look,” Rosa pointed. They would have seen on their own, as they rolled along and saw the lineup to get into the club was already stretching far past the actual building. They would have lost count if they tried to count them, or to see how many of them had one of the band’s shirts…

“Should we roll down the windows or something?” Riley asked.

“Might as well, I think someone just spotted us,” Willow pointed. The window only had to come down enough to breach the closed space of the car for them to startle from the sound.

_“They’re shouting?”_ Kayla asked Rosa.

_“They’re singing,”_ Rosa informed her with a smile.

“There’s my dad!” Riley pointed. “And there’s your parents, Maya.” She couldn’t look too long, being at the wheel, but she spotted them alright, all of them with their own band shirts. When they’d been selected for these shows, their parents had promised to make the trip, all except Topanga, of course, who was just a few weeks from giving birth. As for Katy, now rounding on six months, she insisted she wouldn’t miss this, even if she needed to get her hands on a bigger shirt and try to pace herself in the cheering along.

Standing among their daughters’ loudly singing fans, the three of them looked in absolute awe, like they were just getting to grasp exactly how much people out there loved the band. Shawn had his phone up, moving it around and filming this. The group standing just ahead of them noticed him, and she swore she could read his lips saying, ‘that’s my daughter,’ indicating the car. She smirked and drove on toward the lot.

If they could do shows like this, every other week, further than just these three, Maya felt like they could go on forever. They all remembered so well those shows they’d done, a few nights in a row, and how it had just wiped them out, but this was good. The memory of the first show, and the support they had been getting in these past few weeks, it was an easy way for them to get back into that pocket of energy as they hit the stage again. They were going to give as good of a performance as they’d done the last time, if not better.

The post show regroup took place at the house instead of the diner this time around, and both Maya and Riley were caught up in a sort of awkward pride, sitting back as their parents recounted their experiences from watching the band. It was sweet, really, so they could forgive the parts where they might have been embarrassed if they were in public.

Cory drove back to Austin that night, not wanting to be away longer than he had to just in case the baby came early. Katy and Shawn stayed the night though, so Maya and Lucas relinquished their room over to the two of them and settled on to the living room couch. They took up two of the sides in the U-shaped seat, heads near enough to one another’s that they could reach out an arm to find the other’s hand in the middle, which they did as they settled in. The matching owls and nightingales seemed to fly between them, making Maya smile.

“I never really got to say before, but you guys were incredible up there tonight,” Lucas told her.

“What, couldn’t get a word in with the parental love fest?” she beamed, tipping her head back to see him.

“They _have_ seen you perform before, haven’t they?” he chuckled. She laughed. “Anyway, you were incredible,” he stated a second time.

“Thanks,” she squeezed his hand.

“You especially,” he whispered, like he didn’t want the others to hear and get jealous.

“I will take all the compliments,” she nodded, teasing a bit but really just feeling her cheeks warm up. No matter how many times he would tell her, and he did, every time, she could just see how earnest it all was, coming from him, and it made her ridiculously happy every time.

“One more of these,” he stated, like she wasn’t already thinking about it.

“One more,” she sighed. “Two weeks after that, new venue,” she swept her free arm out as though to suggest they would have this very living room as this ‘new venue.’

“A real private gig then,” he guessed.

“VIPs only,” she laughed. _And you, as always, are top of the list._

TO BE CONTINUED


	239. Their Night With Success

The next two weeks, leading up to their final performance, made them reconsider what they’d previously deemed to be fast passing time. Those fourteen days went by at a relentless pace, until all of a sudden it was show day again. The five girls were equal parts excited and sad. They were anxious for the show, but they didn’t want to stop. Sure, there’d be other gigs, but this series had been special.

“Ready to go?” Lucas poked his head into the room, finding Maya sitting at her desk, hunched over an envelope.

“One second,” she told him, writing out the address on the front before getting up, grabbing the envelope, and putting it in her bag. “There’s a mailbox near the club, yeah?”

“Yeah, just outside the diner. What are you…” he started to ask, but then found the answer right there. _The article._

They had been interviewed for a local paper, following the second show. Between all five of their families and the number of friends who wanted it, they must have bought out so many copies. They had one in a frame, hanging on the wall in the basement’s music room. And now he’d be willing to bet there was one cut out about to go on its way to New York, to her father and her siblings.

It still was mind-blowing to near the club and find all those people stood in line, waiting to be let in to see them. To see anticipation in people’s faces at the prospect of watching them and listening to them as they played… As before, it was all the drive they could ask for, to get them pumped up for their next show. They got up on that stage when the time came, and in a rush of sound, they were on.

“I could really go for some Nook waffles right now,” Maya breathed as they left the club after the show. “How long until it’s open?”

“Hours,” Lucas informed her with a smile. She made a noise, face scrunched up. Too long. “I will _make_ you waffles if you want some that bad.”

“With chocolate chips?” she looked up at him with new giddiness.

“Extra chips,” he promised.

Soon, the band, the roommates, and some of their friends had reconvened at the house for a late-night waffle fest. Lucas was joined by Chiara and Franny in producing said waffles for their tired and starving musicians.

“We need to do something,” Dylan declared, tapping his hands on the table like a quick drum roll. This startled Riley up from where she’d been dozing off at his side.

“Huh?” she asked.

“You all did this thing, the last few weeks, you _won_ , you did your shows, but we never like… celebrated,” he explained.

“How?” Willow asked.

“I don’t know, whatever you like,” Dylan shrugged.

_“I have an idea,”_ Kayla declared, sitting up from where she’d been leaning her head to Will’s shoulder. _“But if we do that, then you wouldn’t get to go.”_

_“What is it?”_ Dylan asked.

_“Girls’ night,”_ Kayla grinned getting an immediate wave of approving signs out of Willow and Riley. Kayla turned to tap Maya’s shoulder, pulling her back from absently watching the waffles being made.

“Mm?” she asked. Kayla gave her a ‘ _girls’ night?_ ’ and Maya smiled. _“When?”_ Dylan repeated his bit, and now, with added context, she had a thought. “Girls’ night, guys’ night?”

“Like the sound of that,” Lion chimed in, looking around the room. “Lot better now that Zo’s sleeping normal,” he looked to Willow, who nodded in strong agreement. “My brother’s got her tonight, he might keep her tomorrow, too, if we do it then?”

Going around the room, they knew they had others who might want in on this, so they’d have to check in with them, but as far as who was in the kitchen now, everyone was in for one group or the other, and for the next night.

“Someone go and ask Rosa and the others upstairs,” Chiara spoke up. “And also tell them that the waffles are nearly ready.” They’d been making them and keeping them on warm in the oven, the better to serve everyone at once.

Rosa had gone up with Leigh and Colton, to show them something, though by now, as Maya came to get them, it looked like they’d ended up just sitting around talking amongst themselves.

“Hey, food’s almost ready, it’s going to be blink and you miss it if you don’t come down.”

“No one better be touching my waffle,” Leigh scrambled up to their feet.

“I could do so much with that statement,” Colton followed with a chuckle.

“Also, we’ve been talking about doing a thing tomorrow night, girls night/guys night, I don’t know if you all…” Maya looked around to the trio. She didn’t know how Leigh might take this, seeing as they identified as neither. The last thing Maya wanted was for Leigh to feel in any way excluded, and maybe the passing thought was caught, as Rosa’s friend and classmate just looked back to the others and nodded.

“If Colton goes, and Joseph, too, then I’ll just stick with Rosa, two and two,” they smiled. “Rosa?”

“In,” Rosa smiled back.

“Great. Food now,” Leigh started off toward the stairs.

The scent of all those waffles was enough to bring anyone in the vicinity floating in like a cartoon, and everyone piled in around the kitchen, grabbing a plate, a bowl, whatever they could get their hands on to serve themselves. The conversation was a mix of TXNY’s third show earlier that night and everyone’s plans for the following night. Messages were sent out to other friends who might want to join in, until it got to be that they had a better idea of how big the groups would get. Of all those they were able to confirm, they were looking to have seven on the guys’ side, thirteen on the girls’.

The post show wind down always had a way of being all energy one second and then a domino effect of everyone reconnecting with their exhaustion, which made that everyone who didn’t live here soon cleared out. The kitchen was still a mess, but none of them had it in them to do anything about it now, so they left it to morning and went off to bed.

Maya was out, Lucas swore the next morning, like two seconds before her head actually touched the pillow. It was just after two in the morning, and still, when her phone rang with an incoming Skype call, she woke, finding it was not quite four yet.

“Hello?” she mumbled when she answered to find her father’s face staring back at her.

“Bad time?” he asked. It was sort of a running joke between them now. Who would have thought they’d ever have one of those?

“Oh, you know, sleeping, that’s all,” Maya yawned, pulling herself into a seated position, willing her hair to be out of her face. “But you can’t?”

“I know you had a show tonight, I…”

“No, it’s alright,” she stood, stealing a quick look to find Lucas was still sleeping before slipping out of the room and heading down the stairs. There was light and whispered conversation in the kitchen, which was revealed to be Sophie and Chiara, up again and cleaning the kitchen. _Lucas owes me five bucks._ “I have the video, if you want to look at it sometime,” she told Kermit as she headed into the living room.

“I’d like to look at it now, if you can send it over,” he nodded.

One covert trip back up into her room for her laptop and Lucas’ phone – swiped from his nightstand – later, she was back in the living room. Her fingerprint could unlock his phone, as his could unlock hers. They had been way too amused when they’d set it all up the last time that they’d changed their phones, like they were exchanging home keys or something.

Finding the recording of the performance, she attached it to an e-mail and then sent it off to both herself and her father. By the time they both got it loaded up and ready to go, she caught sight of Sophie and Chiara heading back up the stairs, and they waved to one another in passing.

“I mailed the article earlier, after we came out of the club,” she let Kermit know.

“Thank you,” he nodded. “I saw it on their website, Sammy printed it and all, but I wanted the page itself,” he explained.

“You’re not the only one,” she chuckled, recalling the expression on her parents’ faces when they’d seen it. Never to be left behind as the additional parental figures in her life, she’d had similar requests from the Friars and Professor Robinson…

“It’s going to be worth a lot someday, but try and get it away from us,” he shook his head. To see that pride in his eyes, when it came in collision with the reality that he wouldn’t be there to see it…

“I don’t know, might be worth having some extras to pass off… Rainy days and all that,” she smirked. “Alright, ready for the countdown?”

“Count us in, Rock Star,” Kermit adjusted his headphones while she laughed. Finally, she counted, and they hit play together.

The sun would be coming up soon by the time they reached the end of the video and the performance. As much as she loved their TV marathons, she was reminded every time that it was really music which acted as their truest bonding agent. After all these years apart, all the troubles, talking about guitars and songs and harmonies would just keep the words flowing between them like they’d been doing it all her life.

“Maya, I need you to do something for me, after I’m gone,” he told her, and the words came so unexpectedly that, if she’d assumed that she was actually dreaming, the sudden ramping up of her heart would have told her better than any arm pinching. She couldn’t even say ‘don’t talk like that,’ because who would they be kidding? And even though everything in her wanted to pretend like she hadn’t heard it, all she could _really_ do was say…

“Yeah, Dad?” It made him smile, that small sad smile that spoke of wasted opportunities between them.

“Abigail, she’ll be alright in the end, I know she will. She’s one of the strongest people I know, and she’s had to prepare for this, for the kids’ sake as much as hers… But I’m not sure if the same can be said about my kid sister.” _Luna…_

She’d found out about her when she’d started watching the videos that he’d given her on her twenty-first birthday. No, not found out… _Remembered._ She used to know her, when she was little, and then after Kermit had left, she’d lost her from her life, too, as she’d learned, because her mother didn’t want her around anymore after everything that had happened.

There’d been this curiosity in Maya, to possibly re-establish contact with her, but… she still hadn’t done it, in the year and some weeks since she’d first found out about her. There hadn’t been any particular reason, she just hadn’t done it yet. But now… Now events were about to push their lives back together, one way or another, leaving her to decide _how_ it might happen. And her father… He didn’t think she’d pull through this on her own. He wanted her to act on his behalf, when the day would come that he couldn’t be there to do it himself. Luna lived in Tucson, with her two daughters, she knew that much. She’d be much closer to her than Abigail was, back in New York.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got her.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	240. Their Night With Plans

Lucas woke up on Saturday morning to find the other half of the bed empty. Sitting up and looking around, he noticed a few other things were missing, like his phone, and Maya’s laptop. As expected, all this added up to finding her asleep on the couch downstairs. Not knowing when she’d actually gotten to sleep, especially after the previous night’s show, he let her sleep on and got started on breakfast. The others trailed in one by one from above.

By the time Maya did wake up, she would be informed by Rosa – sitting at the other end of the couch and reading something for class – that Lucas and Dylan had gone out on some errands for their guys’ night.

“Can’t believe they’re all just staying here,” Rosa scoffed with a smirk, turning a page. “Playing video games, eating junk…”

“You kind of want to stay here and do that instead, don’t you?” Maya asked, sitting up and smiling when she spotted Peanut staring at her from the ground.

“Maybe… a little…” Rosa muttered.

“You know you can just do what you want to do. The whole guys’ night/girls’ night thing, it’s not…”

“What, and break the coven? No way,” Rosa looked back at her. On Maya’s confused expression, she explained. “There’s thirteen of us,” she shrugged. Maya laughed, picking up the small dog and plopping back down on the couch.

“Well, then, my little witch, it’s off for a night out with the rest of us. We might not play games, we might dress up a bit more elaborately, but don’t count us out on eating those boys under the table,” she grinned as Peanut lay contentedly in her arms while she scratched at his ears.

Maya had retired back to their room upstairs when Lucas returned. He found her now getting some studying of her own done, until she’d have to start getting ready.

“Did you guys finish the series or something?” he asked.

“What?”

“You and your father, last night, or this morning, I guess.”

“Oh… No, we didn’t watch those, I sent him the video you did of the show last night and we watched it together.”

“Explains for my phone,” Lucas nodded.

“So, did you get all the stuff for tonight?” Maya asked now, a look on her face like she wanted to know what he’d gotten, so she could decide if she’d want to sneak into some of it.

“Our part, yeah,” Lucas replied. “Everyone’s bringing something.” She went on nodding, still waiting for details. “You’re not having it,” he gave a knowing smile. She frowned.

“Why not?”

“Your thing, my thing,” he gestured between the two of them. “It goes both ways, and you know it.” She let out a sigh. He had her there, didn’t he? If the roles were reversed, she’d shut him down in a flash. It didn’t stop her from appealing to that all important quality known as ‘I give the big eyes, you cave,’ a tried and true tradition… “Oh no, not this time,” he shook his head, though he still went up to her, kissing the top of her head because he hadn’t gotten to greet her earlier.

“I will break you yet, Friar,” she ‘warned.’

“Do your worst, Hart.”

As the afternoon came and started to pull toward evening, the house shifted into preparation mode. With five girls running around, getting ready to go out, Lucas and Dylan stayed well out of the way/guarded the kitchen from snatching little fingers looking for snacks. Dylan broke out a deck of cards and they settled in across from one another, focused but also ‘watchful.’

“Riley keeps jumping every time her phone rings, thinking her mom’s going into labor,” Dylan told Lucas as they played.

“So does Maya,” Lucas replied, and after a moment Dylan blinked, realizing what he meant and feeling a bit bad that he hadn’t considered it like that. The difference of course was that, while one of them awaited good news, the other awaited the kind of news you never wanted to get.

“Nothing new there?” Dylan asked.

“No,” Lucas shook his head. “Don’t know how it’ll be when it all happens, I just…” He could foresee Maya shutting down when Kermit would leave them, and there was really nothing he could do to keep that from happening. All he could do was what he’d always done when something difficult happened. He would stand by her, he would support her, but… the loss of a parent… Even when that parent had been estranged from her for the better part of her life, now that they were okay again it almost… No, not almost. It made it so much worse, for her and for her father, too, he’d seen.

“We’ll all be here,” Dylan promised. “We’ll all do what we can.” Lucas smiled, nodding as he looked to his hand again and set a card down. Dylan groaned. Good thing they weren’t playing poker; he couldn’t have kept a straight face to save anything. Looking up, Lucas spotted Rosa, climbing down the stairs, and walking toward the kitchen, all casual-like.

“No,” he pointed back to the stairs. She stalled, spotting him and Dylan, who waved at her. Her face scrunched and she turned on her heel to head back the way she’d come.

“Your boyfriend is being a buzzkill down there,” she appeared in the doorway to his and Maya’s room, where Maya was presently digging through the closet.

“He gets real determined to hold his ground sometimes. No matter what I throw at him, and believe me, I’ve challenged him with a lot, the guy won’t budge.”

“But I’m hungry,” Rosa complained. “I wasn’t even going to go into their stash for tonight.”

“Don’t worry. Once Riley’s ready, I’ll send her down there. Lucas might hold steady, but Dylan is another story.” When she finally turned back to look at her roommate, Maya frowned. “You haven’t started, have you?” she asked, indicating the PJs she still wore.

“I am waiting to see what you all put on first,” Rosa informed her. “You’re the last one, by the way.” Maya groaned and turned back to her closet. “Weren’t you saying you wanted to wear that one dress…”

“I did… Then I remembered I left it in Austin last time, my parents are supposed to bring it back when they drive over next. So, for now, I’m back to picking, and it never happens fast when you already had your mind set on… No, wait, this one,” she pulled out a dress on its hanger and held it before herself. She had not forgotten how different things used to be for her, when it was just her mother and her in that old apartment in New York, and she remembered it time and again, usually in small things, like this, as she was faced with an abundant selection spilling from her closet.

“Great, now me,” Rosa sighed, marching off back to her room.

“Shout if you need help!” Maya called after her.

She’d managed to get first draw on the shower, so she’d already gotten that taken care of. Now with her dress picked out, she was able to quickly move on and get herself dressed before turning back to the mirror and deciding what she wanted to do with the rest. The guys may have been staying in tonight, but the girls had designs on going dancing… It didn’t matter whether they were presently single, or leaving boyfriends to their night in, or had their girlfriend with them, it would be all of them, out there having a good time as friends, roommates, bandmates, classmates, co-workers, whatever united them.

When she was all done, she bounded her way down the stairs, approaching the kitchen with her hands in plain sight.

“I come in peace,” she intoned dramatically. Lucas had seen her coming as soon as she’d passed the landing, and he had definitely not looked away as she came forward.

“You know, if you wanted to just stay here tonight, I’m sure the guys wouldn’t mind. Or I could be you all’s chauffeur, whatever you need,” he offered, smiling. Maya smirked, doing a slow turn to feed this fixed stare she’d drawn from him before coming up to get eye to eye with him.

“Sorry,” she whispered, backpedaling before he could get hold of her.

“This is payback, isn’t it?” he laughed.

“Oh, Huckleberry, this is just the first payment,” she promised him.

“You look great,” Dylan commented.

“Thank you,” she gave something between a curtsey and a salute. “Riley should be down any minute,” she added, which quickly got him looking over his shoulder and toward the stairs.

“Where are you all meeting?” Lucas asked Maya while their friend waited on his girlfriend’s arrival. “Here or…”

“Since there’s already five of us here and a few others are dropping a guy off here anyway…” Maya replied, turning her index finger about to indicate ‘here.’ Even as she did this, her eyes were drawn to a cluster of bags on the counter. “You know, by the time everyone’s here, my side _will_ outnumber yours, and some on _your_ side are very easy to sway.”

“And?” he asked, getting up until he towered over her with a look that said, ‘challenge met.’

“Don’t get greedy,” she shrugged innocently.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Maya backstepped her way out of the kitchen, giving Lucas the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture before turning to go and see who it was. Really, at this point, their friends could have let themselves in.

The count became ten girls to three guys with the arrival of Franny, Kayla, Will, and the trio of Weaver Kings. It wasn’t long that the numbers shifted again with the arrival of Leona and Bishop along with Willow and Lion, and then the last to arrive were Joseph, Colton, and Leigh.

“Don’t mind us, we’ve been summoned,” Colton trailed along with Leigh, heading up the stairs, they guessed, to Rosa’s room to help her get ready.

“Thanks for inviting me to this,” Joseph tipped his head to his cousin.

“Why wouldn’t I invite you?” Lucas clapped him on the shoulder before leaning to whisper. “Don’t let the girls get to the food in the kitchen,” he instructed with an air of conspiracy. Joseph looked down to the bag he’d brought along before giving Lucas an understanding nod.

“Maya,” Lily Weaver came up to her as they were just sort of standing around and talking amongst themselves, waiting for everyone to come back downstairs. “I think Riley’s trying to get your attention.” Turning around now, Maya found her best friend looking nervous and failing in being inconspicuous about it, which could only mean one thing: she’d pulled it off. Maya gasped and quickly pulled in her smirk before it could spread too far.

“Rosa’s ready, but she doesn’t want to make a big show like this is a makeover scene in a movie, so she said to say ‘Coven, form up outside,’ and she’ll meet us there,’” Leigh announced as they were coming back down with Colton.

“Right, out, go, go,” Maya ushered all the others of their group along through the door, including Riley and her tight grip on her bag. “Have a good evening, fellas,” she waved to the seven of them standing in the living room as she stood last at the door. “One last thing,” she clicked her fingers, and Riley appeared back just over her shoulder and showed a whole bag of chips, opened to let the air out and make fit in someone’s bag. “Point: Coven,” she bowed, pulling the door shut.

A few seconds later, the door opened again, and Rosa scurried out to join them. The thirteen of them started off down the street, laughing and munching on their prize.

TO BE CONTINUED


	241. Their Night With the Guys

Once the girls had cleared out, the house felt momentarily empty, despite there being the seven of them guys and three dogs hanging about. For Lucas especially, and Dylan along with him, it had become sort of the norm to have anywhere from one to all five of them around here somewhere. Whenever they weren’t around, it almost didn’t seem right.

“Hey, anyone up for a game out there?” Lion asked, nodding in the direction any of them ever did when they brought up the basketball hoop outside. Lucas was in, and Bishop, and Dylan, and Will. Joseph was in, too, though even as he agreed, he seemed to be looking to Colton, who Lucas only managed to notice looked to have gone somewhere else in his head for a moment, before he picked up his chin and announced that he’d ref for three on three.

“Hey, is Colton alright?” Lucas halted his cousin as they were all heading out. Joseph wasn’t about to say anything he wasn’t supposed to say, per secrecy, but he gave what he could.

“He used to play, doesn’t anymore,” was all he had. Whatever else there was, unless Colton felt like sharing, was not for them to know.

“Right, okay,” Lucas ushered Joseph out to where the others were presently deciding on teams. Dylan had Lion, and Bishop was with Will, which left the last two to decide where they’d go. The first team came to draft Lucas, while the second got Joseph.

As the game started, the girls’ absence was soon put out of their minds as they focused on finding out who’d win. Both sides put up enough of an effort that it usually wouldn’t be long after Colton would call out a new score that he’d have to call another, because the other team had scored and tied things up again. No matter how long they drew this out, it always came back to a tie.

_“Make it a shoot off and be done with it,”_ Will signed with a tired laugh after a while.

“Fine by me,” Dylan smirked.

“You’ve obviously never gone up against him,” Colton nodded his head toward Joseph, who stood there with a humble smile.

In no time, the prediction proved true enough, as the two of them faced off and quickly found themselves in a similar situation to the game, where they kept matching each other. Their teammates would cheer them on, before and after the shots.

“This could take a while,” Colton looked to Lucas.

“Right. I’ll order the pizzas.”

They were still at it twenty minutes later when the delivery arrived, and it was the announcement that the food had arrived, which caught Dylan’s ear and made him miss, that opened it up for Joseph to clinch the win. It would remain a point of contention for the remainder of the night and then some.

Being here with the friends they had made in Houston, Lucas found himself thinking about his friends far away, the ones he’d had before meeting everyone here but Dylan. He missed Zay, and Asher and Joey, Farkle, Ray… He knew it wouldn’t be long now that they all started to decide what to make of their lives after college. Not all of them would be done after next year, including him, and some might decide to stay where they were anyway… But some might find their way back to Texas, and he couldn’t help but look forward to that.

“You’re a Junior now, yeah?” Bishop asked Joseph as they all sat around the living room, eating their pizzas. Joseph nodded as he chewed.

“One more year ‘til he’s a grown up,” Colton grinned, getting a laughing arm tap from Joseph.

“Got plans yet?” Lion inquired.

“Not yet,” Joseph shook his head. “My parents really want me to start thinking about it though.” Lucas was well aware of this, the Hillards’ light push for their son to move forward, as much as Joseph’s indecisions. His cousin had had ideas of what he might want to do, but sooner or later he would come to decide it wasn’t really what he was after, and then he’d be back to the start, which was all the more reason for him not to go so far as to air his plans out to his mother and father. If he did that, and he kept changing his mind… It was better for them to think he had no idea at all.

As they went on eating, everyone would be talking, tossing stories around, and Lucas wondered why they didn’t do this more often. There were those of the guys here tonight he was very familiar with, like Dylan and Bishop, and more and more Joseph. Lion fell somewhere in the middle, though closer to the others near the top. He mostly got to see him sometimes at the restaurant with Maya, other times when he’d drop off or pick up Willow from band practice, or when they’d be in the audience for one of TXNY’s shows… It didn’t really dawn on him just how little they actually hung out without Maya or Willow around until now, and he didn’t see why.

“What are you, like six eight?” Lion asked Bishop, sitting across from him. He looked up.

“Little over, yeah.” As tall as he was, and he absolutely towered over every last one of them, after a while it was sort of easy to forget. When they’d all been outside tossing the ball around, suddenly it had been very, _very_ obvious that the guy could crush you if he came at you. Then again, it was even harder to ignore when he’d be standing next to his girlfriend. Leona was the shortest of them, though she rocked a high heel so well you almost didn’t realize it until she came down from those.

“I was always the biggest kid in my class, back of the group photo and all,” Lion chuckled, standing just four inches shorter. Bishop gave a nod and a smirk like he knew that all too well, too.

“Spent most of my life being one of the tall ones, now all of a sudden I’m short,” Colton told them, leaving the rest of the guys to consider how true this would be.

Then there was Will, Kayla’s boyfriend, who was definitely one of the ones he knew the least. The two of them were so close, and to think they might never have met if things hadn’t lined up exactly as they’d done, with Kayla coming along with them to the Babineaux summer party, and Will – or Zay’s cousin’s friend, as he’d been known at the time – doing the same. They might have run into each other sooner or later, with both of them going to school in Houston, but who could say for sure? What mattered was that they _had_ met, and what little contact he _had_ had with Will told him this was a good guy, plain and simple. He was in business school, taught sign language on the side, which came in handy on this night as it carried on.

“How’d she do it?” Lucas asked Dylan, when they headed into the kitchen to gather up everyone’s contributions, a vast selection of drinks and snacks, and bring it all into the living room before they settled in. Dylan looked at him, so Lucas mimicked Maya’s ‘sign off’ as she and Riley showed that they’d managed to snag that bag of chips.

“Oh…” Dylan bowed his head, though only for a beat, as he looked up with a smile that said he wasn’t even sorry. Lucas swore he was possessed by the spirit of Maya Hart in that moment, with the look he gave his friend. “What, she wanted chips,” Dylan shrugged. Lucas went on staring. “What, I love her, alright?” Dylan firmly declared. Lucas barely had the time to pause and wonder if this was the first time _that_ word had come from him, as he went on. “I’m surprised _you_ didn’t give in either.” And on this, he could only blame the distraction of Dylan’s previous statement for how he just couldn’t manage to keep the thought playing through his mind from passing over his face. “Did you?” Dylan may not have had a poker face, but when he caught you in a lie, he could see right through yours.

“I may have… left her something to find later… in her bag…” he revealed as carried the first load into the living room.

And then there was Colton… Rosa had cornered Lucas that morning, like she wanted to ensure that her friend had a good time with the rest of them. She told him that, much as he’d try and play it off, he was nervous, because he never really got to hang out with a bunch of guys like this, and he still got self-conscious about how it would go, how he would be received… As much as Rosa and Leigh had both tried to reassure him, pointing out he couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys, they knew it wasn’t that simple, as far as Colton saw it. Lucas had promised Rosa that he’d keep this in mind, though he didn’t see that he’d have to do much of anything. As it went, nerves had a way of working themselves out, once the thing that brought them on actually got started and you saw there was nothing to worry about.

“Alright, alright, alright, listen up!” Dylan hopped up on the coffee table a few minutes later, calling attention with such energy that the others were cheering. Lucas could just hear several of their roommates in his head, shouting that he needed to get off of there, but there was really little chance of Dylan doing as told. The best they could hope for was that they’d still have a functioning coffee table by the end of the night… and that their guys’ night wouldn’t end with a trip to the ER and a new scar. “Before we fire things up over here,” he gestured back to the screen. The table wobbled just a bit. Lucas flinched. “Let’s make things more interesting.”

“You want to give me your cash, all you had to do was say it,” Lion grinned, getting a laugh out of the others.

_“I’ve got nothing,”_ Will shook his head.

“No, no, I’m not talking money here. The girls may have their ‘coven’ tonight,” he air-quoted. “But _we’ve_ got… network connectivity,” he announced before hopping off the table, allowing Lucas to breathe again. Dylan placed a laptop on the table and opened it. A few seconds later, it started to ring with an incoming call.

“Good evening, Houstoooooon!” Zay hollered from the screen, where he was flanked by the Garcia twins, with Ray Choi standing behind him and giving a couple of wide-armed waves, and Farkle sitting on the ground in front of the couch, so that only the top half of his face could presently be seen. As could be expected, the room welcomed this ‘arrival’ with appropriate loudness.

“Couldn’t have guys’ night without us,” Asher declared with a shake of the head that might have been ‘how dare you?’ with a smirk.

“Got him back from Boston for the night, too,” Ray clapped Zay on the shoulders.

“The girls took up the charge with their own outing, too,” Joey nodded.

“Isadora wasn’t sure at first, but she decided it would be an interesting experience,” Farkle chimed in. “She also said other things about all this, but I don’t think I need to say any of it.”

“No, you don’t,” Zay agreed. “Now, come on, I came out here to play some games, so let’s play some games!”

TO BE CONTINUED


	242. Their Night With the Girls

When they’d climbed on the bus, all thirteen of them one after the other, it was the first time they really realized how much of a sight it must have been to people who saw them pass by. Not all of it was particularly cared for, such as the quartet of guys who started calling out for the girls to join them.

“I know the wise thing would be to just pretend like they’re not there and carry on, but I don’t know, I really need to just…” Leigh grumbled, as half of them managed to find seats while the others were left standing.

_“They’re talking about us,”_ Kayla reported, finding it all too easy to read their lips as they kept looking to the back where they’d all gathered. _“I need to wash my eyes.”_

“Unless they come over here, just leave it, really,” Sophie insisted.

“Yeah, about that,” Lily frowned, nodding discreetly.

“I’m cutting this off,” Franny tapped Leigh on the arm. “You coming?”

“Oh, yeah,” Leigh followed, and in a flash, Rosa stood up and went, too. Sophie sighed and went along, likely hoping to ensure the situation didn’t derail. Four to four, strength in numbers.

What was said between the eight of them remained a mystery to the others who watched with great intent from the back of the bus. All they knew was that, when they pulled up to the next stop, the four guys climbed down off the bus, and there was no doubt that it wasn’t in fact because it was their stop. Leigh, Franny, Rosa, and Sophie returned like heroes to the stunned group in the back, who all wanted to know what had gone down.

“Things were said,” Rosa shrugged, and that was that. It would be their secret to keep, even as they were crowned ‘rulers of the coven,’ with the remainder of the bag of chips as their prize.

First order of business for their night had to be dinner. Chips or no chips, they weren’t going to get very far with their dancing if they dropped from hunger. Besides, it was way too early to go in, so they found their way toward the restaurant where Willow had made the reservation for their group of thirteen. They might not have pulled it off on such short notice, if not for their ‘secret’ connection.

“Think we’ll get some buns?” Leona asked Maya with a hopeful grin that made her laugh as they walked through the door of Isabel’s restaurant.

“Isn’t this your night off?” asked the girl standing behind the counter, with the computer and the phone, when she spotted her co-workers.

“Only customers tonight, Cam,” Maya assured her. Camila noticed how many of them there were, and finally it clicked that they were her reservation for thirteen.

“You’re all set, right over here,” she guided them through the dining room, to the joined tables, menus at the ready.

“I’ve never been here before,” Victoria King commented. “You have though, haven’t you?” she turned to her sister, who grinned, turning to look at Franny.

“Yeah, we had a date here once.”

“When was this?” Maya asked, not recalling seeing them here together.

“Over the holidays. You were in New York,” Franny told her.

“Oh…” Maya blinked. She hated how she’d go to that place whenever that time came up, like that particular Christmas time had forever been turned into The One With The Bad News, when it had been plenty more, too, like The One Where Zay and Nadine Got Back Together.

The table dissolved into menu inspection, as they all went about figuring out what they wanted. Maya and Leona both knew first-hand that Isabel’s menu was stacked with so many good things that it would take people a fair time to actually decide what they wanted. They would set themselves the challenge to keep track of how many plates they’d carried in over one night where there was a quiet temptation in them to just dig in themselves. It’d get real treacherous the moment their hunger was strong enough, and then they’d just have to go and have a snack or something, or else they’d never make it.

In the end, they worked it out so that they’d load the center of the joined tables with a selection of dishes and then would serve themselves from this one and that one, family style. The plates were not usually made in this way, but it was a secret tip the two waitresses were familiar with. They called it the Isabel Special, knowing how their boss encouraged the practice, though here only for those who really looked like they’d commit to it.

“We look like we’re here for a bachelorette party or something,” Riley commented, looking around the table as they were chatting along, waiting for their dinner.

“Or a birthday,” Rosa added as the others chuckled.

“Anyone got one of those coming? We can get cake,” Leona nodded. Everyone shook their head.

“Well, there should be one soon,” Maya pointed out.

“Oh?” Willow asked, looking up from where she sat, across the table from her bandmate.

“Riley’s new brother,” Maya explained, pointing to the girl at her side. “And my sister, too, in a few months.”

“Oh, yeah…” Willow nodded, sitting back in her chair, and sipping from her water. The conversation moved on around them, but Maya couldn’t help but keep her eyes on the girl across from her for a few seconds. Then it hit her. She nudged Willow’s foot under the table, getting her attention back.

“Are you…” she mouthed the words with a pointed look. Willow looked to either side of her as discreetly as possible before turning her eyes back forward and making a very quick finger-to-the-lip gesture, her smile as small as ever. Maya had the hardest time containing her reaction, like trying to stuff something very big into something very small. It would fit, but you’d have to push and push, possibly sit on it to get everything shut that needed to be shut. Zola had only turned one, and she would be a big sister by year’s end…

This was incredible, and there was no way she could just sit there and say nothing, she had to let it out a little. Okay, this was the plan, she’d send her a text, create a reason for the two of them to go somewhere and talk. Yeah… She opened her bag to get her phone… and paused. There was a whole pack of gummy bears in her purse. Someone had drawn a winking face on the front with a black marker.

Her face split into such a smile… _You are such a nerd, Dockleberry…_

“What’s that?” Riley asked, and Maya clamped her bag shut at once.

“Art project,” she played it off. No one was getting their hands on those small squishy bears. Those were hers. “Willow, can I talk to you for a second? Over there?” she nodded toward the back of the restaurant. “Have an idea I want to run by you.”

“Yeah, okay,” Willow stood.

“But…” Riley tried to cut in.

“It’s a surprise,” Maya told her before walking off with their bandmate.

“Hey, isn’t tonight…” one of the other waitresses asked as she was leading Willow into the break room.

“Night off, yeah, yeah,” Maya told her without stopping. When it was finally just the two of them, there was a beat where they just stared at each other, and then Willow smiled and Maya pulled her into a hug. “How long have you known?”

“Honestly? Like three hours and… twenty-something minutes?” Willow counted back.

“Wow, so this is brand new news,” Maya slowly nodded.

“I mean, I had suspicions for a couple days. It was just like ‘hey, I remember these feelings,’ you know? Then today I thought I should probably find out one way or the other before I came over to join the rest of you. I thought you’d all figure it out the second you saw me. I was still kind of startled.”

“Does Lion know yet?”

“No, I didn’t want to have to rush telling him if it turned out it was positive. And then it _was_ , and I didn’t want to bail out on tonight, especially with how everything’s going to start changing again now.” It was dawning on Maya here that she had to be the first person Willow had been able to unload this on, and would be the only one, until she got around to telling Lion. She was counting on her to help protect this secret.

“Are you going to be okay with us out there tonight?”

“I’ll pace myself, definitely. I mean, I know it’s still early, but I can’t stop thinking about when Zola was born, you know?” She definitely remembered. They’d been left to think they might lose their friend for a bit.

“Hey, I’ve got you,” Maya promised with a grin, hugging her again. There was no need to ask how Willow felt at the prospect of this second baby. It was too early to know how far along she was or when she’d be due, but it’d have to be somewhere about October or November, yeah?

“We should get back out there,” Willow pointed out the door before reaching to check her face for the sign of tears. “Am I good?”

“You’re splendid, let’s go,” Maya laughed.

They returned to the table and found that the food had arrived in their absence. They also found eleven very eager diners, several of them looking like they were practically sitting on their hands to keep from digging in until the two of them were sitting again.

“Sorry for the delay, it was a very good idea,” Maya nodded as she and Willow took their seats.

“They were plotting to come and get you any second now,” Chiara revealed as everyone started reaching for this dish and that one, spooning and spearing one item or another on to their plates before passing or putting it down again.

They didn’t get to hang out together like this, all at once, except maybe at parties, and even then, they wouldn’t all be in the same place at the same time, they’d be spread out all around the place. This was different, and looking around at all those faces, all of them friends, two couples… Maya could tell they were all as happy to be here as she was.

“What do you think the guys are up to by now?” Sophie asked.

“Pizza, ha!” Rosa laughed, looking like she was in food heaven in that moment.

“And you wanted to stay with them,” Leigh reminded her, shaking their head with a smirk.

“I… considered it,” Rosa shrugged.

“Yeah, sure, alright,” Leigh could only snort.

The meal carried along, none of them in any hurry to break the conversation going along the table. They had to digest before they went anywhere, didn’t they? Maya couldn’t help being amused with the way both she and Willow kept having to bite back a word or a reaction whenever someone said anything that made them think about ‘Obi Baby number two.’ Of course, Maya had _two_ private jokes going. She hadn’t forgotten that bag of gummy bears stowed in her bag by a very sneaky and thoughtful boyfriend.

Was it really bad that she was out here, having fun with all these friends, and she still kind of wanted to hear his voice? He’d started it, hadn’t he, him and those gummy bears? Yeah, she’d have to reprimand him. She’d have to give him a call and pass on her thoughts regarding this behavior.

“Hey, give me a minute?” she asked the others, as they were all finally clearing out of the restaurant, on their way to their next stop. “I just remembered I left something in my locker.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	243. Their Night With Neither

They hadn’t even managed to start playing yet, as a debate had started over what they would do, and how they would do it, and which way was better… So, when Lucas’ phone rang and he saw Maya’s face on his screen, all he had to do was back away without saying a word, and no one saw him or realized he’d gone. He ended up going out the back door to sit in the yard, where he answered.

“Calling already? I _bear_ ly saw you a couple hours ago,” he smirked.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t see those right away or you would have made me spoil my dinner,” she mock scolded, though he could just hear the smile in her words. “How’s it going over there?”

“A dozen guys trying to make up their mind about something? It’s going as well as you can imagine,” he told her. He swore he’d just heard shouting from back inside that came off something like ‘oh, come on.’

“Wait, twelve… Who else is there?” Maya asked.

“Still just the seven of us, physically. We’ve got some friends joining in from New York,” he revealed, which got a laugh out of her.

“Oh, that’s great. What about the girls though?”

“They’re doing their own thing, apparently,” Lucas told her.

“Huh… Good to know.”

“How was dinner?” he asked, guessing they must have finished by now.

“I can’t tell you all that now,” she ‘scolded’ again, “You’re going to take all my material for later, when I come home and tell you all about it, while being possibly on the tipsy side and _very_ happy to see you again.”

“When are you not happy to see me?” he asked, a sizable grin on his face.

“Well… There are degrees,” she argued.

“Oh, right, the degrees, yeah, I know those…”

“For instance, I’m out here, hanging out with friends, having a fantastic time,” she told him, plopping down on the small couch in the middle of the break room. “And in the middle of all that, I just had to go off in a corner somewhere and call you. How is it that I miss you that much after such a short time? What is that?” she pondered.

“I’m not sure, all I know is when I saw your face pop up on my screen, it was like relief.”

“Used to be we could go a whole weekend without seeing each other and it wasn’t like that, was it? Has our living together all this time made us… co-dependent?” she asked, halfway between serious and overly dramatic.

“I don’t know, I think it’s only that we spend so much time at school, or at work, and then when it’s just us again it’s better, it’s… it’s home.”

“Yeah, but so were our parents.”

“Yeah, but we don’t exactly have the same kind of relationship with each other as we do with our parents, do we?” he chuckled, especially when he heard her snort.

“Fine, good point.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with the way things are now, do you? As much as we miss each other, do you intend on bailing out on the rest of your night?”

“And miss dancing around with those dorks? No way.”

“Meanwhile, I’m going to go back in there after we hang up and, assuming they’ve made up their minds, I’m going to play with my friends and see which one of them eats so much they puke…”

“My money’s on Kid Orlando,” Maya cut in.

“And when you and the others get home at the end of the night…”

“Stuff…” she completed the sentence with a smile.

“Stuff,” he agreed. He could hear a sort of crinkling noise in the background on her side of the call, and after a moment he figured out what it was. “Breaking into those gummy bears?”

“Yup.”

“Picking out all the pineapple ones?”

“Because they’re the best, so they must die first,” she confirmed, her voice suggesting she’d just bit into the first one.

“Didn’t you just finish dinner?”

“What are you, my… no, _your_ mother?” she complained.

“Ouch,” he laughed.

“Low blow?”

“Pretty close.”

“It’s only fair that I should enjoy them with you, because while they’re _my_ favorites, I don’t see how you would have gotten them for you and the guys, which means that you bought these, always with the intention that they should be mine, am I correct?”

“Can’t get anything by you,” he confessed.

“And you just stood there all day, like the snack police, all the while knowing you were going to slip me a gummy surprise.”

“Okay, that sounded a bit weird,” Lucas had to point out.

“Yeah, I heard it,” she agreed.

“Thing is, I waited until we left the store, doubled back while Dylan went into another store, so he never knew I even got them until he figured out that I’d given you something, too.” The way this got her bursting out laughing, it was probably a good thing she wasn’t mid-bear at that moment, or she could have choked. Just the idea of him sneaking around in his valiant search for gummy bears to hide in her bag… At this rate, she had half a mind to sneak back home and kidnap him for a night of dancing with the rest of them, swaying him to the power of the coven.

She kind of really wished she could tell him about Willow’s news. The prospect of a new baby coming along, as she’d usually experienced with her siblings and her friends’ siblings in past times, was the kind of information that just wanted to be let out, wasn’t it? And, really, if she told Lucas, he would keep the secret, that was how it worked with them. But could he really take the chance? With him hanging out all night with the guys, with Lion, who had no idea he was about to be a father for the second time… Could she guarantee that it wouldn’t somehow slip out? She would never forgive herself if she robbed Willow of the privilege of telling her husband herself.

“How goes the pineapple hunt?”

“Think I’ve got most of them pooled near the top of the bag now,” she reported. “But I should really get going before someone comes looking for me.”

“And steals all your bears.”

“Oh, let them try,” she warned, renewing the grin on his face. “Catch you later?”

“Stuff,” he confirmed, like they’d just instigated a new shorthand.

“Stuff,” she agreed. “Love you.”

“Love you,” he echoed before they hung up.

Sitting and watching as his screen turned black again, Lucas had to smile as a thought came to him. He had thought about how he did sort of wish that she was here with them tonight, instead of out there, and just as soon, he imagined what that would be like. Maybe the other guys wouldn’t want her here the way he did. It wasn’t that she would ‘break the guys’ night mood,’ more that she would crush every last one of them. No lies, Maya was a beast in disguise when they’d put the controls in her hands.

As much as he would have enjoyed watching her royally own every last one of them, the prospect of her getting to have this night with the other girls, of putting her mind completely at ease and thinking of nothing else was really all he could hope for her to get. This semester had been the most taxing on her, he knew, and not even so much for the actual academic parts.

“Found him!” a voice startled Lucas and he looked around to find Colton’s small round face staring back at him through the door’s windowpanes. The boy opened the door and poked his head out. “Hey, everyone’s been wondering where you went,” he pointed back into the house.

“Yeah, sorry, got a phone call,” he held up his phone. It wasn’t even like he was lying. Maya _had_ been the one to call him. Going by the fact that they’d finally noticed he was gone though, it had to mean that the arguing had ended, and they were ready to get started, so he got up and headed back inside along with Colton. “So, you guys all picked?”

“Yep,” Colton nodded.

“And everyone’s satisfied?”

“No,” he snorted.

“Great,” Lucas sighed.

“It’ll be fine… I think. I’ve seen worse, but it’s different when your opponent is a friend.” Which was to say, there were more odds working for them to end up forgetting it all and moving forward. That was all they could ask for.

Back at the restaurant, Maya treated herself to a couple more gummy bears before willing the bag to the bottom of her purse, so not to leave it in full evidence on the top of her other belongings, like a newb. Heading for the door though, she stopped again, thinking of the fact that she probably had pineapple sugar breath going right now, and some people who would remain nameless (but would become big sister to a new brother any day now) were like bloodhounds when it came to candy.

“Isn’t this my day off, yes, I know,” she waved to Fidelio as she cut into the kitchen. “Do me a favor?” she asked the man.

“What do you need?” he smirked conspiratorially.

“Chocolate breath,” Maya nodded. He gave her a look like she’d lost him. “I need to… reassert my post-dessert scent,” she explained, knowing how ridiculous this sounded. Fidelio looked at her, sniffed.

“Pineapple candy?” he guessed.

“Close enough. Please?” she looked over her shoulder like she’d find one of the others standing there any second. After a moment, Fidelio went to one of the fridges and returned with a small brownie. “That’ll do,” she ate it up in two bites. He already had a glass of water waiting. “I owe you one,” she told him between sips.

“Portraits at my kid’s birthday?”

“Done,” she set the glass on the counter and gave a toothy smile.

“All clear.” Tapping him on the arm, she made her way out toward the entrance, finding a group of relatively eased girls, despite having been kept waiting several minutes.

“Hey…” Maya breathed.

“Find what you were looking for?” Franny asked.

“What? I mean no… I must have left it at home after all. Let’s go.” They were all ready to go, so they didn’t have to be told twice. As they fell in step with one another though, Maya could see something like suspicion in her oldest friend. Could she still tell?

“How are things back home?” Riley finally asked, and Maya blinked, realizing what the suspicion had really been about. Maya was more than happy to ‘confess’ if it meant she got to hold on to her hidden stash of gummy bears.

“They were arguing over what game they’d play, which one was best and all that. Lucas was more curious to see which one of them would overdo it on the snacks.”

“Oh, Dylan…” Riley mumbled under her breath, clearly sharing in their confidence as to who would be the unlucky one at the end of the night. Maya bit back a laugh.

They boarded a second bus, this one taking them to their main destination for the night. As they rolled on, Maya pulled out her phone when it gave off a bell.

_Lucas: By the way, I’m calling dibs on your last dance of the night._

She couldn’t hold in that smile if she tried. Willow leaned in to look, sitting at her side. Catching sight of Lucas’ message, she grinned, fanning herself dramatically, which both got Maya laughing and caught the other girls’ curiosity. They’d just have to keep on being curious, as far as she was concerned. Some things, like baby secrets, deserved to be kept. Now she and Willow were sort of even.

TO BE CONTINUED


	244. Their Night With Games

The guys’ game night had finally gotten off to a great start, only to be brought to a halt an hour or so later, when they lost their connection with the group back in New York and ended up pausing until they could get them back.

“You alright there?” Bishop asked Dylan, who kept looking at the bowls and bags on the coffee table like he was making plans, or possibly attempting to resist.

“I’m good, I’m good,” he promised without looking away.

“You calling Willow?” Lucas asked Lion, in translation for Will, who’d seen him pull out his phone.

“No, I’m calling my other girl,” Lion smiled as he was dialing. When someone answered, he stood up to move over and sit on the steps leading to the second floor. “Hey, Scotty, how’s she doing? Is she sleeping? Put me on speaker. Hey, Zozo…”

Lucas smiled, turning back to where Joseph and Colton were attempting to find a way to get the guys in New York back. Seeing Lion with his daughter, even just hearing him talk to her or about her, one could only see how much he loved that little girl. He would just soften right up when it came to her, which wasn’t to say he was hard at other times. Lion was always a relaxed kind of guy, but when you added Zola into the mix, it was like… she made things even more right for him.

It always just took him back to this thought of how they were all coming up in the world, in their lives. After spending all this time dreaming and wondering about their future, once they were grown, now they were living it, or getting near enough to it that they could just feel it approaching, could almost touch it if they reached out for it. Lucas couldn’t speak for the others, but he certainly saw it, felt it.

His mother would break out the story every now and again, and Lucas couldn’t help but be amused, seeing how she presented it as such a funny, adorably childlike moment, when _he_ remembered the actual moment very well, and he also remembered her to have been a bit more… vocal. But he’d been seven years old, and he’d been out playing with Zay, and Asher, and Dylan, when the four of them boys had come across a raccoon who’d gotten one of his legs stuck in a fence. The little thing had been weakened, surely, or he might have resisted the touch of human hands in that instant. Either way, Lucas had convinced his friends to help him free the animal, after which he’d carried it all the way back home. His mom and dad would know what to do, wouldn’t they?

His mother had taken one look at the little guy and screamed her head off, telling Lucas to ‘Put it down, put it down! Not in here, outside!’ When his father had come down to see what all the shouting was about, he’d taken in the scene and, resisting the urge to laugh at his wife’s panic, he’d told Lucas to follow him. They’d driven over to a veterinary clinic, where someone could get a look at Lefty. He’d named him, of course. He’d also insisted on being there to see that he was taken care of. He didn’t want people to just toss him away.

He’d visited the animal as long as he’d been recovering. Eventually, they’d found a good place for old Lefty, as Tom Friar would later say, because it was either that or Lucas would have insisted on bringing him home to stay, and Melinda would not have that.

That had been the spark of it though, his desire to see to the care and well being of animals, and even though he still had a way to go, to see that dream reach completion, he was closer every day, studying to get himself to that next step, working at the clinic with his aunt… And there were those other dreams, of course, the ones that sort of snuck up on you, hard to describe at first, until you suddenly realized you’d been building upon them for a time already. Like making a family, a home, and knowing who you wanted to make it with… He knew all that now, and he only needed to make it happen… That one was coming along with more clarity by the day.

The guys were treated to Lion’s rendition of Zola’s favorite lullaby, which finally got the one-year-old to sleep. After he’d hung up with his brother, Lion returned to them and was greeted with applause, which he received with a casual bow of the head.

“I am taking these away from you, and you will thank me,” he took up the bag of gummy worms Dylan had been working through for a while before dropping back on the couch.

“How’s it going over there?” Lucas asked the two huddled around the computer.

“They’re not back yet, it’s on their end so there’s nothing we can do except keep waiting or keep playing without them,” Joseph shrugged. The guys looked to one another. They _could_ just go on without them, sure, but it wouldn’t have felt right. On that, at least, they were in agreement. Dylan was getting updated by Asher on his phone, and all they had for now was frustration out of New York.

_“What do we do now?”_ Will asked.

“We could go back outside,” Joseph shrugged.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Bishop nodded to Dylan, and they had to agree that maybe it wouldn’t be the best idea to go and… jostle him too much right now.

They ended up at the kitchen table, with cards dealt out and chips and candy as means of wager. For a while, the conversation revolved mostly around giving pointers to those of them less familiar with the game, though they caught on pretty quick.

Lucas sat next to Will, as a sort of interpreter for him, and at one time he was called up to ask a question to Colton, sitting across from them.

“Will wants to know if you went to school with a girl called… Angelique?” he frowned, as he waited out the spelling. Will nodded, then added, “Called herself Angel?” Another nod.

“I did, yeah,” Colton replied hesitantly.

“He says that’s his younger sister, that he remembers when you two played on the basketball team together, and he wasn’t sure if it was you.” Lucas knew, through the odd conversation here and there, that Will’s parents had divorced when he and his brother were little, that his father had moved to Houston and gotten remarried, and part of the reason why he and his brother both had come to study here was to be close to their younger half-siblings, of which there were three.

“Yeah, I sort of remember you, too, now,” Colton admitted. “How’s Angel?”

“He says she’s good, that she’s in school in Chicago,” Lucas translated.

“You two were friends?” Joseph asked Colton.

“Teammates, mostly,” Colton explained. He looked just a bit uncomfortable, though at the same time he didn’t back away or try to change the subject. “She was actually really good to me, when I started to present myself as Colton, as me, the whole girls’ team was.”

Something about the way he said this made it plain enough that the same could not be said about the boys’ team, and maybe this had something to do with why he’d ended up pulling back from the game. Whether or not that was the case, whatever had happened there, it was as far as Colton’s story went for now, and they didn’t push him to say more than he was willing to say.

“When you talk to her next, could you maybe pass on my e-mail?” Colton asked Will. “It’d be nice to talk to her again.” Will nodded and smiled. He’d be happy to.

“Excuse me,” Dylan got up from the table a few minutes later.

“It’s your turn!” Joseph called after him.

“I’m out,” Dylan waved it off. He went down into the basement, shutting the door behind himself. As the seconds ticked by, the other six looked to one another, like they all knew what was about to come, and now all they had left was the wait for… it.

“Maybe we should put on some music, I don’t want to hear…” Bishop shook his head in apprehension, but it was too late.

“Rematch?” Lion dropped his cards, leading a mass exodus out of the house and back to the hoop and the ball.

“I should go check on him,” Lucas volunteered himself. This was one of his oldest friends, his roommate, and even if he wasn’t, this was his house and he was his parents’ son in this, not just his mother’s.

Grabbing what was needed from the kitchen to help settle things downstairs, Lucas made his way along to find Dylan, just in time for round two. He cringed and looked away. Friend or not, he didn’t need to see that. When it was over, he held out a can and Dylan took it.

“Too much?” he asked.

“Not the worst thing you could have had in excess, but still not the best, I guess,” Lucas offered. Dylan groaned.

“Fully admit I brought this on myself,” he raised a hand.

By the time they returned upstairs, the others were still outside throwing the ball around. Lucas didn’t know who’d either convinced him or led him to change his mind, but there was Colton playing with the rest of them, and it was like some retired star coming out of retirement, showing exactly why they’d earned their renown.

“Hey, hope you don’t mind, we answered your phone,” Joseph told Dylan. “Asher was calling. He said they wouldn’t be able to fix the connection tonight, that we should go on ahead without the rest of them and that they owed us a rematch.”

Their guys’ night was shaping up to be a bit of a round of ups and downs, so that the whole thing wasn’t a complete failure, but it wasn’t anywhere near what they might call great either. They ended up staying outside, playing without playing, some of them sitting around and talking again as they’d done around the table earlier. It took next to no time for another debate to rear up, this time over movies and which ones had the best of this sort of scene or that kind of character… Lucas couldn’t say what was funniest, the arguments or the rebuttals. Either way, it carried the remainder of their time together that night.

“We need to do this again sometime,” Lucas told his cousin as the two of them sat and watched while Dylan went and took his turn with the ball. He looked a lot better now than he’d done a little while ago, but then he had it in him to be the king of the bounce backs, didn’t he?

“What about after you move back to Austin after next year?” Joseph asked. He knew, of course. Neither Lucas nor Maya made it a secret that their days in Houston were numbered.

“It’s only two hours away, and you’ll be welcome anytime,” Lucas reminded him.

“In Pappy Joe’s old house,” Joseph added. Lucas nodded, smiling. “I’ve never actually been there, I know, but my dad told me all these stories, sometimes it feels like I know it as well as my own house. Pappy Joe tells us stories, too.”

“We’ll all get to make up for lost time,” Lucas declared, looking to his friends as they tossed the ball around. “Right now, we just need to make sure Dylan doesn’t add a busted nose to his list of hits tonight,” he cringed, after the ball had just about clipped his face. “You okay?” he called out. Dylan gave thumbs up. All good, ready to carry on.

TO BE CONTINUED


	245. Their Night With Dances

“I don’t see why I need this. I wouldn’t even _want_ to drink in the first place,” Rosa complained as she followed the others, staring at the stamp on her hand.

“You think that’s bad? They see me coming and think they either missed me at the door or I somehow cleaned my stamp off,” Maya chuckled.

“That’s just discrimination against short people,” Rosa found her smile again.

“Here, give me your hand,” Maya reached into her bag.

“What are you going to do?” Rosa hesitated, not wanting to get any of them in trouble. Maya produced a pen, which she used to ‘improve’ on the stamp, surrounding it with a design that came off like Rosa had herself a hand tattoo.

“What do you think? Can you live with that for a couple of hours?”

“I think I can do that, yeah… Thanks,” Rosa laughed, and they carried on, to find the others who’d gone on ahead.

“There you are!” Franny almost had to shout over the music. “Where’d you go?” Rosa showed her hand.

“Oh, that’s nice, can you do mine, too?” Leigh stepped up at once. Maya grinned, whipping out her pen a second time.

“Any requests?”

By the time Maya finished Leigh’s stamp design, about half their group had already scampered off to the dance floor because they’d heard a song they loved. Leigh joined them, dragging Rosa along, and little by little it came to be that the only ones left, around the corner tables where they’d gathered, were Maya and Willow.

“You coming?” Maya asked.

“I told the others I turned my ankle out a bit earlier and it hurt too much to go,” Willow confessed. “I’ll just stay here and watch everyone’s things, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?” Maya asked, stepping closer so they wouldn’t have to talk so loud in order to hear one another. “Are you not feeling okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Willow reassured her. “That’s kind of the thing, I want to stay that way, you know? I don’t want to overdo it.” She was scared of having the same thing happen in the end, and Maya understood it, without her having to say a word. Still, it seemed kind of excessive to just not dance at all, didn’t it? It was her choice though, and they could only respect it.

“Alright, but I’ll tell you what. You, Willow Regan, are my date tonight,” Maya declared, which made her friend and bandmate laugh. “Which means your very plain drinks are on me, _and_ I’m getting your butt on the dancefloor if they throw us any song that’s not too strenuous on your baby cooking body, deal?”

“Such a charmer,” Willow just smiled, nodding in agreement.

“That’s what I get for living in Texas all those years,” Maya sighed, handing her bag over and taking a moment to hug her ‘date’ and kiss her cheek, before heading off to join the others, after a pitstop at the bar to order something to be sent over to the table.

“Maya!” Riley cheered when she saw her coming. She snatched up her hand and spun her around before she could get into the rhythm of the music blasting all around them.

“I was only a couple minutes,” Maya laughed at the heightened giddiness of her oldest friend. There were twelve of them on the dancefloor now that Willow had essentially bowed out, and they stuck fairly close to one another the whole time, a block always ready to switch and reconfigure, or to ward off any unwanted attention.

It was very easy to get lost in this spirit, and Maya certainly didn’t need to be coaxed into it. The last few months, juggling everything had felt particularly treacherous, when her father’s situation made things feel like her hands were on fire. But being here, tonight, with her friends, her hands were free, and they did not burn. Instead, they followed the rhythm of the music and of the dance, along with the rest of her, and it was all she could have asked for.

“How’s your ankle?” Sophie asked, as a few of them returned to the tables for a break after a quick stop over at the bar. Willow was still nursing the drink Maya had sent her way earlier, as though it was something more than what it really was. “Maybe we can get you some ice.”

“Oh, no, I’m good, don’t worry about it,” Willow insisted. Maya couldn’t help but give her a look, shaking her head just a bit. If she hadn’t known the real reason for her sitting out the night, she would never have bought the excuse. The future Nurse Regan was not really selling her story all that convincingly, but then none of the others seemed to notice, thanks to the ambiance of the place, or the effects of a couple of drinks starting to take hold.

“I am going to take your phone if you keep looking at it like that,” Chiara told Riley, after she’d taken it out of her bag for the third time in less than two minutes.

“It’s not about Dylan, I swear, I just want to make sure my family can reach me if my mom goes into labor,” Riley protested.

“Fine, then give it to Willow, she will look,” Chiara challenged, holding Riley’s gaze as she presented her hand. Riley hesitated, looking around the table.

“Fine,” she echoed with a sigh, placing her phone in front of their benched friend. “But you will tell me if they call, right?”

“Of course,” Willow promised.

Soon, a challenge came to the mom-to-be’s sitting plan, as the girls of the ‘coven’ heard the first notes of the next song to play and recognized it at once. They all went wide-eyed as they realized what was happening, looking around to find all those people out on the dancefloor now dancing along to a TXNY song.

“No way?” Maya gasped, looking to Willow and Riley, who were just as shocked as she was. A few seconds later, the rest of the group came back to find them, Rosa and Kayla ahead of the others and eager to freak out with their bandmates.

_“I recognized the beat the same time she did,”_ Kayla announced with a laugh.

“I told you the guy up there recognized us,” Rosa pointed out.

“They look like they’re enjoying it,” Leona nodded to the dancefloor.

“What do we do, are we supposed to acknowledge it or something?” Riley wondered.

“What we do is we go and dance,” Maya insisted. “It’s only fair,” she added, turning a look to Willow, holding out her hand as though to say ‘may I have this dance’ to her date of the night. Willow chuckled and took it.

“I’ll do my best,” she nodded.

Leona volunteered herself to stay back at the tables with their things, and the others went out. Maya couldn’t explain what it felt like to be out here, dancing to the sound of her own voice magnified through the vast room. She’d grabbed her phone from her bag before they left the tables, had to capture the moment, if for no one else but for herself and her bandmates near and far. It would make the rounds, of course, with their friends, with their families… She would send it off to Kermit back in New York, too, and all she could think was that it would make him smile, which made _her_ smile.

It might have been the moment where she wished Lucas was there with them the most. She could just imagine the look on his face. He was never shy about displaying his pride for his girlfriend, that Huckleberry of hers. She had half a mind to try and coax him out of guys’ night so he’d come out here and dance with her a while, but that wasn’t going to happen, not really. He deserved his night as much as she did hers. If she was stressed all the time over her Kermit things, then he wouldn’t be spared some of his own stress either, would he?

“So, what’s it like having a boyfriend who’s still in high school?” Willow asked Leigh when they’d returned to the tables after the band’s song and then another. There were a few chuckles at this question, though even Leigh had to smirk. They’d been going out with Joseph for a little while now, and it was easy, for the rest of the group at least, to forget that they had two years between the two of them, but then there it was.

“It… makes you wonder sometimes, what you can or can’t say or do, I guess,” Leigh shrugged casually. This only brought some intrigued looks from the others.

“Have you two…” Franny was the first to dare and ask. The girls turned from Franny and back to Leigh, who was displaying a superb bit of a poker face as they took in all those eyes trained on them.

“Not exactly,” they finally said, which only left the rest of the group blinking.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Rosa asked.

“It means what it means and that’s as far as your noses are going to get,” Leigh stated, and the others had no choice but to accept this.

“Come on, I love this one!” Catriona King hopped off her stool and grabbed Franny’s hand, dragging her back to the dancefloor. Within seconds, they started to get up to follow the two of them out there, leaving Willow once again guarding their bags and watching over Riley’s phone on Brother Watch 2024, accompanied by a new drink and free rein over the gummy bears at the bottom of Maya’s bag.

Maya couldn’t share her curiosities over how the New York girls’ night might have been going, not without stating that she had called Lucas back at the restaurant, and she wasn’t about to do that. But she liked the thought that Nadine, Isadora, and Rebecca were out there, having some fun of their own. Alright, so with the time difference she doubted that it was still going on, but it _had_ happened, and knowing that she and the others had played a part in making it happen, in getting Zay and Nadine to drop everything and head for New York at a moment’s notice…

She knew that Lucas missed having those two nearby. He didn’t even need to mention it in so many words, she’d just catch this look on his face sometimes, when they’d mention their faraway friends, or they’d hang up after a call… Of course, there was something she knew, and he didn’t at the moment, and it would remain this way for a while still, if not longer if it didn’t pan out.

Nadine was waiting to hear back about a position that would take her studies back Texas side, not that coming fall but the year after. If she didn’t get it, she’d either be staying in Boston, or she’d be headed somewhere else, her and Zay together of course. Nadine was fairly confident that she’d get it, but then that was Nadine, she had confidence in spades. Then again, that confidence was earned where she was concerned.

She wasn’t technically supposed to know… again. Same as with Willow and her new pregnancy, she’d just happened to be in the right place at the right time, or in this case she had been online, one night, mid marathon with Kermit, and when Nadine had seen that she was there, she had started writing her, laying out this possibility which had presented itself to her, how much she would like it if they could make it happen, but also how nervous she was at the prospect that she would not get it, so should she even apply? They’d talked it all out, and in the end, Nadine had decided to go for it, under the condition that Maya not say a word to anyone until she knew one way or the other. She especially didn’t want it to get back to her family, who were really hoping to see her come back closer to them. So, Maya had promised.

“Hey, Riley? Riley!” Sophie moved back to where Riley and Maya had been dancing together and pointed past them. Both girls turned as one and saw what Sophie was trying to get them to see. Willow was attempting to get their attention from back at the tables, waving a phone around and hopping about, giving no more care to the fact that she was supposed to have hurt her ankle than to the chance that the others noticed it.

“Oh!” Riley was off at once, Maya on her heel, Sophie on hers, and little by little the group attached itself to the rush on its way back to the tables. “Dad?” she asked as they got to where Willow had scurried to bridge the gap.

“No,” she barely took the time to tell her before turning to look at Maya and hold out what they both realized was not Riley’s phone but Maya’s. The screen was alight with a call in progress, and they could both see a bespectacled boy’s face as the ID, his name, marked just above, entered in his less preferred nickname. _Sammy._

Understanding connected like a fist to the gut before she even managed to reach out and bring the phone to her ear. Something had happened, something had changed…

“Sam?” she managed to ask with a steady enough voice.

Her little brother’s voice wasn’t so steady, which only willed hers to keep strong. Through it though, she managed to understand that Kermit had been rushed into the hospital that afternoon, and now they had been met with his doctor, who told them essentially that he wouldn’t leave there again, that he might not have more than a day or two left, and then… _And then…_

“Sam, listen, keep your phone close, I’ll call you back in a few minutes, okay? Hey… I love you, Sammy, hug the others for me? Good, talk to you soon.”

As soon as she hung up, she was walking toward the exit. She had no thoughts, no plans, except one: she needed to get out of here, she needed to get out where there was air, where she could breathe… She couldn’t breathe… She couldn’t…

The night air hit her like a wall, and it was a wonder she didn’t throw up. All she knew was that a moment later there were arms around her, and voices, and she couldn’t make out any of them except to know that Riley had her… Riley would always have her… Then one voice, one she recognized almost only for what it offered her. Sophie… Air Zvolensky. Say the word, and she’d get her on a plane bound for New York, for her family.

Lucas… Her one clear thought right then was that she needed Lucas with her…

TO BE CONTINUED


	246. Her Loss of Time

The rest of the guys had gone, leaving only Lucas and Dylan to wait for the return of the girls. They were still sitting out front, enjoying the night air, the stars, the absence of the pervasive smell of sugar, and salt, and other snack things that might tempt either of them when they should really stay away from them.

“Cab!” Dylan pointed up the street, and Lucas turned to look. They both sat in wait as the car pulled up to the curb. The driver turned on the lights inside now, probably to enable whoever was paying to be able to fish out what money they owed him. As the inside was illuminated, the guys could just see what seemed to be Riley, Rosa, Sophie, and Chiara, all of them packed in the back, while Maya had the front passenger seat to herself.

Lucas couldn’t explain what it was about the scene that gave him this feeling, but soon he was left with this thought like something was off. The back door opened, and the four girls there climbed out one after the other, looking less like people who’d been out having a good time and more like women on a mission. Sophie and Chiara dashed right by and into the house without saying a word, while Riley went to get the passenger door open and Rosa walked up to the guys.

“What’s going on?” Lucas asked.

“Maya’s brother Sam called while we were out there,” Rosa explained, arms crossed before herself as she took a look back to see that Maya was now out of the car and the driver was pulling away. “Their father’s in the hospital, he… He doesn’t have much time left.”

She barely had to mention Sam that Lucas was already moving away from her and toward Maya. She looked up and, upon seeing him, she found her speed again, just enough to quicken her reach to him, to get herself in his arms.

“Going to New York,” she told him.

“We are,” he nodded. She never had to ask.

Inside, they found Sophie and Chiara had already helped themselves to Maya and Lucas’ suitcases and started packing in clothes, giving it as much mind as they did when it was their turn with the laundry. When they came into the room, they gathered those other items their roommates would not know to pack, so that within ten minutes of the cab pulling up to the house, they were ready to get into Sophie’s car and head to the airport.

The flight had already been booked in the time it had taken for the cab to arrive to pick them up and then to bring the girls to the house. The flight wasn’t actually taking off for a few hours, the best they could arrange at this time, but it didn’t matter. She needed to be out there, needed to be on her way. She couldn’t have just sat around the house even if she’d tried. She hadn’t said a word since ‘going to New York.’

“I’d go with you, you know that?” Riley hugged her before she and the others would leave the pair of them at the airport.

“I know,” Maya spoke quietly. She’d never force her friend to come and watch a death and miss a birth at the same time. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not,” Riley cried, giving her one last good squeeze before letting go.

When it was finally just the two of them, sitting in wait of boarding, Lucas could only hold Maya, rubbing at her back… There was nothing he could tell her that would change a thing, and if she wanted to talk, she would. After a while, he heard her open her bag and, after a bit of digging, the crinkling sound of plastic brought up the hidden bag of gummy bears. She reached in, snatched up a single one and started gnawing at it before holding up the bag for him to serve himself.

The sun was not up yet when they finally got on the small plane that would carry them from Houston to New York. As they took off, it got to feel as though Maya was finally coming to herself again, like all she’d needed was to know that she was off the ground and headed toward her brothers and sisters, toward her father…

“Oh… I didn’t… I should have called my mother, I…” she shook her head to herself, reaching into her bag in a sudden frenzy.

“I wrote to her,” Lucas cut in. She looked up.

“When?”

“While we were waiting to board,” he revealed. She blinked. How had she missed that? She’d been sitting right next to him.

“What did she say?” Maya asked. Lucas took his phone from his pocket and held it out to her.

_Lucas: Maya and I are at the airport right now. She got a call while she was out tonight from Sam in New York. Kermit is in the hospital and he doesn’t have much time left. Maya is not saying much at the moment, but I know she’d want to let you know._

_Katy: Thank you for letting me know. I will try my best to meet you two in New York as soon as possible. Tell Maya I love her and to call me when she feels able. Keep me posted._

“She’s coming…” Maya breathed. Her chest felt tight and loose at the same time, as impossible as that sounded. She looked back up to Lucas. She didn’t know what to say, what could she say? Not just to him but… Sam, Cara, Eliza… little Wyatt… Their faces were so clear in her head, and seeing them there, her head felt heavy again. She started to cry, not quiet, errant tears, but solid, full-body sobs, like her brain knew one thing in all this and it was that she needed to get this out of her system before she reached her siblings.

The benefits of having a friend who could hook them up with a private plane, besides the fact that they were even on this flight, making a beeline for where they needed to be, was this barrier of privacy it afforded them. They were free to move about, and he took full use of that freedom, moving to where he could hold her through it all, as long as it’d take. Their one attendant, hearing her no doubt, came into view, standing there like she didn’t know what to do. Lucas just managed to catch her and gesture with one hand. _It’s alright, I’ve got her._

“All I can think is… I’m not ready,” Maya spoke in a still quavering, tired voice, when she finally got some hold back. “It feels like such a… He’s out there dying, maybe in pain, and I don’t want him to go…”

“That’s normal though,” he promised. She just shook her head.

“It’s too much… there’s… too much…”

“I know…”

“No,” she looked back up, the word coming sharp, surprising him, then her, and she whimpered, leaning her head to his chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

“No, don’t worry about it. I’m the one who should be sorry, I just…”

“Don’t know what to say either?” she guessed.

“Pretty much,” he nodded, arms closing around her. “But if you want to try, I’ll listen.” After a few moments, she sat back. She looked out the window for a few seconds, to the morning skies around them. She didn’t even know how far they’d gotten or how close they were getting.

“I don’t know what I’m feeling anymore. There’s too many of them and none of them feel like they should function anywhere close to each other.” He said nothing, waited. She looked back at him, letting out another breath. “I… love him. And getting that back, really, truly loving him like a father, after so long… I never thought I’d get that, even if… now it means that I get to lose him and really… _really_ feel the pain of it,” her hand hovered about her heart.

But still…

“Then there’s the anger… It’s old, and nasty, and I thought I’d never feel it again, but it’s like it was hiding all this time, waiting to jump back out like ‘No, but remember, he left you. He left you and he went to be somebody else’s dad, many times over. He let you down, so many times, and you went and let him back in to hurt you again, not the same way, but pain’s pain, isn’t it?’ And I don’t want to feel that, because it’s like I’m putting this thing on him, but also on Sam and the others, and it’s not… But here I am, and I had him first, and I lost all this time, and they had him when I couldn’t, and now that I have him back…”

It was so selfish, she knew, but she didn’t know how else to be, did she? This was it. He would be gone soon… What if they didn’t even make it in time and he was already gone…

“I need to change,” she finally stopped and got a look at herself, still in her girls’ night get up. She didn’t even want to think what her face must have looked like right now. “You should try and get some sleep,” she told Lucas, who had to be as exhausted as she was.

“You sure?” he asked. He couldn’t act like he hadn’t been thinking about it, much as he tried to keep steady on.

“Hate to break it to you, Superman, you’re actually human,” she stood from her seat.

“That explains a lot, actually,” he looked up to her as she leaned in to kiss him.

Sophie had packed her backpack with a change of clothes and a few other items she’d rightly guessed she’d need on the way. Stepping into the small bathroom, Maya got a look at herself, face puffy and overrun with ruined makeup… She let out a breath and set about cleaning her face. There really was no point in reapplying anything. Her hair was reset into a quick ponytail before the dress and heels went away in favor of a sweater and jeans and some running shoes.

Walking out of the bathroom, she found Lucas had put his seat in the reclined position and soundly fallen asleep. Save for the sounds of the plane, everything was quiet as she sat next to him, pushing her own seat back until she could turn her head and be looking at his face. She reached over to carefully take his hand without waking him. Now that she had this, she tried to close her eyes, to let sleep go ahead and come for her. It came a lot faster than she thought it would, but sometimes it just got to be that exhaustion couldn’t be denied anymore, and this was one of those times.

They were awakened by their attendant to learn that they had just landed in New York. There was a car waiting to get them where they needed to be. Right then, they weren’t worrying too much about the luggage they had along with them. There was only one place they would be going now, and it was the hospital. As they rode on, Maya wrote to her mother to tell her they’d landed and that she couldn’t wait to see her. Lucas wrote to his father, realizing _he_ had never gotten in touch to let his parents know about their unexpected trip. He also put in a message to Zay. He and Nadine might still be here, they could rally the others. If there was ever a time for strength in numbers…

TO BE CONTINUED


	247. Her Loss of Innocence

“Do you want me to hang back until you talk to them?” Lucas asked as they walked through the hospital doors. He had taken up the two suitcases and the backpack after they’d gotten out of the car, and he followed her now in a way that said plainly she was calling the shots from here on out.

“No, come on,” Maya insisted, leading him toward the elevators. She’d texted Sam from the car, as they were getting close, and he’d told her what floor they were on and how to get there.

They stood in silence as the elevator rode up from the ground floor to the fifth. They were so close now. Everything would change as soon as they stepped out again. They’d travelled all this way, sure, but they hadn’t made it yet. Third floor, fourth… _ding._

The doors opened, and there stood Sam. At fourteen, he was hardly the boy of ten she’d first met that night in the school gym. He was taller than her, to no one’s surprise, but more than anything he was really growing more and more into his own person. The moment he saw his big sister step out of that elevator though, he might as well still have been ten. He’d been trying so hard to be strong since the previous day, she could see it, and now he was ready to let go, because she was here.

“Hey, Sammy,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around him. “Have you guys been here all night?”

“We just got in,” he shook his head. “Mom wanted to leave El and Wyatt with a sitter, but then she changed her mind, in case…” _In case it kept them from saying their goodbyes._ “They’re all over there,” he pointed and led the way. They walked down the hall and around a corner, and in the next moment…

“Maya!” Wyatt called out when he spotted her. He’d been sitting in Cara’s lap in a chair in the hall, but now he jumped off and came running until she could reach out and pull him into her arms. He was five now, the same age Eliza had been when she’d met the four of them, and he was as lively on most days as she’d been back then. Today though, it wasn’t liveliness in his eyes but sort of… relief. Like Sam, her arrival came like a comfort, and she wasn’t about to forget it. Her little brother held her tight in those small arms of his, and she tried to absorb as much of his distress as she could.

_What do I say?_ Nothing really worked did it? ‘How are you?’ Not well. ‘I’m so happy to see you.’ As though this was a great occasion. ‘What have you been up to?’ They were in a hospital, and their father was on his last hours in a nearby room.

“I’m hungry,” Wyatt told her when they pulled back and she could see his face again. She could have laughed.

“You are?” He nodded. “You know what though, I’m starving, so how about, after I say hi to everyone, we go down to the cafeteria?” That sounded good to him. “Good,” Maya set him down on his feet. He stuck to her heels like a shadow.

All the while, as she’d been greeted by Wyatt, Maya could see Cara, still sitting in that chair, looking through an open door across the hall, which she had to guess was their father’s room. At twelve years old, Cara continued to look like a very near approximation of what Maya had once looked like at that age, though the more she grew, it did get to feel like those similarities started to deviate a bit. She had all those things that came from Kermit, the ones Maya herself didn’t have. Right now, though, the dominant trait she had was something almost empty. She was trying to be so brave, so strong, same as Sam, but she struggled more than he did in hiding everything underneath.

When she sensed Maya’s approach though, she stood up and buried herself in her big sister’s arms. Each sibling she’d found here today had led to a hug, and each of these had spoken volumes without saying a word. Sam’s was about letting a mask fall away, Wyatt’s was riddled in confusion… Cara’s felt like the embodiment of someone perilously on the edge. She knew the drop was coming, and there was nothing to be done for it but to wait for the floor to disappear from beneath her feet.

“I didn’t think you would be here,” she spoke in a small voice.

“Where else would I be?” Maya asked, gently brushing through the girl’s blond hair with her fingers.

She turned her head, looking to Lucas for a moment and finding he currently had Wyatt up in his arms. Looking around again, allowing herself to look through the open door and into the room, she saw the bed, with one tall figure lying beneath the covers pulled up to his chest, and a smaller one curled up at his side, holding to his arm. _Eliza_. She was nine now, somewhere in the middle of the ages her two next older siblings had been when they’d met their oldest sister, but to Maya it was hard not to still see that little five-year-old girl who’d been so thrilled to meet her.

They could just barely hear Abigail’s voice, as she sat in that room, too, talking on the phone as far as they could tell. On the whole, everything about that room made Maya feel like it wasn’t the time to go in. So, instead, she decided it was time to do something about the fact that she’d eaten nothing but gummy bears since the previous night’s dinner at Isabel’s… _Last night… How was that last night?_

Sam took up the task to go in and inform his mother that Maya and Lucas had arrived and that they were going down to the cafeteria for a bit. After a moment, he went to the bed and coaxed Eliza into getting up and following him, on Abigail’s suggestion. The girl looked lost in another world, still half asleep from her impromptu nap. When she spotted Maya, she made a little noise of surprise before getting to walk a little faster and closing her arms around her waist.

“Hey, Lizard,” Maya scooped her up into her arms. Eliza gladly locked her arms and legs around her, tucking her head in her sister’s shoulder. “You hungry?” She shook her head. “That’s alright, you just hang with us, yeah?” She nodded.

The six of them took off back toward the elevator after Sam had taken their luggage and pushed everything into a corner of Kermit’s room. They found the cafeteria, loading up a trio of trays before finding a table. Eliza had fallen asleep once again, so Maya just kept her sitting there in her lap, holding her with one arm and eating with her other hand. Lucas sat across from her, Wyatt in _his_ lap, though wide awake and ready to devour. Sam and Cara sat across from one another, completing the square.

No one spoke for a while. Sam and Cara both just sort of absently picked at their food, while Wyatt was very invested in his, and Maya and Lucas both took this moment to stop their heads spinning after the quick transition from their night with friends, to a rush to the airport, and a wait, and a flight, and a ride, and then this confrontation with four more children trying to cope in their own ways.

“Are you going to stay after?” Sam slowly asked. Maya froze. Cara stared up at her brother like she was ready to toss her milk carton at him.

“I…” Maya hesitated. “I haven’t... _We_ haven’t figured anything out,” she explained, stealing a look toward Lucas. Now that it had been brought up, they had to admit they hadn’t considered any of this. They had class on Monday. They were both working tomo… tonight. It was Sunday now, and Lucas was already supposed to be at the bookstore, though by now Rosa must have advised her mother on what had happened the night before. Possibly, Lion and Leona would say something to Isabel. But then what? And the rest… They’d have to find time to make some calls, send a couple e-mails… “We don’t need to worry about that right now, okay?”

“Okay,” Sam bowed his head. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Maya promised. There was a sniffle, and when she turned her head, she found that Cara was trying to keep from crying. Maya was pinned to her chair by the sleeping Eliza. The best she could do was to set her fork down and reach for her other sister’s hand. Across from her, Wyatt was looking around at all his sisters and his brother, and he looked like he was about to break down, too, if only because he sensed everyone’s emotions and they unsettled him.

None of them really felt all that hungry anymore. They got hold of a small box to pack up what they could bring back up with them, in case the hunger returned to them, and they left the cafeteria, starting back for the fifth floor. Abigail was still on the phone, though she was now pacing along the hallway outside her husband’s room as she spoke. She had a small notebook in one hand, a pen in the other, and she’d write down something now and again. Cara found her seat once more, and soon Wyatt rejoined her, as they’d been when Maya and Lucas had arrived. Sam went into the room without a word.

“No, yes, thank you. You, too. Bye,” Abigail pulled her earbuds off and swiftly moved to embrace the pair she hadn’t managed to greet earlier. “Sorry, I meant to come and say hello before, but…”

“It’s alright,” Maya promised. Eliza started to wake in her arms now, and as she lifted her head and saw her mother, she held out her arms in a wordless request. A moment later, she had gone from one pair of arms to another. “Lots to do.”

“Yes,” Abigail breathed. Whatever she was feeling at the moment, she was showing none of it. But then she almost couldn’t, could she? That was her husband dying in there, her children slowly falling apart. If she came apart… No, she had things to do, and so long as she kept doing them… “If you want to go back to the house at any time and get a rest, I’m sure this has all been a lot at once…”

“We’re good,” Maya looked back to Lucas to make sure they were of one mind on this. He nodded. “We’re staying with you, unless you need anyone to get anything…”

“I might take you up on that, especially if you can find any decent coffee…” Abigail tried for something to lighten the mood, to middling success.

“I’ll go,” Lucas offered at once. “Two creams, no sugar?”

“You remembered,” Abigail nodded.

“He does that,” Maya smiled, waving to him as he marched back down the hall.

_Well, no more putting it off…_

“I… I should go in there,” she indicated the room. “How is he?”

“Sleeping on and off. Would rather be sleeping when he’s not,” Abigail described.

“Right…” Maya took a breath.

She walked up to the doorway. When she appeared there, Sam looked up from where he’d been standing at the foot of the bed and moved to exit.

“You don’t have to…” Maya insisted quietly.

“It’s okay. He’s been asking after you since I told him you were on your way,” Sam revealed. It sent her heart in a lurch, but she nodded, and she walked in.

TO BE CONTINUED


	248. Her Loss of Starts

She’d been in hospitals a number of times in the past few years. Save for the time where she herself, along with Lucas, had spent a night in the ER and subsequently required follow-up care after the accident on the evening of Sophie’s birthday party a few years back, those had mostly had to do with the birth of a sibling or a friend’s baby… Being here today though, stepping into this room, it just… It had never felt like _this_. It had never given her this sense of… of wrongness, of static, of… dread. Everything just felt a bit more real. The smells, the sounds… And her father, in that bed.

Maya couldn’t say for certain if he was awake or not, and in the event that he wasn’t, she did her best to keep from disrupting him. That was easier said than done when it felt like someone had stuck a microphone to her chest that made her heartbeat feel larger than life. She almost went ahead and pressed a hand over it like she would somehow mute it. She came to a stop, two steps away from him, and she just… stared.

It didn’t feel like him, the man in the bed. Their relationship wasn’t exactly one based on an unbroken connection, and somehow this made her think it shouldn’t hit her this way, but… He looked so small all of a sudden and she… she couldn’t cope. For a second or two, she considered turning on her heel and leaving the room again, but then… His eyes were open. They were open, and they were fixed on her. She took a breath and advanced two cautious steps forward.

“Morning,” she spoke quietly, at a loss for anything else to say. Realizing as much, she bowed her head, trying to rally her thoughts, her emotions. She looked up again when she felt something brush against her fingers, as her hand just sat there on the bed’s edge. Her father was reaching for her hand. At once, she allowed her palm to meet his, her fingers to curl over and hold on, not so tight. It was such a simple gesture, but now that it had been made… All the bells were going in her head again, and they just sounded like a dirge. This might well be it, the last time she got to see him, speak to him… _Not ready, not ready… Please…_

“I sh… I should… should have…” he spoke, and each word sounded like an effort. It was a wallop to the gut to hear it, and it set her eyes stinging and brimming with new tears.

“Shh, you don’t have to,” she shook her head. “I know, okay? I know.” _I should have been there._ That was what he was trying to say. She could see it in his eyes. She wasn’t the only one who wasn’t ready, after all this time…

It was all happening so fast. Night before last, Maya and the rest of the band were giving their big third show, and later at home she’d been talking with her father, they’d watched it together, talked into the early morning hours… Somewhere in the time that followed, while she’d been sleeping, while she’d gotten ready and gone out with her friends, everything had just fallen apart and here he was, barely able to speak anymore. And here _she_ was, with a working voice but no words.

“Maya…” he tried anyway. She sat on the edge of the bed, still holding his hand. “We… we finish… almost…” He looked frustrated, trying, and failing to express himself. She wanted to help him, too, but she didn’t understand. Finish, almost… almost finish… _Oh_ … Their marathon, the show. They literally had two episodes left. They would have watched them on Friday night, but they’d watched _her_ show, like it had never occurred to them that it might be their last shot.

“Want to do it now?” she asked even as the thought came to her. Why not? It would almost be symbolic. Here they were, thinking of all the things they’d never gotten to do, the things they’d never _get_ to do, everything they’d started and never had or never would get to finish, and they had this thing here which they’d very nearly seen through to the end, and all they needed was an hour and a half and they would have done it.

“Now,” he gave a weak nod, and she sniffled, wiping at her face before she could stand.

The head of the bed was raised, the wheeled table brought forward. From her suitcase in the corner of the room, Maya dug out her laptop and earbuds. She set it all up, carefully inserting one bud into her father’s ear and the other into her own. She sat next to him, and she started the second to last episode. After having made their way through the entire series with one of them in New York and the other in Texas, this could have felt strange, but within minutes it was just a return to form, for a little while an escape granted to them, where the near future was not a thing anymore.

When the finale reached its end, Maya let out a breath, feeling as though the hospital had disappeared in all this time, but now it was back. Kermit was there, arm to arm at her side, and even their heads had come pressed together. She didn’t dare move, didn’t dare break this moment, which was just the thing she would have wanted, for so long. In time, her father was the one to move, just to turn his head, to press a kiss to the side of hers, and she had to breathe deep to keep more tears from rumbling free.

“Abby… my letter… for you,” he told her. She turned her head to look at him. He nodded. “After… after. Okay?”

“Okay,” she repeated, and he nodded again.

“Okay,” he repeated. She didn’t know what he’d written, or when he’d written it, but the thought that Abigail was in possession of her father’s final words to her… _After_. Here she was, trying so hard not to think about the moment itself, or what would come after, and now this…

All this time, the one interruption they’d had, where it wasn’t just the two of them, had been one nurse coming through to check on Kermit. Abigail and the kids hadn’t come in once, which told Maya she must have ensured that the two of them would have this time to themselves. She was thankful for this, and at the same time it left her with this feeling like she was supposed to make more of this opportunity. _It may well be the last…_ Sure, they’d watched those episodes, but when it came down to it, those had been an escape more than anything. They kept her from having to find words to say to him. He’d had the option of putting it all down to paper, but the same wouldn’t be possible the other way around. She couldn’t send him on his way with a letter. She had to say something.

“When we were on the plane, Lucas and I…” she started, and it already felt like she was heading down the wrong path, but then she just had to push on anyway. “I was trying to explain what I was feeling. The sadness and… and the anger,” she couldn’t look at him as she said it, but just as soon she had to amend this statement. “But that’s not important, I… No, alright, it is, but just… there’s nothing I can do about that, and really right now it just doesn’t matter to me, okay? It doesn’t,” she finally looked back at him.

He was looking at her, and he tipped his head in a short nod. She didn’t have to lay out those feelings anyway. He had his own set, and like hers they were aimed back at him and held with the very same validity. She’d earned her anger. That wasn’t what mattered today.

“I wish it didn’t have to happen this way, more than anything… We were just starting again,” she told him with a sad smile, shoulders rounding. His face mirrored this feeling. “And it’s been…” she drifted off, her thoughts rushed with memories of the past year and some months, since the lead up to her twenty-first birthday, when a box of presents had set things in motion for him and her to get back on speaking terms again. The tears were never far away today, and here again they started to accumulate in the corners of her eyes as the collection of memories left her with the blessed conclusion that what it had been was… “It’s been so good, it… I wouldn’t give back a second of all of it, except this part.” He held out his hand again, and she took it in hers.

She could have been so caught up in the how of their reunion, but then she thought about what it might have been like if he’d died and they’d never reconnected. No… It didn’t matter to her how it had happened. It had happened… and thank goodness for it.

“We’re going to look out for each other,” she told him. “The five of us kids, and Abigail… And Luna,” she added, remembering her promise to him. Her aunt was still in Arizona at the moment. From what she’d managed to hear via Sam and Cara, Kermit’s sister was having difficulty getting herself on a plane, to sit by and watch her big brother die. It was better than their parents, at least. Sam and Cara had also let her know they had zero expectations to see their paternal grandparents show up at all.

Maya could see relief on her father’s face at her words. It wasn’t as though he wouldn’t already know this, but hearing it, right now, was wholly appreciated.

She sat with him for a while after this, both of them quiet. When he drifted off to sleep, she stayed a while again before finally getting up and walking slowly out into the hall. Abigail was still pacing along with her notes and her phone, talking to who knew who now. Sam and Eliza played cards, sitting in two chairs they’d turned to face one another, an empty lunch tray laid over their knees as a table. Cara sat on her crossed legs, reading a book, possibly pretending to read a book… trying to read… Wyatt stood facing Lucas where he sat, as the two of them played tic tac toe on an increasingly crowded sheet of paper ripped from Abigail’s notebook. And sitting next to Lucas, until they saw her…

“Hey…” Nadine hurried up and hugged her. Maya held good and tight. She had no idea how long she and Zay had been there, sitting, waiting, but the fact that they were here now was all that mattered. “The others are going to come by later, we have to be back in Boston tonight but…”

“I’m really happy you’re here,” Maya cut her off, because really that was all that mattered. When Nadine stepped back, Zay came up and hugged her, too.

“I called GiGi last night when we heard, I think she’s trying to ship you all some cookies right now.” It made her laugh, the way only her friends could.

“Let anyone try and stop her.”

“Right?”

She could see Lucas, silently watching her, like he was trying to interpret her state of mind after the time she’d spent in that room with her father. She couldn’t act as though everything was sunny and good, but all things considered, she really couldn’t have hoped for anything more, short of an eleventh-hour miracle. She knew better than to hold out for that one.

TO BE CONTINUED


	249. Her Loss of Reality

They stayed at the hospital until shortly after dinner. By then, visiting hours were nearly through, and Kermit was sleeping anyway. Maya and Lucas loaded their luggage in the trunk of Abigail’s car, and they followed her and the kids back to the house. By some chance, they pulled up and turned into the driveway even as a cab stopped at the curb. There was only a moment for them to wonder who it could be, before Maya remembered and hurried out toward the other car, just as her mother climbed out.

“I was starting to think I’d never make it…” Katy breathed as she received her daughter into her arms. “Hey, baby girl, hey…” It wasn’t until somewhere after lunch that day that Maya had been made aware of her mother’s difficulties in getting a flight out to meet her, something to do with the ticket agent showing concern over the fact that she was six months pregnant. It didn’t matter that her daughter was across the country sitting by her dying father’s bedside, not to him. Finally, after having to talk to a few more people, she’d been able to board the plane that would bring her to her firstborn.

Between Katy’s arrival, Maya and Lucas’ luggage, and everyone’s return home after a long day at the hospital, everything was sort of weighted and quiet for a while. As they walked in, Maya couldn’t help but notice a number of things. She’d been here, just a few months back, but in some ways, it felt like a completely different place. The thing that stood out was the cleanliness. To be sure, the place had always been clean, yes, but there were certain levels of cleanliness. There was the base level, ordered but lived in, then there was the one for when visitors came, especially for the first time. Then, there was this level, the one that seemed to speak of someone’s need to keep moving, which resolved itself in giving the place as much shine as one could.

In particular, Maya’s line of sight was captivated by the living room, by the couch. When she’d been here over the holidays, and her father had been sleeping there, it was covered in a bedsheet, with pillows and a couple of blankets which would sit folded over the back of the couch in the daytime. There’d be some of her father’s things on the end tables, and the coffee table…

It was gone now. The blankets, the pillows, and other cluttered objects had been removed, showing the bare cushions underneath and surfaces scrubbed over until the wood had a luster. It was like he’d already gone, which… she guessed was true, in a way. He would never come back to the house, so there wasn’t much need to leave the living room as it had been anymore. It would have had to be done sooner or later, and in the great rush of level three cleanliness, they had needed to go sooner, ripping the band aid off.

She wasn’t the only one to be taken aback by it, going by the looks Maya found on her siblings’ faces. They were seeing this for the first time, too. Now that she thought about it, Maya had to imagine all this cleaning must have happened overnight, after they’d come home last night and before they’d gone away again this morning. Had Abigail slept at all?

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here tonight?” Maya asked her mother, as the two of them went to sit on the newly bared couch to talk. “Lucas and I will give you the guest bed, really.”

“I have a hotel room waiting for me,” her mother assured her. “Besides, I prefer giving them their space here. Tomorrow, I will meet you all at the hospital.” The thought of going back there tomorrow, of going and possibly witnessing her father’s final hours… “Hey,” her mother slipped her arm around her shoulders, and Maya sighed, leaning to her. “You look exhausted,” Katy shook her head as she traced a finger along her daughter’s hairline.

“All we did was sit around all day,” Maya declared, like it didn’t feel as though it should add up to how tired they were.

“Hospitals do that to you, especially at a time like this,” her mother pointed out. “Oh, I have something for you,” Katy reached into her bag, next to her, and pulled out an envelope.

“What’s that?” Maya asked, even as she opened it. Folded inside were four sheets of paper, giving off a distinct scent of wax crayons.

“Tokens from home. They insisted I had to bring these to you.” She would have known the artists by their styles and choices of subjects and colors. Nellie, Gracie, MJ… and Shawn. They all left her with a smile, as though all of them were here with her now instead of back in Austin.

After seeing her mother off in another cab, Maya climbed up the stairs to go and see what the others were doing. Abigail was in her room, folding laundry. _Her_ room… She’d been sleeping on her own in there for months now, though it was still hers and Kermit’s room together. A lot of the things removed from the living room were now neatly returned to their places here. In his room, Wyatt was absent, though Maya soon found him asleep in Sam’s bed, while his big brother sat on the ground, sketching what looked like a new comic book page.

In the girls’ room, Cara lay on top of her still made bed, still in her clothes from the day, with headphones pulled over her ears. Whatever she was listening to, whatever she was thinking, Maya didn’t move to disrupt her. On the other side of the room, Lucas appeared to have been recruited as pillow, as Eliza lay asleep, curled up in her own bed with her head in her eldest sister’s boyfriend’s lap. Lucas held a finger to his lips, then, as though remembering their knowledge of sign language…

_“Help me move her?”_

Maya nodded, smiling. Carefully, she lifted up Eliza’s head and shoulders, allowing Lucas to climb off the bed without moving it too much. She set her back down, both her and Lucas now working to get her under the covers. Padding their way out of the room, they stopped when Cara turned to look at them and held up her hand in a silent good night. Maya moved up to her sister’s bed and leaned over to kiss her cheek and hug her. Cara didn’t say a word but welcomed it all gladly.

Retreating into the guest room, it felt like they’d been waiting to let out a breath for longer a time than they’d been aware of. Maya sat on the bed and set her face in her hands for a moment, isolating herself in her own thoughts for a beat before scrubbing at her face and looking back up.

“Look, whatever happens tomorrow, I…” she started. He came and sat with her. “I’m probably going to be out here for a week if not more, I don’t know. I can’t just go back after he… What I’m trying to say is if you have to go back to Houston ahead of me, then you should.” He opened his mouth to speak but she stopped him. “Trust me, I’m not looking forward to being away from you for any period of time, especially now, but… Our lives are back there, we have school, we have jobs, things that are expected of us, and it doesn’t have to be both of us, so…”

“I’m going to have to fly back for… for the funeral anyway, so I might as well stay,” he pointed out. She looked at him. “After that, then we’ll discuss it again.” She sighed. There’d be no negotiating the point past that. Truth be told, she was glad of it. She showed it by leaning to set her head on his shoulder.

“He wrote me a letter,” she told him. “Abigail has it. He said I should read it after he’s gone.” Ever since he’d told her about it, whether she’d meant to or not, she’d been going around feeling like not knowing what was in that letter was going to drive her mad… and then when she _did_ read that letter… well, she would feel a lot then, too…

Thinking about that letter, she somehow ended up thinking about her father’s family, his sister, his parents… The last they’d heard from her, Luna would be landing in New York early tomorrow morning. She wasn’t the one Maya had been left to think about the most. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about these grandparents she’d never known, who’d never met any of their son’s children, since they hadn’t spoken to Kermit for two decades. There were no expectations of seeing either of them in the days and weeks to come, and this just… It pissed her off.

She didn’t know the circumstances, though of course she knew that she’d inadvertently played a part in those. Kermit’s parents had made him move out after they’d learned he’d gotten her mother pregnant in his senior year of high school. The break in contact hadn’t been complete for a few years more, but according to her father they had never met her once. Whether this had been by their choice or his, she had never asked, and he’d never said. She wasn’t sure she’d _want_ to know.

But despite all of that… This was their son, and he was dying… If this didn’t set some things in perspective for them, then maybe she was better off not knowing them, and the same for her brothers and sisters. _Maybe_ they were better off, but it still didn’t feel right to her.

“I don’t know what I’m going to be like, after he…” she started to say, and here again she struggled to string the words. _After he dies._ Like she could keep it from being real so long as she didn’t attach that word to him. “Somewhere before or after that, I might get carried away and try calling Florida to give a couple old people a piece of my mind.”

“Right…” Lucas slowly replied. “Should I stop you if that happens?”

“I haven’t decided yet, but I’ll trust your judgement if I haven’t decided by then.”

“Understood,” he replied.

“I don’t know if I can sleep right now,” she also admitted. “I know I should, but I also know I’m just going to lie there and not be able to fall asleep.” She thought about Abigail, who had likely been awake for more than a day. If someone really deserved a good night’s sleep right now…

“Anything I can do to help?” Lucas asked.

“Not much more than what you’ll do anyway, Big Spoon,” she turned a small smile up to him. He smiled back, leaning in to kiss her.

They got lost in this for a little while after. With the day they’d all had, a bit of closeness was about all they could ask for. Eventually, they set about getting ready for bed and climbed under the covers, where, as she’d said it, they soon ended up in their preferred spooned position. Lucas did his best to try and aid her in finding sleep, though before he knew it, he was already drifting off to sleep, leaving her awake with her thoughts of her father, of her brothers and sisters, and their mother…

As she watched the clock on her phone turn to midnight, she knew deep down that this would be it. This would be her father’s last day, starting now. She tightened her hold on Lucas’ arm, curled herself up even more against him, letting his warmth envelop her and guard her against the dreaded day.

TO BE CONTINUED


	250. Her Loss of Him

The night went by in patches of sleep and wakefulness, enough that she could say with an amount of certainty that she _had_ slept, but she genuinely couldn’t say how much. All she did know was that somewhere before sunrise she woke again and, that time, stayed awake. She sat up and set her feet on the ground, looking around with this feeling like, even though she was very aware of where she was, she still felt a bit… lost.

“Hey…” Lucas spoke quietly, announcing the fact that he was also awake a moment later. His hand was at the small of her back. Turning her head to look at him, she wondered how long he’d been lying awake next to her. Maya turned herself around until she was lying down again, this time facing him. He pulled her close, and she breathed out, melting into that hold, that small world he created around her where she always felt so safe, where nothing could touch her… not even this day. She had to get up sooner or later and face it, and she would, but for a little while longer she needed this, and no one would tell her otherwise.

When they finally did get out of bed, they both got dressed, and they went down the stairs. As far as they’d seen, no one else was up, though whether they were in fact sleeping was anyone’s guess. Maya and Lucas ended up in the kitchen and, without really stopping and deciding it was something they would do, they went about making breakfast for everyone. They mixed up a pancake batter, got some fruit cut, made coffee… By the time the others started to make their way down, they could smell the food, all ready and waiting and kept warm.

Everyone was quiet to the point of silence through most of the meal, either because they didn’t feel like talking or they just sensed an overall weight in the air that kept them from speaking. As soon as they were done, they made quick work of cleaning up and then they were headed back to the hospital.

They arrived up to the fifth floor and to Kermit’s room even as Maya’s mother emerged from it. Without having to ask, they guessed Katy and Kermit had shared some words, as best as could be given under the circumstances. They had said their goodbyes. What had or hadn’t been said was theirs to know alone. For now, Maya moved up to embrace her mother.

“How is he? Did anyone tell you anything?” Abigail stepped up to ask.

“Uh, I talked to a nurse when I got here. She said that he’d slept well, they gave him something for that, but…” Katy hesitated to say more now, her eyes sweeping across the faces of Kermit’s children, all five of them together and staring back at her. It was enough to suggest, to those who could understand it, that his condition was winding its way down.

Abigail went in to see him first, as the rest of them remained in the hall, taking seats… They’d get their turns in time, unless it all happened too fast, or…

“She’s here!” Wyatt suddenly hopped off from his brother’s lap and went barreling down the hall, they saw, to jump into the arms of a blond woman headed their way. One look at her, whether they’d ever seen a picture of her before or not, would be enough to identify her. Luna, Kermit’s little sister. She gave Wyatt a good solid hug, though they could see in her face how much being in this place left her ill at ease. Eliza went up to see her, too, not running but walking with more energy than Maya had seen in her since she’d arrived. Her aunt barely had time to set Wyatt back on the ground that there were new arms around her. Sam and Cara looked to each other and then went up to say hello, almost like they decided to get it done and open the way for a few more loaded reunions.

After she’d seen and hugged by her four younger nieces and nephews, she looked ahead and found three more in wait, one a stranger and the others… Her eyes seemed unable to pry themselves away from Maya, though at the same time she seemed very aware of Katy’s presence, and perhaps her thoughts kept going to the last time she’d seen her brother’s ex. She wasn’t sure what to do. But then Katy went up to her, and she spoke to her quietly. Whatever they both said, by the end of it, both of them had tears in their eyes, but also a new sort of lightness in them, like a weight had been removed.

“I would know you anywhere…” Luna finally approached her eldest niece. “I’m not sure if you would know me though.”

“Except for the part where we look like we could be sisters?” Maya gave a small smile, which brought a very similar one to her aunt’s face. “I saw you in videos,” she revealed. “It helped me to remember the parts I’d sort of forgotten over the years, I… I am so glad to finally see you again, even if I wish it wasn’t…” she gestured around them. Luna nodded, agreeing. After a beat, they both moved forward to embrace at the same time.

“Is he asleep? I don’t want to wake him,” Luna hesitated, when the kids had all gone in to see Kermit and the way was open for her to go. Looking at her aunt, Maya kept thinking about what her father had told her, asked her. Everything she’d seen and heard had shown how much her father cared for his younger sister, how much she mattered to him. _And with parents like they had, no wonder._ He worried she wouldn’t be able to cope with losing him, and she had seen proof of it already with how she’d struggled to even get here, and now looked pale at the prospect of entering the room.

Without a word, she reached over and took up her aunt’s hand. Luna looked at her, and Maya gave her a nod. _I’ll go with you._ Letting out a breath, Luna nodded, and they went, both of them together.

“He has difficulty speaking,” Maya warned her in a whisper as they walked in. She looked as though she’d needed to muster up all the courage she could, but Luna walked up to the bed, with Maya at her side. Kermit was awake, his gaze locked on the pair of them as they came along. Now that she’d made it this far, Luna reached out, took her brother’s hand even as she leaned in to kiss him on the forehead.

“Hey, Froggy,” she spoke, trying and failing to hold together the cheerful tone. It still made him smile. He looked at her now, and Maya could see he wanted to ask her something, but then he also knew he would struggle to provide the words. Finally, he settled on a single-word question.

“Alone?” he asked.

“I wanted to bring the girls to see you, I couldn’t,” Luna shook her head apologetically. Kermit kept looking at his sister, and Maya bowed her head. That wasn’t what he’d tried to ask, and there was that feeling again, the frustration, the anger. He was dying, and he wanted to know that his mother and father had come. She lightly touched Luna’s arm, tipping her head to ask if she was okay now. When she nodded that she was, Maya left the two of them to talk.

Stepping back into the hall, she caught Lucas’ eye and kept walking. He was in step with her within seconds. They made it to the elevators before he spoke.

“Intervention time?” he asked. She just needed to air out this feeling burning inside her without actually blowing up along with it.

“He asked for them, Lucas, he…” she shook her head, arms tensed, hands locked like she was trying to grab something, maybe throw it around a little…

“Okay, look…” Lucas reached for her hands, held each in one of his own. “Say you called them. Right now, just grabbed your phone, called to Florida, got them on the line… What would happen then? What would you say to them? Would you be able to keep it together?” She looked at him as she considered this. “Would it change anything right now, for you to put yourself through that when you could be over there, with him… showing him that you’re with him and you’re going to be with him until the end?”

Her frame loosened as she let out a breath. He was right, of course, and deep down she’d had the answer all along. This day was just too much for her to actually see it until he went ahead and showed her.

They walked back and rejoined the others, finding Luna had come back out of the room. She was sitting, with Eliza in her lap, arms looped around her neck, even as Wyatt was playing rock paper scissors with her. Sam stood leaning against the door to his father’s room, looking in. Abigail and Katy sat side by side, talking in hushed tones. And Cara paced about, from one side of the hall to the other and back.

“Hey, hey,” Maya stopped her midway. Cara said nothing, just leaned against her. “I know,” Maya whispered, breathing deep as she held her sister.

“I can’t stand this… waiting for him to…” she mumbled.

“Want to go for a walk?” Maya offered. Cara shrugged.

“Can’t go, what if he…”

“Okay, then you just stick with me, yeah?” This got her a nod. “Yeah,” Maya kept her little sister in her arms, all the while thinking about what she might have been doing right now, losing her composure, trying to get to people who didn’t want to be here, when she was needed for much better reasons.

The hours dragged on, each minute that passed feeling a win and a loss all at once. They were joined, in late afternoon, by Farkle and Isadora. The others were trying to get here as soon as they could. Already, having the two of them there was as much of a relief as seeing Zay and Nadine the day before. They had stopped by a bakery on the way, deciding that flowers were pretty, but cupcakes were sweet and that was what they really needed in that moment.

“Mom?” Sam spoke, breaking a silence several minutes long. He took a step back from the door, turning to Abigail. She stood from her chair even as a nurse came striding down the hall and into the room.

Maya felt Cara tense in her arms as they both looked on. Her sister was shaking… maybe _she_ was shaking, too. Lucas stood behind her, her mother pressed a hand to her shoulder… Everyone was standing, and watching, and waiting. When the nurse left his bedside, they knew. Kermit had gone.

Later, it would hit. Right then and there, it felt like she was running on adrenaline, or like she was in one of those cartoons, where the character ran off the edge of a cliff and kept on running so long as he didn’t look down and realize he was about to fall. She was still running now. She was running, because of Sam, and Cara, and Eliza and Wyatt, because of Abigail, and because of Luna. And because of him… Kermit… her father… her father who had just died, there in that room, there in that bed, there as they all looked on and unbeknownst to his mother and father in Florida.

TO BE CONTINUED


	251. Her Loss of Sense

There was no point in keeping the kids at the hospital as Abigail had to deal with the immediate aftermath of Kermit’s passing. They would be better off at home… if there was such a thing as ‘better off.’ Katy and Luna stayed back with Abigail, which left Maya and Lucas and their friends in charge of getting Sam and the others back to the house.

Maya barely remembered the car ride, except that she’d had one of her sisters on either side of her, holding hands with her. Even as they arrived at the house, she was just barely in her own head, and all she could think was… what now? What were they supposed to do now? What did one do after one’s father died?

Sam disappeared off to his room, shutting the door. He wanted to be alone. The exception to that rule became Wyatt, as the five-year-old, in any moment of distress, would go seeking his big brother. Maya had watched him climb up to the second floor, and a few seconds later they heard a door open and shut again.

“I will go see what’s in the kitchen,” Isadora declared, grabbing Farkle’s hand to pull him along with her.

“You guys want to do something?” Maya asked, looking down to her sisters, who had not stopped flanking her even as they’d left the car. Neither of them spoke. “You want to just go and sit? Down here in the living room, or up in your room maybe?”

They ended up in the girls’ room. Lucas let the three of them sisters go on up, while he went to find Isadora and Farkle in the kitchen. Maya sat on Cara’s bed and her sisterly pillars rejoined her, folding themselves under her arms. When the quiet started to get to her, like pin pricks crawling at her skin, Maya started to sing, filling the silence with what she hoped would be something like the equivalent of her embrace, made of sound.

When Cara started to sing with her, Maya felt her voice tremble for a second, like her façade was taking strikes, reminding her that she needed some of that comfort for herself as much as for her siblings. And when Eliza joined her own small voice, she had to disguise the new tremor and keep on going.

“I’m hungry,” Eliza looked up to Maya after the song ended.

“Okay, what about you?” she looked to Cara, who nodded. “I’ll go get you something, okay?” Walking out of the room, Maya stopped at Sam’s room for a moment, knocking on the door. “You two hungry in there?” A few seconds went by, then Sam let her know that they were okay.

She made it about halfway down the stairs, and then her eyes landed on the bare couch, and she just… she had to sit down, so she did. She sat on the stairs. After dodging it since the hospital, the hit finally… hit. It rattled in her bones and pressed at her lungs, it tore into her heart and broke her wide open. Somewhere in her head, there was this one thought, this safeguard, begging for her to stop, not to let them hear her up there. She was supposed to be strong for them, they needed her to be solid, because they wouldn’t be. But she couldn’t stop it, the deluge had started, and all she could do was press her hands to her mouth and attempt to muffle the sounds trying to escape.

She was off in some other place, so she wasn’t aware of anyone hearing in the kitchen, of anyone coming toward her. Only then there were arms around her, coming from behind, someone sitting on the stair above and holding her even as the sobs went on wracking through her. She couldn’t breathe… she couldn’t…

There were more arms now, no… hands… There were hands, holding her face, and somewhere she could just see who they belonged to. _Lucas…_ He was right there with her, but she was just in some other place now and she couldn’t get out of it, it felt like… It felt like she’d been holding in this scream for months, and now it was going to spend itself whether she liked it or not.

She couldn’t say if she’d just fallen asleep or simply passed out, but next thing she knew she was up in the guest room, lying in bed. Slowly taking in her surroundings, trying to reconcile what she remembered and where she was now, her gaze landed on the small alarm clock, showing the time in bright green letters and numbers. _AM 3:37._

“What… No…” she gasped, moving to sit.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Lucas’ voice was just behind her, even as she felt his arm was around her. Turning on to her back, she looked at him as he reached to turn on the lamp clamped to the headboard. “Hey…” He looked like he’d been lying there wide awake for hours.

“How did I…” she asked. Her voice sounded rough, as rough as her throat.

“Farkle and I brought you up here earlier,” Lucas explained. Farkle… That had been him, hadn’t it? The arms from behind… And then Lucas, his hands, and… _Earlier…_

“The kids, I…” she shook her head, trying again to rise, only to be stopped.

“Asleep, hopefully. Maya, it’s the middle of the night.”

“I know, but… What did you tell them?” That stretch of time she wasn’t aware of unsettled her more than she could explain.

“That you weren’t feeling well, and you had to go lie down,” Lucas replied, continuing on when she was about to protest again. “Farkle and Isadora and I looked after them until Abigail and your mother and your aunt showed up. Wyatt stayed with Sam again, and the girls are sharing one bed, so Luna took the other. And your mother is bunking with Abigail tonight.”

Her mother… Her mother was spending the night here.

“What did you tell _them_ about…” she had to wonder.

“The truth,” Lucas admitted, which only made her feel even more uncomfortable. The last thing she wanted to do was to give anyone any more reasons for concern than they already had saddled on to them with what had happened tonight, at the hospital… “Your father,” he started to say, then specifying, “Shawn will be here in the morning.” She blinked.

“He is? Alone? What about…”

“He’s leaving the twins and MJ with my parents,” Lucas revealed. “Your mother said they both debated flying them over, too, but decided it was best not to get them caught up in all this.” As much as Maya missed the three of them, she couldn’t help but agree. Her father was coming… She hadn’t realized how much she’d wished he were there until now, when she knew he was on his way.

They were silent for a little while, both of them sitting up in bed. Now that she wasn’t so disoriented, everything was coming back into focus, starting with the events which had led her up to now, her breakdown on the stairs. She could feel how Lucas’ eyes kept turning to her, could feel his arm still halfway around her. She had to imagine what it had been like back there, the way he’d found her…

“So, I scared the hell out of you, huh?” she slowly asked. Lucas let out a breath, looking at her.

“I knew something had to happen, sooner or later. I didn’t know what it would look like when it did, but I knew. And then Farkle called out for me to come and I ran, I… It was like you weren’t even in there anymore. And I couldn’t get to you.” She held his hand in hers, lightly kissed his fingers. “Are you okay now?”

“Whatever happened back there, I kind of… I needed that, you know? I’m not _okay_ , but… I’m better than I would have been if I hadn’t… let go.” He nodded, looking just a bit less concerned than before. “Have you… Have you talked to anyone back in Houston about tonight?” she asked.

“I wrote them about your father’s passing,” he revealed. “Not about the stairs.”

“Good… okay…” she nodded. She probably would let them in on it eventually, but right now she was sort of glad they didn’t know that part.

“You’ll have some voicemails waiting for you when you’re up for it,” Lucas told her, pointing to her phone, sitting on the nightstand. Maya turned her head to look at it. _Condolences._ She wasn’t ready for those, not yet, no. “Riley’s almost throwing a fit that she can’t be here right now,” he added, and Maya felt kind of bad that it made her chuckle, because she could just picture her oldest friend’s face in her head right now, and she knew exactly what it looked like as she expressed this. As much as Maya wished that she would be here, too, Riley was right where she needed to be.

“No baby yet?” she asked.

“Not from what I’ve heard,” Lucas shook his head. One of those messages on her phone would be from them, the Matthews… “Also,” Lucas spoke again, and something in his tone told her that he’d been debating what he was about to say, or whether he’d even say it at all. She looked at him, waiting. After a moment, he stretched to open the drawer in the nightstand and returned to hand her an envelope. Her name was written on it, in a hand she recognized. It sent something like an aftershock running up her spine.

Her father’s letter…

“Abigail said it wasn’t up to her to decide when you’d be ready to read it, that it was your choice, and she wanted you to be able to make it whenever that was.”

She picked it up from where he held it out to her. Pressing her fingers together, she could tell there were at least a few pages in there, folded together. This was it… Her father’s last words to her, the ones he couldn’t say himself.

“I-I can’t read this now, I…”

“You don’t have to,” Lucas shook his head.

“Shouldn’t I though?” she looked back at him. “What if I wait until we’re back in Houston and I find out I was supposed to do something or…”

“What did he tell you when he told you about that letter?”

“He said… to read it after he was gone,” she replied, feeling for a moment like she was about to cry again, as she recalled how broken his voice had sounded at the end. She guessed that, if there had been something time sensitive, he would have found a way to make sure she knew. She crawled halfway over Lucas and set the envelope on the nightstand, under her phone, before pulling back only so far as needed to lie back down with her head to his chest, as he lay down along with her. “I don’t know what I would do without you right now,” she spoke quietly, wrapping her arm around him as he held her.

“I wouldn’t want to know either,” he promised. “I’m not going back to Houston without you. I don’t care how long it takes, okay?”

“It was a dumb idea anyway, I don’t know what I was thinking,” she agreed, turning her head up to look at him. “I love you so much…” She had to say it, right now, because sometimes it really wasn’t enough to show it in other ways.

“I love you so much,” he said it back, in that way of his where she could just picture his heart swelling as he said it. She closed her eyes now, unsure whether she’d actually manage to sleep again. The next few days would bring their own difficulties, and there was really no way of knowing what those would be. All they could do was to keep moving forward, taking everything on as it came along.

TO BE CONTINUED


	252. Her Loss of Chance

A week went by before Kermit’s funeral. The whole time, Maya felt as though both she and her siblings lived in something like a holding pattern, like… like they all needed to find some way to start moving forward but they couldn’t, not until after this day none of them were looking forward to.

The morning after her father’s passing, Maya was not looking forward to other things, too. Going down and facing her mother, her stepmother, and her aunt, for one thing… Going down and facing them after they’d heard about her breakdown the night before… And then the kids… She’d been supposed to look after them and she’d just let them down. As much as she could try to tell herself that she’d be better off for it in the end, it didn’t make her feel better about not being there with them when they were going through the most life-altering moment of their young lives.

Lucas wasn’t next to her, but then it was just after ten in the morning, so he was probably downstairs or somewhere around the house, doing his thing, being helpful… Leaving the room, looking through open doors, she could find no one else on the second floor besides her. When she looked through Sam’s room though, she could just see through the window that gave into the backyard. There was Lucas, and there were her siblings. They weren’t doing much, just sitting or standing around, like someone had suggested they get some air and that was as much as they could convince themselves to do.

Down the stairs Maya went, and the nearer she got to the kitchen, she could start to hear voices. She wasn’t even within view of them yet and she started to tense up. She tried to push it down, but it wouldn’t go, and then she was walking into the kitchen. The three of them were sitting around the kitchen table, going through what she guessed to be either hospital paperwork or funeral things. She didn’t care to find out one way or the other.

“Hey, baby girl,” her mother stood at once, stepping up to hug her. For as much as she hadn’t wanted them to make a fuss over her, when she found herself in her mother’s arms, she sort of didn’t care anymore. This felt good.

“I’m fine,” she still told her.

“I know,” her mother replied, though it sounded like the rest of that sentence was ‘but I’m going to keep my eye on you anyway.’ Maya sighed, and she hugged and let herself be hugged some more. It was weird, but she smelled like home, like Austin and their little house, and it was everything to her right now.

“Here, sit, I’ll get you something to eat,” Luna stood up and moved to the refrigerator. Maya went and sat down, landing across the table from Abigail. She had this feeling in her like she wanted to apologize to the woman, like she was supposed to be there for her kids, and she’d clocked out in the middle of the job. But it wouldn’t have been Abigail’s style to yell at her or anything, and she didn’t do that now. Instead, she had those big ‘are you okay’ eyes, the ones she’d given to her younger daughter and son.

“Lucas gave me the letter,” Maya told her. “I-I haven’t read it yet, but… thank you for passing it on.”

“He gave that to me just Saturday morning,” Abigail revealed, and it felt like a new strike. Saturday… Later that day, he would be rushed into the hospital, and two days later he’d be gone. The part that couldn’t help but catch her up was Saturday though, Saturday morning. Friday night, the two of them had watched her band’s performance together, stayed up well into the night. Had he written it all after they’d hung up, or did he have it already and only now gave it to his wife for safe keeping? Either way, the timing only suggested that somewhere deep down he had to know his time was running out.

“Right…” Maya spoke quietly, running a hand through her hair, which insisted on falling back into her face again, like it felt she needed a curtain to hide herself. To no surprise, her mother’s hand came along to peel back that curtain and meet her eye.

“Shawn’s plane landed a little while ago, he should be here soon,” she revealed, and it pulled a smile into existence on her face.

She had just finished eating her way through the excess of breakfast Luna had placed before her, and she was about to go in the yard to find Lucas and her siblings, when there was the sound of the doorbell. Abigail went to answer, while Maya wished she’d actually changed out of her PJs before coming down, so she wouldn’t look half so miserable. Only then she turned around, expecting to find her father and instead finding another brown-haired loved one.

“Riley?” her voice broke a bit from surprise. “What are you… your brother…” she shook her head.

“Was born in the middle of the night,” Riley beamed. “I saw him, I held him, and then my parents booked me to fly over with Uncle Shawn,” she explained. That was good enough for her, and Maya caught up her oldest friend in her arms. She would have understood her not being able to be there, but now that she was here the world felt just a little lighter. She couldn’t turn that away. “He is the cutest thing, and I have pictures if you need some of that.” Maya had a feeling she would.

“So, what did they end up naming him?” she had to ask.

“Hunter Alan Matthews,” a voice announced, and Maya looked around with a new smile as she found Shawn standing there. “Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” he asked casually.

“Matthew Hunter and Hunter Matthews? You two really are those guys, huh?” Maya smiled, leaving her best friend’s arms and moving into her father’s. 

“Sometimes,” he nodded, putting the topic aside now to focus on her. There really was nothing like his hugs. “You doing alright, kid?” he quietly asked.

“As much as can be expected. Better now that you two are here,” she admitted. Looking back up at his face, she could see in his eyes that he knew about her break from last night. He wouldn’t bring it up if she didn’t, she knew that as well. He showed his support in action: he was here. “Thanks for the drawings, by the way.”

“I’m better with a camera,” he shrugged.

As Shawn moved to reunite with his wife and give condolences to both Abigail and Luna, even as he was introduced to the latter, Maya looked back to Riley. She made a gesture quickly interpreted as ‘show me those pics.’ Riley happily obliged, pulling out her phone and opening up a photo album already bursting with images. 

“This boy is not even a day old, how many photo opportunities did you have, especially… Riley, you have class, too, and…” It was one thing for Lucas to drop everything and be here with her all this time, but so many lives were being derailed for people to be here with her and, grateful as she was, it felt like too much.

“You would do the same for me,” Riley shook her head, cutting off the argument. And she was right. So, Maya let it go.

X

The days leading up to the funeral passed by in a whirlwind. Maya had assumed maybe that they would feel slow, but it had been anything but. After that first night, she was determined to look after her siblings, allowing their mother the time she would need to do all that needed to be done. Having her people around her, she had to admit, went a long way to keep her spirits up.

Her mother had left the hotel in favor of being hosted along with her father by Farkle's parents, while Riley had been staying over with Farkle and Isadora. Like Katy and Shawn, she didn’t want to overwhelm the place and impose her presence on Kermit's family. Even though they weren’t with her morning to night, they were close enough that she could have them there with her in the time it would take for them to get to where she was, whether it was at the house or otherwise. 

At the house itself, she had plenty to keep her occupied, with her siblings and her aunt, and she had Lucas there with her of course. Every new day that started, making her feel like she stood at the foot of a steep mountain she had to climb, he’d be there to help her up without falling. And every night that closed this day, leaving her emotionally and physically drained, there would be his arms around her, helping her start to let go and start to recharge.

He had always been good with her brothers and sisters, but here more than ever he became indispensable. If she ever hit a moment where she got to feel less clearheaded, he would be right there to back her up until she was good again.

As for her siblings themselves… There had been no illusion on how this would affect them. There had been varying levels of awareness among them about what was coming, but that only went so far in helping them cope. Their father was gone. He had been in their lives from day one, unlike her, so it was impossible to gauge what it would do to all of them now that he wasn’t.

Sam, as the eldest of the four here, as the one who had known Kermit the longest out of them, even longer than Maya, had been quiet a lot of the time. After that first night, isolating himself from everyone except his little brother, he looked like he had taken it upon himself to be more responsible, looking after his sisters and his little brother. Maya couldn’t say this spoke well to his dealing with his father’s death, and she knew Abigail worried, too, but neither of them wanted to push too hard if he wasn’t ready.

And Cara… Maya had seen her just going into her own headspace ever since she’d arrived in New York, and figured she was just trying to make sense of everything, but then what she’d said in the hospital that last day… It was the wait that had been getting to her, all of them packed on a rollercoaster car at the top of the peak, always waiting for the drop, to the point where it started to mess with your head… Well, now they’d dropped, all of them, and since then… There was no denying Cara had been closest to her father, of all of them. And now that he was gone, she couldn’t seem to go more than an hour without finding some new well of tears inside her. She spent most of her time trailing after either her mother, her big sister, or her aunt.

Eliza had turned into something like a ghost. You’d never hear her come, but then you’d turn and get startled because there she’d be. And she hadn’t said a word, not since that night, singing along with her sisters. They’d all been so busy, with everything and everyone, that it had taken them a few days to even realize none of them had heard a peep out of her all this time. Whenever any of them would try and ask her about it, she’d just look away. And if she was a ghost, then Wyatt was a shadow. He never wanted to be alone, at any point in time. He would shout if they didn’t wait for him. And he’d ask questions, so many questions, which everyone would do their best to answer truthfully, even if it would sometimes feel like he was never satisfied with their answers. They all still meant that his daddy was gone.

“Hey…” Lucas came and crouched in front of Maya as he found her sitting on the edge of the guest bed, the morning of the funeral. She was all dressed and ready to go, same as him, but she was just off somewhere in her thoughts. She looked up at him.

“Trying very hard not to mess up my makeup right now,” she whispered, gesturing weakly at her face. He leaned forward, kissed her lightly, set his forehead to hers. He didn’t have to say anything. She knew he would be there at her side every step of the way, and she was beyond thankful for this. But… but… “It’s not about the funeral,” she insisted, then, “It’s not _just_ about the funeral.”

“Okay,” he nodded.

“It’s what comes after, it’s going back to Texas… leaving them all like this,” she told him. She took a deep breath, trying as ever to keep it together. It had never been something she liked, being away from her siblings. She was only two hours away from Nellie, Gracie, MJ, and soon Haley, too, and already sometimes it felt like so much. But now these four here, they were going through so much right now, and she was about to fly off almost to the other side of the country and leave them, and it felt like a situation where there was no way to get it right.

“You want to stay another week? We can do that,” Lucas assured her.

“And what comes after that?” she asked, looking at him, genuinely hoping he knew. “I’m not suggesting we uproot everything and stay here, okay, I just… I can’t stand this, I…” She let the tears come this time, because there was no point holding them back, and she knew what it did to her when she tried to hold those feelings down too long.

There was a knock at the door, and Maya scrambled to dry her face with as little damage as possible while Lucas opened the door. Eliza appeared from around Lucas, and Maya held out her hand to her even as she kept on sniffling.

“Hey, Lizard, you ready?” she asked, pulling the nine-year-old on to her lap before she could clamp herself to her big sister. All her worries, big or small, right now she needed to put them back in their box and see her siblings through this day.

Her friends had flown in from Houston the night before, though she hadn’t seen them yet. The Friars, the Hillards, and Professor Robinson had all sent flowers. GiGi Babineaux had gotten her cookies to New York on the Air Zvolensky express. Maya had them stashed to share with everyone when the day was done.

TO BE CONTINUED


	253. His Hand to Hold

A week later, they were flying back to Houston. By then everyone else had already gone back, their friends the morning after the funeral, Maya’s parents the day after that. Even though they knew Sophie would have gotten them a private flight in a heartbeat, they had decided to make their own way back, on a regular flight. Even as the plane would take off, it would feel, as Lucas looked to his girlfriend, that her mind had not taken off along with her body. It was still down there, back with her brothers and sisters.

Though he’d sworn to be at her side throughout the funeral, there were parts of the day where he just had to stand back and watch, especially as some of the other attendees came along and would go about offering their sympathies to the family. Many of them, he could tell, were only aware of Kermit’s first daughter, the one from when he was younger, and so they would usually have the same sort of reaction to Maya, eyes going a little wide, like ‘oh…’ But they all knew about her, that much even he could tell, and that was something. She wasn’t a secret. Kermit had told them about her.

If they knew her as nothing else, they’d know her as her brothers and sisters’ guard, as she would give anyone the eye if they started to say anything, well-meaning as it may be, that could upset any of them. It actually amused both Sam and Cara, going by how they’d tried to keep themselves from laughing.

Once the ceremony had started in earnest though, there were no laughs, contained or otherwise. There’d been something of an upset right at the beginning. Someone had told Wyatt that he would get to say goodbye to his father one last time. Whether they’d mistakenly believed he would be in a casket or whether – according to Maya – he was just an idiot to even say that to a five-year-old, it had left Wyatt constantly looking around, like he expected Kermit to just pop up out of nowhere, his dear dad, back and smiling all over again.

“Where is he?” he would ask Maya as they went to take their seats.

“Where’s who?”

“Daddy,” Wyatt whispered. “The man said he was here.”

“Which man said that?” Maya asked him, all care and honey. Wyatt pointed his finger. The way Maya stood up then, eyes narrowed on the guy in question, Lucas nearly ducked out of the way.

“Where is he?” Wyatt asked again though, so Maya looked back down to her brother, calm again. She picked him up and pointed to the polished urn sitting at the front of the room. Wyatt didn’t understand. He was still looking around.

“Wyatt, bud. Dad’s in there.” He really had to follow the finger she pointed, a couple of times, before it finally clicked for him. Their father was in that urn.

“He can’t fit in that,” Wyatt declared, a bit louder. Lucas could only see a flash of helplessness in Maya’s face. What was she supposed to tell him? The policy overall had been bent on honesty. They had done their best to explain in no uncertain terms what had happened to Kermit, as much as was necessary, but this… How was he supposed to react if they told him someone had burned up their father’s body until he was nothing but ashes in an urn? Of course, once the question was out there… there really was nothing they could do about it. Wyatt wouldn’t let it go; he would have an answer.

“Well, it’s…” Maya started to say, and Lucas could see she had nothing. She looked at him with big ‘help me’ eyes, but he was as stuck as she was. What were they supposed to say? That it was bigger on the inside, like the ship on Doctor Who, or a genie’s lamp?

When it took too long for either of them to come up with something, Wyatt got upset, and Abigail had to swoop in and gather him, taking him aside for a couple minutes.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t…” Maya kept saying, and Abigail just kept telling her not to worry about it.

This was easier said than done. As they sat and the service began, Lucas could still feel Maya looking off to her little brother, sitting in his mother’s lap. Of course, there was the actual service to pull her focus, too, and to hear everyone who came and spoke for Kermit, he couldn’t even read her face, to know what she was thinking. As much as she and her father had mended things by the end, even if the past had been put in the past on the whole, it didn’t mean there couldn’t be reminders along the way. And here, now, it was like a giant ‘this is the life your father led without you’ show.

They’d all gone back to the house afterward, friends and family, spread out around the living room, the kitchen… They would serve themselves from the food laid out in the dining room and then go off to stand or sit somewhere and talk with others… Maya and Lucas’ friends all took up residence up in the guest room for a while, allowing Maya to get a moment to breathe and collect herself. As friendly gatherings went, this had to be the weirdest, but most appreciated one all the same.

She wouldn’t stay up here too long, of course. She wanted to be with her siblings, she _needed_ to be with them. Much as the four of them would try and get away and hide a while, too, they could never seem to get away from this friend or that colleague… At some point, it became a mission for all of them. They were going to get those kids and give them a moment of respite.

“Anyone get a hold of Eliza yet?” Maya came to find Lucas, whispering.

“I think I saw her with Rosa a second ago,” he turned around, scanning the room.

They finally found the two of them out in the yard, sitting off on the other end of it. Rosa was talking to the nine-year-old, and neither Lucas nor Maya could tell what she was saying or whether the words were having any effect on the silent one. When Rosa looked up and saw them out there a minute later, she looked back to Eliza and carried on anyway. Finally, after a couple minutes more, she said something, and Eliza nodded before they got up and started back for the house.

“Hey, you good?” Maya asked her sister, who gave a nod and went back inside after giving her a quick hug. Looking to their friend and roommate, they both must have looked like they were wondering what Rosa had told the girl.

“We’ll talk when you come back to Houston, okay?” was all Rosa would say, looking to Maya.

“Sure, yeah,” Maya told her as Rosa headed back inside, too. Whatever this had been about, they weren’t going to know, not then.

After the funeral was over, after the guests had gone, everyone was too tired to do much of anything or think about what would happen now. The next couple of days were sort of a wipe, too. Luna needed to return to Arizona, to get back to her daughters, so she went as well, though not without ensuring that she and Maya would keep in touch. On that, she didn’t need to worry. Maya wanted to reconnect with her, too.

Lucas and Maya had set themselves a return date for Texas soon after that. The way they saw it, they needed to have a plan, and they needed the kids to know about it, so they wouldn’t be caught off guard when the time came. Already seeing the news settle in them, seeing something like a small bit of panic at the thought of her leaving, had been enough to will some doubt into Maya’s mind. But there were no two ways around it, were there? As much as she would have loved nothing more than to stay close to them forever, they needed to go back.

Their last full day in New York, they had tried so hard to make it a good one, and really it had been that, maybe the best sort of normal day they’d had in a long time, and it was received as well as the most extravagant day ever could be. And then… then the moment they’d all dreaded had come. They’d had to pack their bags, and go to the airport, and say their goodbyes.

Lucas stood by as Maya hugged each of her siblings, reminded them how much she loved them, promised that they could call her any time they wanted, and that unless she absolutely couldn’t answer, she would always answer. If she couldn’t, then she would call them back as soon as she could.

“The same goes for you, you know?” Sam told her. It made Maya chuckle.

“Really, anytime you want to stop growing, it’s fine by me.”

The further down the line she got, the harder the goodbyes would become. Cara looked like she’d never let go of her. Eliza still hadn’t said a word, but she hugged like a soliloquy. Wyatt kept telling her to stay, and she’d melt into apologies, seeing how upset he’d get when she told him she couldn’t. Finally, his mother needed to take him, in a repeat of the funeral, and it was as she fought tears that Maya and Lucas boarded the plane.

“Do me a favor, hold my hand until we take off, so I don’t just run back out there?” she asked as they took their seats. He picked up her hand, kissed her fingers.

“What was the box Abigail that gave you last night?” he asked, hoping to distract her. By the look this summoned on her face, he wondered if that had been the right call. She looked sort of lost in thought for a moment before reaching into her carry-on bag. He could just spot the corner of her sketchbook in there, inside which was tucked her father’s letter, the envelope still intact and unopened. She pulled out the small box he had seen and placed it on the tray pulled down in front of him.

He opened the box and blinked at once. There was a small urn inside, a sort of short replica of the one which had caused so much of a fuss for little Wyatt.

“Is that…” he whispered, closing the box again, for fear he might drop it, or someone would see it and make a different kind of fuss.

“Yeah,” Maya took the box back and returned it to her bag. “It was one of his last wishes, apparently. He said that… we’d spent too much time apart, and he wanted a part of him to go with me, if I would have him.” He looked at her, and as clear as it was that she’d said yes, more than anything she looked like the gesture had meant more to her than she could say. After a few seconds of silence, as she realized that they had taken off and were climbing into the sky, that they were starting their journey back to Houston, she looked at peace again. She missed and would miss her siblings in New York, but they were going home now, after being away for all this time, after weeks of hell, and that at least was something to look forward to. Home, friends, family… and a letter to read.

TO BE CONTINUED


	254. His Hand to Return

They’d both just been so caught up in the events surrounding Kermit’s passing, so deep into this New York halt of theirs, but now here they were. They had arrived in Houston, they were in a cab, headed home. The more they drove, the more familiar sights they’d cross, and it would be all they could think about. They were home, they were back… It would take time for them to get back into the rhythm of life out here, whether life cared to give them that time or not. They were due back in school the day after tomorrow, and much the same for work. So, whatever it was they had to do to get themselves prepared, they more or less had this evening and the following day to achieve it, and then they’d have to move forward with whatever progress they’d accumulated.

Between the two of them, it was easy to guess he would get further quicker than Maya did. He wished it didn’t have to be that way, never wanted to see her struggling. This wasn’t something he could fix. All he could do was be there, support her, and he would, always. They weren’t even at the house yet and he could see her off in her head somewhere. He looked down to his phone, open to the message thread which had been growing since they’d gotten off the plane.

_Lucas: Our plane landed, we’re getting our luggage and grabbing a cab._

_Dylan: Welcome back!_

_Riley: I’ve been tracking your flight!_

_Sophie: Are you sure you don’t want a ride?_

_Chiara: Dinner will be ready in an hour._

_Lucas: The cab will be fine, but we appreciate the offer, thank you, Sophie._

_Rosa: How’s Maya doing?_

How was she doing… She was looking out the window, but if it wasn’t that they’d been living here for nearly three years, he doubted that she could tell you a single thing she’d seen on the way. When they pulled up to the house, Lucas paid the driver before turning to Maya, getting her attention by laying his hand over hers. She turned her head to him, and he gave her a smile. _We’re home._ She smiled back, though it never reached much further than her lips. The rest of her face was still far away.

“What do you want to do?” he asked, once their bags were out of the car and they were on their own. “We can just… go upstairs if you don’t want too many people…”

“Yeah, okay,” she replied distantly.

“Chiara made dinner, I’ll just grab us a couple of…”

“Not really hungry,” Maya looked back at him.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he nodded.

They had seen their friends days ago, of course, when they’d flown up for the funeral. That first time they’d come along, greeting their grieving friend, he could see a lot of faces with more or less the same expression of helpless uncertainty. It was like losing her father had made her into a new person and they didn’t exactly know how to be around her. Sophie had been the first one to come up and hug her. She’d been very young when her own father had died, but she remembered how she’d felt, recognized some of it in her roommate’s eyes. Once she’d gone up, the others hadn’t been far behind, folding themselves around her.

The funeral was a beast of its own though. They’d been off in New York, far from home. Now they were back, and the day to day had to pick up from this monumental disruption…

When he opened the door for them, the first to come forward - oblivious to anything but the fact that their people were back after all this time - were the dogs. They came barking and circling about Lucas’ feet for all of a moment before moving to crowd at Maya, like they sensed this was where they were needed the most.

“Look at you…” Maya crouched before them, scratching at this ear and that back. “I’ve missed you guys,” she whispered, scooping Lou up in her arms before standing again.

Their roommates were spread about the living room and coming out of the kitchen… Lucas got the overall impression that the five of them had been awaiting their return with so much anticipation, but when they’d seen the cab approaching it had sent all of them scampering to look more casual and less like so many spotlights turned on to Maya and him.

Lucas momentarily caught Chiara’s eye and signed _not hungry_ at her. Chiara breathed out and nodded. The others saw this, too, of course, and there was little to be done for it, especially as…

“You know I can see you, right?” Maya asked, looking around at all of them. They froze. “I don’t need everyone to tiptoe around me all day.”

“How was your flight?” Rosa asked.

“Standard, I guess,” Maya told her. “We watched a movie, or we put one on anyway. I think it was a comedy,” she turned to Lucas.

“It… was kind of funny, sometimes,” he replied. She kept looking at him. “It was a biopic.” If he’d ask her who it had been about, she’d have no idea.

“Anyway, I slept a lot of the way. Still kind of tired, so I’m just going to head on upstairs for now, okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” Riley told her, even as Maya had already started up the stairs, with Lou still in her arms and the other two dogs trailing behind her. Lucas watched her go before turning to their friends.

“It was rough this morning,” he told them. “Having to leave her brothers and sisters…” They’d left for the airport early enough so they’d have time before they actually had to board, and she wouldn’t be up there making a scene as she cried. When they had gotten on the plane, it had felt to him like she’d made a deal with herself. She’d cried so much in the last couple of weeks, but now that they were going home, she was going to try and stay on top of her emotions.

“What should we do?” Dylan asked.

“For now, just let her be,” Lucas shrugged.

“Do _you_ want to eat something?” Chiara asked.

“I can wait,” he shook his head. He could smell the food from here. Whatever she’d made, as usual, it was promising to be delicious. But sooner or later Maya would reconnect with her hunger, and he would be sharing that meal with her, whether it was Chiara’s dinner or a box of cookies.

He carried their luggage up the stairs and into their room. Maya was sitting on the ground with the dogs piled on top of her legs. After shutting the door, he came to sit with her.

“You think I should have stayed down there?” she asked him.

“Not at all,” he shook his head.

“It’s all up to me, I know. I guess I just… I didn’t want to make things strange for them,” she admitted, bowing her head. “I don’t know how to do that right now. Don’t know how to do… anything.”

He looked around the room for a moment. Their room, their home within their home… So much of it was a reflection… of her, of her creativity, her life, her light… It shone around her right now, but all it really did was show how dim that light had become in her in the past couple of weeks.

“Want to unpack?” he asked after his eyes landed on their bags and suitcases by the door. She looked there, too, and he could see the decision happen in her mind before she carefully got up, moving the dogs off her, as reluctantly as they went.

Their clothes were clean and folded, ready to be put away, so they did that first. They’d been wearing a lot of the same clothes over and over in the time they’d been in New York. They hadn’t packed that much. The funeral dress had been bought out there, because in their haste for departure – or maybe out of an intentional mental omission – she hadn’t packed one. It wasn’t here now; she’d left it behind.

After putting the emptied suitcases back in the closet, Lucas turned around to find Maya standing at the bed, where her backpack sat open. She held the small box, the one with the small urn inside, and inside _that_ … She wasn’t sure what to do with it, he could see. Finally, she set it on one of the bookshelves, next to the box which had once held the engraved guitar pick necklace and the thumb drive with the childhood videos. When she went back to her bag, the next thing she got her hands on was her sketchbook. She paused for a moment before fishing out the envelope from within.

She stood there a while, looking at it. He stood nearby, looking at _her_. When she turned her head to find him, she looked like she was holding her breath. She wanted to do it. She wanted to open that envelope and read her father’s letter, but she was scared.

Lucas walked over to her, reached behind her, and moved the bag off the bed before taking a seat. Maya sat next to him, all the while looking at the envelope, the unbroken seal. As she reached to tear off the side, her hands were shaking. She shook her head, frustrated, and held it out to him. Without a word, he carefully tore open the side and handed it back to her. With an intake of breath, she pulled out the papers. As she did, something fell out and landed in her lap.

Looking down, they found it was a strip of pictures, the kind taken in a photo booth. They were old, folded down the middle and worn around the edges, but overall, they gave the sense that they had been kept preciously before they’d found their way inside that envelope and over to their new owner. On the back were scribbled the words _Maya’s 1 st Christmas, December 2002._ She would have been nearly a year old there. Across the four images, they saw in quick succession a red and white Santa hat move from atop Kermit’s head, to Katy’s, to Maya’s, and back to Kermit’s again. He’d looked amused by it, Katy was laughing, and little Maya looked puzzled by the thing when it reached her.

The strip was enough to threaten her ban on tears, and Lucas doubted it would hold by the time she got to the letter itself. He watched her unfold the pages, though he never let his eyes focus on their contents, didn’t want to invade on those words unless she gave him permission. For now, all he did was put his arm around her, making his presence near her into something tangible as she started to read.

She took her time with it. The silence was occasionally broken with a chuckle here, a breath there, more and more sniffling as she approached the end of it. By the time she folded the pages again, whatever she’d been working to hold back so she could keep on reading was finally able to wash out of her along with those new tears. He just went on holding her, pressed kisses to her shoulder, to her temple… She leaned to him and he held her, the tremble of emotions reverberating on to him.

“We needed more time, I…” she managed to say after a while.

“I know,” he told her.

“There’s never enough, is there?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	255. His Hand to Learn

With everyone else either in school or at work the next day, Lucas and Maya had been granted the house to themselves on their first full day back from New York. Living with so many roommates, they had all come to appreciate the odd instance where they could have the peace and quiet of some time alone, but it wasn’t like that, not this time, not for them. They had this one day to sort of realign their thoughts, to ready themselves and go back to school tomorrow.

They quickly had to make some arrangements after their hurried flight from Texas. They’d written to all their professors, explaining the situation. For Maya’s part, it had all been easy enough for people to understand. It was her father, and of course she had to be there. Some things had been put off to a later time or altered to allow her to put in what work she could… There was no doubt for either of them that Professor Robinson had spearheaded some of those arrangements herself.

It was a different thing where Lucas was concerned. This wasn’t his father, wasn’t his family at all, it was his girlfriend’s father… Some had been very understanding, overall, and here Lucas had someone in his corner, too, in the form of his uncle, who had first heard about Lucas’ flight not through an e-mail but through his eldest son, when he’d gotten a text from Leigh. Others had warned that they could ‘only do so much’ and that he would need to come and speak to them when he was back. And then there was Professor Hitchins.

Lucas had never liked the guy, from day one there had been something about him that just hit all the wrong notes. As though he hadn’t already been looking forward to being done with the guy, he had gone on to discover that the man had some beef with his uncle, the day he’d started going on and saying things about him. He didn’t even think Hitchins realized the two of them were related, and Lucas wasn’t about to give him more material. It didn’t make it any easier to sit there and stomach it without having any particularly outward reaction.

He hadn’t said a word to his uncle either. Hank knew Lucas was in Hitchins’ class, but he’d never said a word about the guy, good or bad. He acknowledged that this was one of his nephew’s professors, and that was all. Meanwhile, Hitchins would take the occasional jab, more often than not in a way discreet enough that, had Lucas not known Hank Hillard personally, he would never have realized this was who he was speaking about.

When he’d had to write to him after heading to New York, he’d taken what was easily the longest time before finishing the message and then hitting ‘send.’ He just had a feeling, even without the man being aware of his connection to Hank, that he’d be far from lenient or accommodating. And when Lucas had gotten his reply… If he wasn’t there to sit Hitchins’ quizzes, he could count those grades as good as gone, and he would expect Lucas’ paper on the day it was due, no extensions. He had also managed, despite using the exact same words, to make the request to come and see him upon his return feel the slightest bit threatening.

By the time he came out of that office, Lucas felt like he was ready to quit the guy’s class, just straight up stop going, consequences be damned if he had to. He didn’t stop walking until he reached his uncle’s office door. There he knocked and, thankfully, found that he was present and able to receive him.

“Hey, you alright there, Luke, what’s gotten into you?”

“Professor Hitchins,” was all he had to say.

“Ah,” Hank stood back. Lucas went and sat across from his desk as he shut the door. “I’m sorry, I did what I could there, but I think I might have only made things worse. I didn’t know that he didn’t know you and I were family.”

“I wasn’t looking forward to him knowing, not after what he said about you. Not that I believe or care about any of it, but I didn’t want to end up…”

“Losing control?” his uncle asked, leaning against the front of his desk. Lucas sighed. “You didn’t, did you?”

“No. Almost though, and he sure looked like he was hoping I would.”

“Lucas, I’m sorry, I really am.”

“What’s his problem with you?” Lucas finally asked. All this time, he’d been telling himself it didn’t matter, that he wasn’t going to ask, but after today, after the meeting they’d had, he just couldn’t help himself anymore. Hank sighed.

“Look, we grew up together, me, your dad, and Clint… Professor Hitchins,” he amended. Lucas blinked. This was new.

“He knows my father?”

“Oh, yeah,” Hank nodded, as though saying ‘does he ever.’ “Right up until things with my mother and Uncle Joe meant that I ended up somewhere else, so I didn’t see Clint again for years, right up until I started working here, and there he was, one of my fellow professors,” he intoned, finishing with a dismissive hand gesture. “Knew Mel and Tanya for a while, too.” It always felt a little strange to hear his mother referred to as anything but Melinda, and right here, in this context, it made him more uncomfortable than he’d anticipated.

“Oh?” he sat up. His uncle quickly raised a hand.

“Relax, not like _that_ , no,” Hank promised. “He and I, we parted on good terms, really, and when I first ran into him here, I was happy to see him,” he shrugged.

“And him?” Lucas asked.

“I mean… People change over time, that’s just a fact. Some change more than others. It didn’t take me long to realize the Clint I knew growing up wasn’t the same one I found again as a grown man.”

“I still don’t get what his problem is with you.” _Or why it’s now turning into a problem with me._

“I found someone I wished hadn’t changed so much, and he found the opposite. I learned that, one day, when I tried to bring the past back around for a laugh and he didn’t take it. It was never ill intentioned, and the guy I knew as a kid would have laughed his head off and called it a good one, you know? Look, I’ll talk to him, I’ll fall on my sword for this one if I have to, whatever it takes. I won’t let it ruin things for you. You have my word on that.” Lucas let out a breath. In their family, their word was their bond, and if he said he’d do what he could, then he would do absolutely everything in his power. If he didn’t get anywhere with Hitchins in the end, then it would be on ‘Clint.’

“Okay,” Lucas sighed. “Thank you. I’m sorry, I just didn’t know what else to do and…”

“No, Lucas, really, you don’t have to apologize.” They sat quietly for a moment. “How’s Maya doing? She’s back in class today?”

“Yeah,” Lucas sat back quietly. All the rage seemed to seep out of him at the mention of Maya’s name. Her face was there, in his head, and no one, not even Hitchins, could get in the way of that. “She’s… she’s dealing, as best as she can.” What else could he say that wouldn’t keep him in this chair, in this office, for a good two or three hours? Still… Thinking about her, after all they’d been discussing, he was met with a passing thought on what would happen if she and Hitchins met… His money would be on her, no doubt about it. When his uncle noted his smile, Lucas told him as much and Hank laughed.

“Oh, I would love to see that,” he nodded. “Old Clinton needs someone to put him in his place, that’s for sure.”

“If he knew my dad, why didn’t he realize who I was?” If the name Friar didn’t tip him off, the resemblance should have been enough, no? His mother kept getting that misty-eyed ‘you look more and more like your father’ thing lately.

“Yeah, you’d think that, wouldn’t you? That’s the guy he turned into though. Thinks he’s so smart, doesn’t see what’s right in front of him.”

After leaving his uncle’s office, Lucas looked to his phone and found a message from Maya. She was meeting with Professor Robinson at the moment and she wanted him to meet her there if he could, so they could go on to lunch afterward. He wrote that he was on his way and headed toward the office. The door was closed when he arrived, so he took a seat on the ground next to it and waited. Minutes went by before he heard movement from inside, voices nearing, and then the door opening. He quickly got to his feet, coming face to face not with his girlfriend but his grandfather.

“Ah, Mr. Friar,” Professor Robinson smiled. “Always a pleasure.”

“Professor,” he tipped his head respectfully, ignoring the fact that, if things kept going the way they were, he’d be calling her Nana or Granny or something like that when they were away from the school.

Maya stepped out to join him now, and he was once again focused on her. She looked more or less as she’d done this morning, from when they’d been waking up to when they parted ways after reaching university. She only looked to be about halfway there, the other half still in another place that wasn’t even in the city or the state. Maybe it had been a mistake for her to start again so soon, even if they’d set it as their return date. She might have benefited from a few more days.

“Joe and I have been talking of having all of you over to my house, the Friars and the Hillards. I expect you’ll be getting a call from your mother asking when you two will be available,” the professor went on. “But do take your time, alright?” she went on, stealing a brief look to Maya.

“Absolutely. Thank you,” he nodded. The woman smiled and headed back into her office as Lucas and Maya started down the hall. The two of them were quiet for a little while, then… “They’re totally getting engaged, aren’t they?” A few more seconds’ silence, then a snort from Maya. That made him smile, looking at her. Her own smile was on the weaker side, but it was there, and he would take it. “How was your morning?” he asked.

“A lot of talking, a lot of people telling me how sorry they were for my loss. I’m pretty sure that half of them think Shawn’s the one who…” She drifted off without finishing her sentence. He took her hand. “I just want to go home,” she admitted.

“I can drive you,” he offered at once, but she shook her head.

“No, I didn’t mean it like I’ll actually do it. I’ll stay through the day, I just…”

“Would rather not,” he guessed, when she’d trailed off long enough to suggest she couldn’t find the words.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “What about you?” she asked. “How was your morning?”

“It was good,” he told her. “About as good as can be expected, you know, after being gone a while. Kind of like skipping a couple chapters in a book or something…”

“Not recommended,” she shook her head, understanding.

He couldn’t tell her about Hitchins, not now. She already had enough on her plate without having to hear about his jerk of a professor and his grudge against his family. Hopefully, his uncle would be able to fix this before she ever had to hear.

TO BE CONTINUED


	256. His Hand to Worry

He had half a mind to skip out on his first shift back at the bookstore that night. Maya would be back home by then, not working at the restaurant until the following night, but after they’d finished lunch and gone back on their way to class for the afternoon, he hadn’t seen her again and, well… he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He could feel the distress coming off of her, and not being there by her side just made him feel wrong.

Lucas jumped when he felt something hit him near his ear. His hand flew up to the spot just as he spotted a wrapped piece of candy on the counter in front of him.

“You were really caught up in your head, huh?” Rosa asked, standing across from him, he suspected, from where the candy had been thrown at him.

“What?”

“There was a guy trying to ask you a question and you totally ignored him,” Rosa pointed back across the store, to a man browsing the health section. “I swooped in and helped him. Good thing he just went with it. Are you okay?”

“I… yeah, I’m fine, sorry,” he frowned, standing up straight, looking to the computer like maybe he’d find something there to do.

“Bull,” Rosa called. “Try again.” He sighed, snatching up the candy and dropping it again. “Is it because of Maya?” she guessed. There was little to no chance of his not having to fess up sooner or later, not with her, was there?

“Among other things,” he finally shrugged. “Look, it’s our first day back, we’ll just… We need more time to find our rhythm again,” he went on, unsure if he was trying to convince her or convince himself.

“Yeah, no, definitely. Time, that’s good, that’s… kind of the only thing there is, really,” Rosa agreed, then, “There’s also talking. You know, with people who will gladly listen… Like friends, or co-workers, or roommates… Some of them are all of those things at once.” He looked at her, standing there with that little grin on her face, and he had to laugh. “I’m just saying. It’s a slow night, and I’m an excellent listener.”

“You also throw candy very well,” he gave a pointed look, and she had the decency to look sheepish about it. Lucas sighed. “Part of me knows there’s a lot about this that she needs to sort out on her own, and I want that for her, but at the same time there’s the other part, the one that loves her so much and wants to protect her all the time. And he can’t protect her from this.”

“No, he really can’t, can he?” Rosa approached the counter, leaning her forearms against it.

“What if it doesn’t… go away?” he finally asked. “What if she can’t recover from this?”

“She will,” Rosa promised. “I did.”

Lucas looked at her, unsure if she meant what he thought she did, because it sounded like she was saying that her father was dead. But he couldn’t have been, could he? In nearly three years of knowing Rosa, and Tracy, surely at some point it would have come up. Instead, the way they would talk about him, all he could really say was that the guy had run off back to Italy and that was it. Except… Well, it had always sort of felt strange, this story with Rosa and her family. And when she’d speak about him, there’d always be something sort of… vague. She would mention something, but it would sort of feel like she’d stopped before the end, something she had kept off. Was this it?

“Your father…” he slowly asked, and Rosa nodded. “I’m sorry, I… I had no idea.”

“That’s what happens when you don’t talk about something, people don’t know,” she shrugged.

“When…”

“Eleven years ago, this summer,” Rosa replied with a bittersweet look on her face.

It still made no sense, did it? He’d heard the story, how he’d gone back to Italy to visit some friends, and then he’d just sort of disappeared for a while before finally contacting Tracy, one last time, about a month later, to tell her he wasn’t coming back. And it _would_ have been eleven years ago, all of that, but then…

“Okay, stop, you’re thinking so hard right now I can actually see the wheels turning in your head. I can tell you right now it won’t add up no matter how hard you try, not with what you do and don’t know,” Rosa told him.

“Sorry, it’s just…”

“Look, I’ll explain, but if I do then you have to promise me one thing. You can’t tell my mother.” The way she looked at him, Lucas had a feeling she wouldn’t be telling him this right now if Tracy hadn’t left Pete in charge for the day and was anywhere in the vicinity.

“I won’t,” he vowed. “But why can’t I…”

“Because she doesn’t know,” Rosa answered plainly, which didn’t make Lucas feel like he was any closer to understanding what was going on. “She… she still thinks he just ran off and disappeared off somewhere in Italy, and that’s… it’s my fault. Well, mine and the postal service’s.”

“Still not getting there,” Lucas shook his head.

“I mean, what can I say, I was eight years old, my father was gone, and after worrying about him all those weeks, when we got that call, my mother, she… she just wasn’t herself. The things she’d say and do, whenever the subject of my father came up, sometimes without him being mentioned at all… I didn’t want to become like that, I didn’t want to think about my father the way she did. So then, one day, when this letter arrived in the mail, addressed to her from Italy, my first reaction was to hide it. I knew if she got it, I’d never find out what it said.”

“What did it say?”

“It was in Italian, and even though I’d been speaking it all my life with my dad, I was still eight years old, didn’t know what it all meant, so I had to look up some of the words. It was from this man who worked in a hospital out there, and he was passing on another letter, from my father. It was all he had with him when he was admitted, and he was sending it to her along with his condolences… I didn’t know what that meant in either language, but then I looked it up, so… so, that’s how I knew.”

“Didn’t someone… I mean, didn’t they call you?”

“I think they did try, a couple times, but my mother would see where the call came from and… she never picked up. After a while, they stopped calling.”

“What happened to him?” Lucas asked, momentarily captivated.

“It wasn’t in the man’s letter, and it wasn’t in my father’s letter either, not really. All I had to go on was the date at the top, it was from before he called, but he didn’t say anything that sounded like he was sick or hurt, or that he wasn’t planning to come back. I’d been listening to my mother paint him as this horrible person for weeks, but in that letter, he was the guy I remembered, my papa,” she smiled. “I didn’t know what happened to him, but I knew I’d been right all along, that he loved us, that he loved _me_ , and he wasn’t the person my mother said he was. So… I didn’t tell her about the letters. I hid them. When she decided to change her name, she wanted to change mine, too. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want her to take him from me like that. I almost told her the truth, but I didn’t.”

“She let you keep it then,” Lucas nodded. All this time, he thought Tracy had just changed her own, leaving her husband’s surname with their daughter.

“Oh, no, she tried,” Rosa shook her head. “Except as far as she knew, he was still alive out there, and I guess she couldn’t just change my name on her own or something. So, I got to stay Maria Rosa Emiliana Del Vecchio,” she declared, in her finest accent.

“Wow,” Lucas laughed with a nod. Now that he’d heard all this, thinking about how Rosa had been walking around with this secret all those years, all he could really think was… “Didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I tried, sometimes, but then I’d get scared that it would get back to my mother.”

“Rosa…” he blinked, imagining her, eight years old, dealing with her father’s passing with no support, with her mother experiencing a loss of a different kind… It put the distance between them when he’d first known them in sudden and unfortunate context.

“Point is,” she let out a breath, “I was on my own. Maya’s got you, me, and so many other people around her. We’re not going to let her down.” Lucas smiled and the two of them shared a quick fist bump over the counter. _Team Maya…_

“This is what you told Eliza at the funeral, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Most of it, yeah,” Rosa confirmed. “I haven’t found the right time to talk with Maya like I said I would, but I will.”

The evening carried on, and Lucas did his very best to focus on his job, to let it be a distraction to him, or rather something to focus on aside from the distractions of his life away from this place. Still, when Pete told him to go on ahead and get home an hour early, he didn’t have to be convinced. He said goodnight to Pete, who’d drive Rosa home instead of her catching a ride with him, and he went off toward home, making a stop over for ice cream on the way.

When he reached the house, the others were there, watching television. He asked where Maya was, and they all pointed up the stairs. With a sigh, he climbed up toward the room with its door closed and announced himself before entering.

“Aren’t you still supposed to be working right now?” Maya asked, looking to the time on her phone. She was sitting at her desk, which had been cleared save for a large sheet of paper and her colored pencils. The page was slowly but surely being covered in a variety of flowers, with colors combined to bring to life this field of hers.

“Got let out early,” he shrugged.

“And you chose to use this extra time to get ice cream,” she noticed. He held up the two containers and the spoons. She held out her hands, a violet pencil pinched between her fingers. When he deposited the mint chip in her hands, she hummed. “I’m going to eat this whole thing, like right now.”

“Not stopping you,” he went and brought his desk chair around so she could keep on drawing. “Wow,” he took in the sheet from up close now. “They almost look real.”

“I wanted to do some detail work,” she smiled, looking glad he liked the result as much as she did.

“Been at it all night?” he asked as they both cracked open their ice cream. She ate a spoonful, then another, like she was stalling to speak.

“I tried to read for class, couldn’t concentrate,” she admitted, looking back up to him. Staring back, he thought about his conversation with Rosa earlier. Maya was still struggling now, and there was no telling how long she would continue on this way. But she wasn’t alone, and she would never be alone. They were here, around her, and they would help her along, in whatever way they could, whatever way she needed them.

TO BE CONTINUED


	257. His Hand to Rally

The next day, Lucas called home to his parents and confirmed the date for their dinner at Professor Robinson’s house with Pappy Joe and the Hillards. Maya had told him she didn’t mind whatever day they chose, though not to forget that they were aiming to go and spend the weekend back in Austin. She had yet to go and see her siblings, who she hadn’t seen since before their flight to New York, and those three didn’t even know they were back. Maya and her parents had figured that, so long as they didn’t know they were back, they wouldn’t wonder why their sister and her Lukey hadn’t come to see them yet. The last thing Maya wanted was to see them and burst into tears.

“How about we drive out there on Friday, you two can ride back with us for the weekend,” Tom Friar told his son.

“Yeah, sounds good, I just want to check Maya’s still up for it,” Lucas replied, scribbling down ‘Friday + weekend?’ in the corner of his notebook page.

“Are you sure?” his father asked in that dad voice of his.

“No, yeah, it’s just been a weird couple of days,” he admitted.

“After the last few weeks that you two have had, I can imagine. You’ll get there.”

“That’s what I’m hoping, it’s just…” He didn’t want to go airing out Maya’s issues, even if it would have been to his father alone, which would have been as good as family. As long as he was talking with his father though, there was something else for him to talk about. “Do you remember a guy named Clint Hitchins?” His father burst out laughing.

“Clinton? Sure, I do, what about him?”

“He’s one of my professors,” Lucas told him. His father laughed again. Clearly, his last memories of him went back to the days where the two of them and his uncle were boyhood friends.

He recounted his past clashes with the man, the animosity Hitchins had for his uncle, and the problems he’d been given following his time in New York, when the professor learned whose nephew he was. He also told him about what Hank had told him the day before.

“Tell you what, I might drop in on old Clint this Friday, remind him who he is, who he isn’t, and who knows all his dirty secrets,” Tom spoke now without laughter in his voice. Being protective of the people they loved was something that ran deep in their blood. And no one was going to mess with Tom Friar’s kid.

“Uncle Hank said he’d try and deal with him,” Lucas told him. Sure, picturing his father and his uncle giving Hitchins his due was amusing, but he also didn’t want this whole thing to become bigger than it had to be. And he didn’t want to make trouble for more people, especially his father. The only reason he was letting Hank go for it was that he was already involved.

After he and his father hung up, Lucas let his chair spin around, looking to Maya’s desk. She was at the restaurant now, her first shift back since New York. When he’d seen her earlier, she was working some serious Determined Face, already telling herself that she’d get through it. Whether or not she did get through it smoothly, he knew she’d be exhausted by the time he picked her up. Those first shifts back were always quick to wipe them out.

“Hey,” he poked his head into Dylan and Riley’s room after crossing the hall. Finding Riley pacing the room while Dylan sat in a ball on the bed with a stack of index cards, he guessed they were reviewing for a test of Riley’s… hopefully not for tomorrow. “Late night movie night when Maya gets home?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Riley nodded at once. Dylan tossed down the cards and climbed up off the bed.

“We’re out of popcorn, we can make a run to the store before she gets here, come on,” he looked to Riley, and soon they were gone.

“Hello?” Lucas called out as he climbed down from the second floor, seeking Chiara and Rosa.

“Basement!” he heard Chiara’s response and headed down the stairs, finding them in the middle of sorting and folding the laundry. It was their turn with the chore. “You have found us. Here, a prize,” she passed him the yellow basket, his and Maya’s basket.

“Cool, thanks,” he took it and set it down. “You two up for a late night movie night after I get Maya from the restaurant?”

“Oh, definitely,” Rosa agreed, looking down to the shirt in her hands. “Whose is this?” she shook her head, lost.

“Isn’t that yours?” Lucas frowned. Rosa looked at it and huffed before tossing it in the red basket behind her.

“There is a strong chance I will fall asleep before the movie is over. Feel free and wake me if I do.”

“Sophie will be home in about twenty minutes, I will send her a message,” Chiara smiled, reaching for her phone.

“Great, and it’s almost time for me to go get Maya,” Lucas grabbed the yellow basket and hurried up from the basement and back to their room, leaving their laundry there and heading out to his car.

Arriving at the restaurant, he just managed to catch a glimpse of Maya in there, chatting with Leona and Lion before looking out his way. He held up his hand in greeting and he caught her smile. As she exited and walked toward him, he opened out his arms at the ready.

“Call me easy to please, but this part always makes everything worth it,” she breathed as she met the embrace with one of her own.

“Same,” he smiled as she turned her head up to look at him. He kissed her lightly. “How did it go?”

“I thought for sure I would get orders mixed up all night, or drop plates everywhere, but overall, it went okay, I think. Not mad to be done for the night though. I just want to be home and relax…” Maya hummed, setting her head to his shoulder.

“Well… I think I’ve got you sorted on that,” Lucas told her.

“Oh, yeah?” she asked. “How?”

“You’ll see.”

The drive back was mostly silent as far as their talking. They had the radio on, and sometimes he could see her tapping her foot, or her hands on her knees, keeping the beat. He knew she wanted to get things going with the band again, didn’t want to let their recent opportunity’s momentum fizz out, but… but she wasn’t ready. If she tried to summon that performance energy, it just wouldn’t be there, and if she tried to write any new songs, they would likely come out really depressing, every last one of them. The other girls understood, of course. Maya had suggested the four of them should keep on trying to use that momentum without her until she was able to rejoin them, but they refused at once. It would be all of them or none of them.

They arrived back at the house, and when they walked through the door, they found all five of their roommates sitting around the couch, waiting for them.

“Hey, what…” Maya started to ask, until she caught a whiff of popcorn and saw the large bowl surrounded with candy bags on the coffee table.

“You go get changed, we’ll wait for you,” Sophie beamed. Maya looked back to Lucas. He asked with a look if she was up to it.

“Sounds good,” she smiled. “Back in a minute.”

When she returned, clad in PJs like half of them were, too, she took her usual spot on the big U-shaped couch, in one of the corners, by Lucas’ side. This was the kind of night where you watched old favorites, not anything you hadn’t seen before, and as this had all been done for Maya’s benefit, they very casually let her decide what they’d watch.

Lucas knew he couldn’t just keep looking at her to make sure she was okay. That would only make things worse. On the whole, it did get to feel like Maya’s mood was starting to improve. She was finding her rhythm again, even if it was happening at the slowest pace. Considering what she’d been through, it was more than understandable. Now here she was, surrounded by her friends and roommates, enjoying a normal night with them, watching a movie… They didn’t need much more than this.

As warned, Rosa dozed off within twenty minutes of the start. The others had been informed of her personally instigated clause, which soon led to everyone banding together to find some more creative ways of waking their newest resident whenever she went and fell asleep again, which she did, in total five times throughout the movie.

The first time, Chiara took hold of Peanut, who’d been trailing the foot of the couch in search of some kind soul who’d throw him something to eat, and she held him right in Rosa’s face. He started to lick her at once, startling her awake. The second time, she had Dylan’s stinky sock waved under her nose. The third time, Sophie and Riley got together and shouted together like a couple of highly motivated football coaches, and Rosa looked this close to dropping and giving them twenty. The fourth time saw Lucas stand behind her and start humming a Christmas carol, to which she protested that it was too early, much too early, and calling him Mom.

On the fifth one, the others sort of turned and looked to Maya as though to say ‘we’ve all had a go, now it’s your turn.’

“Maybe we should just let her sleep,” Maya shrugged. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been enjoying all this, she had been laughing along with the rest of them. But when it came to her, she was just blank. The rest of them didn’t want to look at her and have her think they were all thinking something like ‘poor Maya, she’s still so broken up about her father and having to leave her siblings back there.’ Maybe for that, she finally looked to Lucas. “Alright, here’s a thought.”

Younger or not, Rosa was still the smallest of the seven of them, so it was easy enough to carry her up the stairs and back to her room. It was a bit harder to get her on to the top bunk, though he managed it in the end, without dropping her or hitting her head on anything.

“What are you doing?” Lucas whispered, finding Maya doing something on Rosa’s phone.

“Setting a new alarm for one minute from now,” she told him before putting it down near the sleeping girl’s head. “Come on,” she ushered him out of the room and back down the stairs to where the others still waited. “As you were,” Maya told them, and they started the movie again.

Half a minute later, they heard a shout of surprise from upstairs, soon followed by someone cursing loudly in Italian.

“What did she say?” both Riley and Dylan turned to Chiara, who was laughing to the point of turning red, even as Sophie tried to muffle a chuckle of her own.

“You… you don’t want to know,” Sophie told them.

When Rosa came clambering down the stairs, she stopped and looked around like she was searching for a culprit. Lucas pointed to Maya, and Rosa blinked, standing in the dilemma of wanting to complain but also getting that Maya’s participation in shenanigans was kind of a great thing.

“I am locking my door tonight,” was all she had to say as she climbed over and dropped on to the couch with them again.

“Just don’t fall asleep now,” Maya intoned, pulling a smile from her boyfriend as she did.

TO BE CONTINUED


	258. His Hand to Meet

The week had been a constant source of stress and uncertainty, and Lucas was not sad to see it come to an end as Friday’s classes drew to a close. Between his concerns for Maya and the situation with his professor, a potentially surprising dinner with his family sounded like just the thing he needed. He came home to get ready and found Maya already on the finishing touches of her own look.

“Woah…” he heard himself say.

“What do you think, too much?” she asked, turning to him with that smile she’d get when she’d be amused at how she could stun him. As she walked up to him, he had not a thought in him of sadness or any unpleasant professors. There was just no one who could take his breath away the way that she did.

“No, it’s perfect, don’t change a thing,” he advised, which got him a smile bordering on shy, the rose on her cheeks created without the aid of makeup.

“Better get ready then, Huckleberry. I don’t do all this without expecting a bit of quid pro quo, you know?” she looked up to him with a gaze that did not lack in suggestion.

“So then, you’re just going to stand there while I change, huh?”

“Where else would I want to be?”

His parents were coming to pick them up before heading to Professor Robinson’s house. Their bags were already packed for the weekend and would be loaded in the trunk before they went to dinner. They arrived nearly at the same time as the Hillards, enough that they were all still getting out of the minivan that carried the seven of them and Pappy Joe. Maggie and Henry, the littlest Hillards, came running to meet their cousin Lucas, who led them back to the house to rejoin their family as the various guests to Patty’s dinner found their way to the door.

As they all greeted one another, the one they all took longest to speak to, as was to be expected, was Maya. Back at their house, when his parents had arrived, his mother had come up and embraced her at once, in a way that very much read like ‘oh you poor dear.’ She’d spoken to her in the last couple of weeks, of course, but it was the first time she actually got to see her in person since Kermit’s passing, and it seemed like she’d been stocking up on this hug all along. Maya didn’t resist it in any way, and she thanked his mother for all her well wishes. She got a lot of this from his father, too, and then Hank and Tanya, and of course Pappy Joe.

“Now, don’t crowd the girl, Joe, let her breathe,” Patty came through the mass of Friars and Hillards to find her student. “Maya, dear, could I borrow you in the kitchen for a minute?”

“Sure,” she followed, and the two of them disappeared. Lucas turned around, surrounded now by his family. He could see his father and his uncle talking between the two of them, slightly removed from the others, and he had a feeling he knew what this was about. He only had Hitchins’ class once a week, so he hadn’t seen him again yet, but he knew his uncle was working to clear up things for him, and he had to resist asking what he had or hadn’t done.

He didn’t have to be left wondering for very long however, as the subject somehow came up when they all were sitting to dinner. Hank mentioned that he was having to deal with an unpleasant colleague, to which Patty Robinson instantly inquired.

“Clint Hitchins, History Department,” Hank informed her. She scoffed immediately, drawing everyone’s attention. “Ah, so you’ve met,” Hank boomed out with that laugh so much like Pappy Joe’s.

“Sniveling leech of a man,” she declared, and Lucas thought he heard Maya stifle a laugh at his side. “‘Oh, Professor Robinson, Patricia, lovely to see you…’” she imitated, and she most definitely had the man’s voice pegged.

“Oh, that guy?” Pappy Joe reacted like he’d witnessed one of these encounters.

“Dad, you know him, remember Clinton, when we were boys?” Tom told him, pointing to himself and Hank. Both Melinda and Tanya were also showing recognition.

“ _That_ kid?” Now Pappy Joe was the one laughing. “I thought he looked familiar. What’d he do?”

“He’s been giving Lucas trouble about being away in New York, especially now that he figured out that we were family,” Hank explained. Lucas felt Maya’s eyes on him now. She’d had no idea. He looked at her, hated to see concern on her face, when she’d been having such a good time.

“It’s fine, really,” he whispered to her. All she’d known of the guy up to that point was his grudge over Hank, the whole Snape/Lupin thing he’d told her about months ago, but now this trouble, especially trouble that was sort of because of her…

“You leave that boy to me,” Patty Robinson declared. “He likes licking my boots so much, let him try this taste on,” she looked to Lucas with a confident nod.

“Uh… thank you, Profe… Patty,” he nodded.

In the end, the dinner was just a dinner, not the site of some great proposal or revelation of any kind. When it was done, Lucas and Maya got into his parents’ car and the four of them drove off to Austin. They would spend the night at their house, before going to see Maya’s family in the morning. Once they reached the house and his old room, leaving the two of them alone, he knew she would ask about Hitchins again, and she did. He laid out the whole story, his correspondences with him while they were in New York and then their meeting once he’d gone back to school at the start of the week.

“You could have told me…”

“I didn’t want to give you more to worry about,” he shook his head. She was looking at him now like she hadn’t seen him all week, like she’d had this blind spot over the possibility that he might have been having some struggles of his own.

“Lucas, I… I’m sorry, I didn’t…” her voice fizzled out, and he knew she was about to start crying.

“No, no, no, hey…” he pulled her close. He’d been waiting for this all week, for her to have another drop, and now here it was. “This is not on you, okay?” he whispered at her ear. “Just take a breath…” he kept on rubbing at her back. “You’ve been getting through this, day by day, and I am so proud of you,” he kissed the side of her head.

“If I see that Hitchins guy, I’m smacking him,” she spoke so quietly he barely caught it.

“If he sees _you_ , he better run,” he smiled.

The next morning, they were up early. Maya wanted to surprise her siblings before they all went to breakfast. His job here was to get her mood up as much as possible and make sure it held until she was with her family. Once she was surrounded by those tiny people who loved her, according to Nellie Hunter, ‘more than chocolate,’ which was some high praise out of her… she’d be okay.

“They should be up by now,” Maya told him as they walked up to the house.

“Ready to get piled on by toddlers?” he asked with a smirk. She chuckled.

“Are you kidding, I’m a pro at this.”

They let themselves in and were quickly greeted by Shawn, who came forward for a quiet hello with his daughter and her boyfriend, all the better to spring the surprise on the unsuspecting trio upstairs with their mother. They could hear them as they climbed the stairs. From what he’d heard through both Katy and Shawn when they’d been in New York, the twins were trying to teach their little brother the alphabet, and that was just what they were doing now. Gracie was the more patient instructor, while Nellie was more prone to get annoyed… So, business as usual. MJ, meanwhile, would just laugh.

“You have to know letters, MJ!” Nellie was insisting when they walked in. Katy was sitting on Gracie’s bed, with MJ standing in front of her, his hands on her knees, while Nellie was pointing to the letters painted on a board next to her. Gracie, standing in between and facing the door, was the first to spot her big sister, and she gasped and ran at once, a tiny brown-haired arrow right into Maya’s arms as she crouched to receive her. In no time, with a great cry of her name, Nellie rushed up and piled on, while MJ completed the quartet and sent Maya tipping on to her back. It pulled such a hearty laugh out of her, Lucas could only smile.

“Let me sit, come on,” she was still laughing as they finally let her up. “I am so happy to see you,” she told them as MJ plopped himself down in her lap and got himself a hug of his own now that the twins had pulled back. “Did you grow, Matty?” Maya hugged him back.

“I know letters!” he informed her.

“He knows until F,” Nellie insisted.

“He makes a noise at M and J,” Gracie added.

“He is two years old,” Katy reminded the twins as she stood to greet Maya and Lucas. Just over two months away from giving birth to 4H Haley, she looked ready to give birth to twins again.

They were having breakfast at Ma Maggie’s, which had been an easily sold idea to Katy and Shawn when the visit had been confirmed. This weekend was primarily about seeing their families again after being away, but there was also the ongoing side mission of helping Maya get back on top of things, and he couldn’t think of a better place to bring her.

They arrived at the restaurant to discover they weren’t eating alone that day, as they were joined by Riley’s parents and her brothers, from the ever growing August to the still newborn Hunter Matthews. Maya and Lucas both had been getting to see picture after picture over the last couple of weeks, but it was nothing compared to actually seeing the small boy and holding him in their arms. Lucas didn’t really get to hold him until near the end of that day, of course, as once Maya got her hands on him, she hardly ever let him go. Holding that little new life in her arms, she looked more at peace than she had in a long time, and it was wonderful to see.

“Now, your big sister, Riley, she’s been like _my_ sister since we were tiny kids,” she would speak quietly at him. “So, you and me we’re practically family, too. That means if you ever need anything ever, I will hook you up, yeah?”

“That’s a kept promise,” Lucas told the boy, who had one of his hands wrapped around one of his fingers.

“Whose hair do you think he’ll get?” Maya asked him in a whisper. Lucas smirked, stealing a look to Hunter’s parents. Riley had definitely gotten her mother’s, while August had his father’s. Going by the fuzz on the baby’s head…

“It’s really anybody’s game right here,” Lucas told her. Maya was looking around the table now, crowded with the Hunter Harts and the Matthews, with parents and siblings and baby Hunter Matthews. Wherever her thoughts were taking her, she took a deep breath and turned her attention back to the boy in her arms with a smile.

“Let him have both, I say.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	259. His Hand to Advance

The last weeks of the semester, leading up to finals, made them feel on the whole like they couldn’t wait to be done with it. From the beginning, back in January, it had all felt like they could never properly find their way. They had come back from the winter break with this news that Maya’s birth father was ill again and that he’d gone terminal. And after being caught up in that bit of stress for a few months, they had then had to deal with his dying and what it meant for those in his life to lose him. They needed summer, needed a chance to stop and breathe again.

Lucas could be glad of one thing before long, and it was that his issues with Professor Hitchins were, for the time being, resolved. A few days after the dinner at Professor Robinson’s house, when he’d walked back into Hitchins’ class, he had been understandably apprehensive. Whatever had or hadn’t been done, he still had to brace for the possibility that he’d be walking into more of the same.

In the end, he couldn’t say for sure what he preferred, from what he originally had to what he had now. Sure, the old way meant that he’d have his professor’s ire turned on to him over some perceived sleight from his uncle, which could mean his grades taking a hit, affecting his chances of having the future he wanted… But now what did he have? He had Professor ‘please call me Clint’ Hitchins, eager to bend over backwards and accommodate him, to the point where he was starting to get looks from his classmates. He knew better than to think it was all genuine, or at least he knew that he was only doing it out of some decision that, because of his connection to Professor Robinson and what his treatment of Hank Hillard’s nephew might mean for his career, he could just switch tactics as easily as that.

He didn’t want to give more attention to the Hitchins thing than he really had to, so he left it alone as much as possible, focusing instead on what he always did. He took care of getting through all his classes to the best of his abilities, he did his job well at the bookstore and at his aunt’s clinic… And he did his best in being there for Maya as she continued to try and manage her loss and her grief.

She was getting there. There was no other way to describe it than this. She wasn’t there yet, and there was never going to be any one moment where she could say ‘there, I’ve done it.’ Even as she would show these signs of improving, every so often she would hit another new setback and turn quiet all over again. More often than not, this would happen after a call with her siblings back in New York.

They were all reacting in their own ways, much as they’d been doing, before she’d come back to Texas. It had been more than a month now though, and in that time… Sam still lived in his need to look after his younger siblings and his mother, even if it was becoming clear that he wasn’t dealing with his own feelings, that he didn’t see any priority in this when compared to helping the others. That would only work so long, and everyone else would see it except him. He now had what was getting to be a permanent roommate in his little brother. Wyatt had spent every night since Kermit’s death sleeping next to Sam. On the whole, he might have been the one who had the smoothest transition, though it would never be correct to say that he was fine. He still had his questions, still didn’t like to be alone. There was something missing in his life, affecting his family, and it was growing in him as something like anxiety.

If the boys existed in this space of either not addressing their feelings or not understanding what was happening around them, the girls were on the other side. They’d both had to be taken out of school, finishing out the sixth and third grades at home with a tutor. Abigail had tried to send them back, same as Sam, but it had quickly been shown to have been a mistake. Eliza still wouldn’t speak, and Cara had been said to have developed ‘attitude’ problems by her teachers. Maya had been trying to break through Eliza’s shell all this time. They would have their calls over Skype, as they’d always done, and Maya would speak to her, ask her questions… Eliza would smile, or nod, or shake her head, communicating in any number of ways, except in words. If they ever asked her outright why she didn’t go ahead and say something, she’d clam right up. All they could do then was to let her be and hope she would find her voice again. If anyone tried and told Abigail that they had to tell her to ‘stop it and just talk already,’ she’d tell them to mind their own business. Eliza’s teacher had been one of those, and the nine-year-old was the first of the girls to be pulled back out of school.

If Maya’s half-sister Cara had always been said to look so much like her, then the removal of Kermit had caused a similar turn in their behaviors, too. The circumstances were different, but the results remained. Of all the things she’d been made to feel by the death of her father, Cara had embraced anger like a shield against the rest. In all of a month, she had grown near unrecognizable from who she’d been before. She’d finally been taken out of school, just last week, because Abigail feared that leaving her there would only allow things to heighten to levels that they couldn’t come back from. Maya had become Cara’s outlet for all her frustrations, and she never refused her, but when the call would end…

And then there was her aunt in Arizona. Her own siblings were hers to think about because they were her brothers and sisters, and it would be in her to want to make sure they were okay. When it came to her father’s sister though, it was a responsibility put on to her by her father before his passing, and it became something she was devoted to for a whole other reason. Her father had wanted Maya to look after Luna after he was gone, knowing that his kid sister would need that extra support.

She hadn’t been holding up her end of the deal, not in the beginning, just couldn’t muster up the energy to even know what she could or should do to help Luna. She’d be back in Arizona now, with her daughters, or at least that was what she’d believed. When she’d finally put a call in to her, a few days after she and Lucas had returned from their weekend in Austin, Maya had learned that her cousins, Ginny and Sadie, were presently staying with their father. Luna had taken time off work to head up to New York but, upon returning, she couldn’t go back yet, so she’d extended her leave.

“She’s just sitting in that house, on her own all day,” Maya told Lucas when she found out, and he could just see the twinge of distress in her, thinking that she’d failed on her promise to her father so very deeply by letting his sister’s life fall apart.

“You needed time, too,” Lucas reminded her, shaking his head.

“I swear, I’m going to do it this time,” she told him, pacing the length of their room.

“Do what?” he asked, but then he had a feeling he knew. She wanted to call Florida. “Would that really help at this point? They wouldn’t show up for their dying son…”

“Yeah, well, they’ve got one kid left and she’s hurting, and if they won’t remember that they put people into the world then someone needs to remind them,” she stopped to look at him.

“We don’t know what they’re like, what if we put them on Luna’s trail and they make things worse for her. What if she can’t get her daughters back?” That stalled her, forced her to think again.

“We don’t have to tell them, not right away,” she finally countered. Lucas didn’t know if he liked where this was going, but he listened anyway.

It would be a few more days before they set their plan in motion. The distance between Texas and Florida was not exactly a hindrance. Even if they’d lived in the same city, Maya would never gone up to their door and rung the bell, not when she bore enough of a family resemblance to give herself away. If anything, she pulled on their being in Texas like an additional mask, pulling on her best and not so comical Texas accent, constructed of nearly a decade living there. One Saturday afternoon, she put in the call.

“Hello?” a woman’s voice answered, and for all the preparation she’d made, Lucas could see on Maya’s face that the one thing she hadn’t factored in was the moment where she’d realize she was talking to either of her grandparents for the first time in her life. “Hello?” the woman asked again, and, with a blink, Maya remembered what they were supposed to be doing.

“Is this Mrs. Elizabeth Hart?” she made herself ask.

“Yes, this is she,” Mrs. Hart replied. “Who’s speaking?”

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Hart, my name is Sophie, I’m calling from Houston.”

“You’re not selling anything, are you?”

“No, not at all…”

“Doing a survey?”

“No survey, no sale,” Maya promised, already feeling just a bit uncertain that this would end well. “See, I grew up in New York, came to Texas for college, and wouldn’t you know, met my husband, and we’ve been living out here these past ten-odd years.” She’d stolen a look to Lucas at this, smirking at him and getting the same in return.

“You sound a bit young,” Mrs. Hart declared.

“Oh, aren’t you sweet, I get that all the time,” Maya deftly laughed this off. “The thing is, I went to school with your daughter, Luna. We were such dear friends, but you know how it is, someone moves away, life happens, and we haven’t seen or spoken to one another in all this time. I’ve been trying to get in touch with her, and my mother said she believed Luna’s mother and father had moved to Florida a number of years ago, and so I found you.”

“She lives in Tucson, Arizona,” Mrs. Hart informed her, and Maya couldn’t say for certain if her tone was good or bad, if it was ‘my dear Luna is in Arizona’ or ‘Luna is in Arizona, but I haven’t spoken to her for some time and haven’t tried to reach out.’

“Oh, Arizona, that’s not too far, that’s good news,” Maya played up the role anyway. “How’s she been?” she asked.

“Last I heard, she was getting divorced,” Mrs. Hart answered, and Maya felt a twinge. If the divorce was the last that she’d heard, then they hadn’t spoken in three years.

“I-I’m sorry to hear that. Any children?” she pushed on.

“Yes,” Mrs. Hart replied, and here for the first time Maya caught something like light. “Two girls, they’ll be seven and four now.” There was a moment of silence, like maybe she’d started to think of her daughter, the granddaughters she’d lost touch with, even as she was on the line with another one of those. “I can give you the last number I have for her, I couldn’t tell you if it’s still good.”

“That’d be great, thank you.” Lucas could see as Maya braced herself before giving the next push. She’d gotten this far though… “Say, how’s Luna’s brother, what was his name, I…”

“Kermit,” Mrs. Hart told her, and hearing her father’s name from his mother’s lips, Maya looked ready to hit ‘end’ on the call, afraid of what she’d hear next. Before she could decide, her grandmother said something that gave them both a pause. “He still lives up in New York, last I heard.”

Maya hit mute on their side of the call, still hearing the woman’s search for Luna’s number, so fast that Sophie’s borrowed phone nearly slid off the desk where she’d set it. She looked up to Lucas and they both had eyes wide like saucers. _She doesn’t know. Oh, hell, she doesn’t know…_ All this time, she’d been raging at them for not showing up, but then it had never come to her to wonder if anyone had informed them of what was happening to him. Kermit and his parents hadn’t been in touch for so many years, so she wouldn’t expect Abigail to be in touch with them any more than him. And if she wasn’t in touch with Luna either, then… then…

“What do I do?” Maya asked in a panicked whisper, even though the woman couldn’t hear her. Lucas was as stunned silent as she was.

“Here it is, do you have a pen and paper?” Mrs. Hart’s voice came back on the line. Lucas and Maya kept looking at each other. “Hello? Sophie?” Maya’s hand was over her mouth, shaking her head. “Hello? Are you still there?”

She swore under her breath, and she hit unmute.

“Mrs. Hart,” she spoke again, dropping the Texas drawl. “I _am_ calling from Houston, I _do_ know your daughter and your son, but my name isn’t Sophie. It’s Maya… Maya Penelope Hart, I was born in New York twenty-two years ago, my mother’s name is Katy, my father is your son, Kermit.”

There was a pause, the longest ten or so seconds, it felt, of both their lives.

“I know who you are, yes,” Mrs. Hart finally spoke, and the fact that she hadn’t hung up the phone was possibly good news, or it was bad news in disguise. “I don’t understand the meaning behind this game with the fake story, what do you want from me?” she didn’t sound angry, or confused, she just wanted information. She couldn’t see the scene on the other side of the line, where her granddaughter was bracing to tell her the reason… all the reasons.

“You said my father still lives in New York?”

“Well, I assumed so, he was the last time we spoke, but I guess he’s in Texas then,” Mrs. Hart replied, a small inflection like ‘it might have been good to hear it from him.’

“No, that’s just my mother and I, but that’s not… Mrs. Hart, I was calling you because I needed to see if you might be able to help me with Luna, but I’m afraid there’s something else I need to tell you first. Are you… Maybe you should sit down.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	260. Their Balance of Shock

Of all the ways either of them had thought this call would unfold, somehow, they had never planned for how it ended up going. They had never envisioned having to tell someone that their son was dead.

She had no choice. She’d gotten too far into this to just say ‘okay, never mind’ and hang up. And after raging after this woman and her husband for weeks, over something they hadn’t really done… She felt she owed her this courtesy, at the very least. Except what was she supposed to say exactly? The fact that they weren’t in the same state, let alone the same room, had been a good thing when she’d first put in the call. Now, it felt like her distance was more cowardly than anything. Who would be there to support this woman?

To her credit, Mrs. Elizabeth Hart had heard enough to understand the news wouldn’t be good. She’d asked Maya to be straight with her, and Maya had done as she was told.

“Kermit was sick, on and off for a few years. He finally passed away, last month,” she spoke slowly and evenly.

There was silence for a time, and if she couldn’t still hear ambient sounds from the other end of the line, she might have believed the woman was gone, or she’d hung up… Eventually though, there was a slightly distant sniffing sound, like the receiver had been kept away from her grandmother’s ear. A few seconds later, she spoke again.

“Was he… Did he suffer?” The words rumbled through Maya, tearing holes in her composure as she was taken back to that hospital room, that day… Lucas reached across the desk, silently taking her hand.

“He… he had difficulty speaking, in the end, but overall, he was comfortable.”

“You were with him. That’s good,” Mrs. Hart spoke faintly, and in that moment, she wanted to be holding the woman’s hand, much as Lucas was doing with her now. She was relieved that he hadn’t been alone, and Maya just remembered her anger with her, with her grandfather, that they hadn’t been there with him. “How’s your mother doing, this must have been quite a shock.”

Maya closed her eyes. That was the other bombshell she had to drop now, and it might not have seemed as destructive as ‘your son is dead,’ but she still found herself hesitating. For better or for worse, the man her father had been in the end did not reflect who he had been to her in all those years when he wasn’t in her life, and she didn’t want anyone thinking otherwise, especially his mother.

“We were there, at the hospital, both of us, but she’s not the one who was widowed that day. His wife is called Abigail, she…”

“I don’t understand,” Mrs. Hart cut in, and Maya took a breath.

“Dad… left, when I was six years old. He was out of my life until last year. In that time, he met and married Abigail. They had four children together.”

Another pause, and this one felt more so a challenge of conscience. What was there to do? Kermit was gone, what was done was done, and now Elizabeth Hart discovered she didn’t have three grandchildren but seven.

“Sam is fourteen, Cara is twelve, Eliza is nine, and Wyatt is five,” Maya spoke on, wanting very much to make the four of them real to their grandmother. Now that she thought about it, she wondered if Eliza might have been named in honor of their grandmother. “They’re struggling at the moment, but their mother is a fighter, and I know she’ll see them through this. But Luna, she…” _I promised him… I promised, and I’m failing. Help me help her._

“She idolized her big brother, for as long as I can remember,” Elizabeth spoke quietly in the beat where Maya searched for words.

“She’s not doing very good without him,” Maya told her. She told her what she knew, about her being on leave from work, and how her daughters were currently with their father, because she knew she wasn’t capable of looking after them, in the state she was. “I know you two haven’t spoken in a few years, but right now she needs people to rally around her, she needs help. Please, if there’s anything you can do for her…”

She looked to Lucas as she said this. She kept thinking about what he’d said before. What if she put Luna’s parents on her trace and it ended up meaning that she never got her daughters back? But her gut was telling her this was the right call, and it never let her down before. She had taken a massive chance, and if it all fell apart it would be on her, because she’d shared something she might not have been meant to share.

“I… I don’t even know if the number I have is…” Elizabeth replied after a beat. Maya told her the number _she_ had. It was the same, that and the address. While she was at it, she gave her grandmother her own phone number, seeing as she had called from Sophie’s phone. She didn’t know what would come of this, but she was taking another chance. It was that kind of a day. “Thank you, Maya,” her grandmother spoke, after writing all this down. It was the first time she heard her say her name, and in this context, she couldn’t have asked for a better first. “It is good to hear your voice.”

“If you want to see my face, just type ‘TXNY’ on YouTube.” She didn’t know why she’d said it, but now there it was.

“What’s that?”

“It’s… it’s my band, I’m in a band.” She thought she heard something like a surprised laugh, just barely.

They hung up soon after, and when the call disconnected, Maya rolled back in her chair until she could lean forward, breathing deep, like she’d been needing to for several minutes. Lucas brought his chair around the desk until they could be sitting face to face, and he set his hands on her knees.

“You alright?” he asked. She shook her head.

“No… I don’t know… It really wasn’t what I was… This is just so much,” she looked back up to him. He could only nod, turning his hands over in invitation. She placed her own in his and he held them. “Maybe I should have waited until after finals, huh?” she weakly joked, but just as soon shook her head. “No, it had to be now. Luna needs help.”

“We’ll find a way to give it to her, one way or another,” he promised. “I’ll help in any way I can.” Kermit had tasked his daughter with this, but Lucas wasn’t about to leave her to handle it all on her own.

“I know you will,” Maya smiled at him, leaning to press her forehead to his. “Do you even know, you being here like this, it’s already doing so much?”

“Just means I get to do more when I actually apply myself,” he smiled back, which made her laugh.

“I love you,” she told him, squeezing his hands.

“And I love you,” he said it back, letting go of one hand to tip one finger under her chin, raising it until he could kiss her lightly. “I know this is going to be in your head now, your grandparents and Luna. Don’t just keep it in, yeah? Whatever needs letting out, I will take it.”

“Didn’t that used to be you?” she pointed out.

“Yeah, fair enough,” he nodded. Already a year and a half had passed since Halloween and their maybe baby night, but they hadn’t forgotten it. They both remembered how he had been so focused on her that he’d kept his own feelings bottled in for a while, until they’d finally gotten to a point where he could let it out. “I had you for that though, and now you’ve got me.”

“I always do.”

As much as she tried not to let her call with her grandmother get to her for the rest of the day, she wasn’t surprised to find it still there, still at the back of her mind. She knew Lucas could see it, too, and she sort of wished it didn’t have to be like that. He’d been so good to her, through so many messy situations over the years, and much as she tried to remember the good times more than the rest, she never forgot, not any one part of it.

The next morning, maybe to give herself something like reassurance, she called Kenneth Chen and asked to speak with Ginny. Maya had never met Luna’s ex-husband, but the two of them were aware of each other via Ginny and Sadie. When she called, he passed the phone at once.

“Hi, Maya,” her little cousin greeted her.

“Hello, Miss Virginia,” she smiled. It made the girl laugh. “How are you?”

“Good. Sadie and I are making a castle out of blocks, to put her dolls in,” Ginny informed her.

“Wow, a big castle?”

“I don’t know, there’s not that many blocks.”

“Send me a photo when you’re done, okay?”

“Okay!” Ginny agreed. She didn’t sound sad or anything, she was just having a good time with her sister, at their father’s place. It wasn’t like she was sitting there all day wondering where her mother was and why they were at their father’s, or at least it didn’t sound that way. So how was she supposed to find out how they were doing on that front without actually making her feel things she didn’t already feel?

“Having a good time at your dad’s, huh?” she eventually asked.

“Yeah! We’re going to make food like his mom did tonight. Jeannie says he should be a chef.”

“Jeannie, that’s your dad’s girlfriend, yeah?” Maya asked.

“Yeah!” Ginny told her, always in that cheerful little way she had. “Our names sound almost the same. She’s nice.” Nice… Nice little family unit they had right here, and the girls fit right in. Meanwhile, Luna was shutting down all on her own. It sat like a stone on her lungs, to think she was letting down Luna and letting down her promise to her father. But what could she even do, more than she’d already done? Short of flying out to Tucson, which she could not do, not now… “Sadie wants to say hi, hang on!” A moment later…

“Maya!” Sadie’s chirpy voice was heard, and she could only smile.

“Hey, Sadie babe, I heard you’re making a castle.”

“For Princess Blue and Princess Purple!” Sadie informed her.

“Well, they need a castle,” she agreed. Sadie laughed. They were both happy…

After they hung up, Maya ended up laid out on the couch down in the living room. Small, yapping barks alerted her to Peanut’s presence. The little guy had a way of showing up when people needed something small and fluffy to cuddle, like a superpower sixth sense or something.

“Do dogs have just the five senses or do you guys have more and just don’t tell us?” she asked as she pulled him up to join her. He just barked and went nuzzling at her face, which made her laugh. “Okay, fair enough, your secret’s safe with me, SuperPup.”

After a while, feeding something of curiosity, she pulled out her phone and put in a search. _Elizabeth Hart + New York + church choir._ A few results came up, a local article at the top, with the whole story of the woman who was leaving after being part of the choir since she was a girl. There was a photo at the top of the page. It would have been from when she’d left New York a few years back, showing her with her husband, and Luna and Kenneth, with a toddler who’d be Ginny, going by the swell in Luna’s belly which would be Sadie.

There they all were, most of them anyway. Her grandparents, Elizabeth and Charles, all in all pretty normal people, if you ignored the fact that they’d named their kids Kermit and Luna. If she looked at the man, she could almost say for certain her father would have looked that way, if he’d lived as long, and her grandmother… So much of what she had in common with Cara, and with Luna, she had with her, too. Her family just kept expanding, if you could call it that, when it had been out there all along, just out of her reach. They had all become splinters, kindling. Right now, they needed to be a tree again.

TO BE CONTINUED


	261. Their Balance of Focus

They might have been thinking about the fact that, once the next few days’ final exams were behind them, they would be done with their third of four years in Houston. It would be the truth, and it was a moment they always felt coming, as each year drew to a close, but now… Right now, it was a battle in their minds, between the things they should be focusing on – their schoolwork – and the things that had been forcing their way into their minds instead – Kermit’s death, Luna’s struggles, and the elder Harts’ discovery of their children’s plights.

It could have been presumed that these things did not affect Lucas, and why should they, right? This was not his family, and it wasn’t up to him to make one thing or another happen. Except the whole thing was very real, and it existed like a dark cloud, following his girlfriend around, never leaving her alone, until it was as good as coiled around her, refusing to let her go. And, as far as he was concerned, if anything came to affect Maya, then, yes, it absolutely and very much affected him and concerned him. They may not have been husband and wife, bound for better or for worse, but what was that except a technicality of time. They were not now, but they would be some day.

They didn’t know what they were supposed to expect in these next few days, as far as the whole extended Hart family saga, but they had a very much slated schedule with their finals, so both Lucas and Maya had made a vow that they would do everything in their power to carry on with their studies and with their exams as they happened, and if any developments happened on the side of the family situation, well… Well, they’d cross that bridge when they got to it, wouldn’t they?

Lucas couldn’t say for sure that this vow would hold. Maya would struggle with it, he could almost guarantee, which in turn would come and trouble him, would make him want to do everything in his power to help her and change that. One day at a time, right? It was all they could do.

In the past, he had been particularly stressed at this moment in time, the prospect of how he would succeed or fail and what it would mean for him, for his future. This year, this semester at least, it was sort of the opposite, though not necessarily in a good way either. So much of the last few months had been tainted with concerns over Kermit, his progressing illness, and his death, and the aftermath, that he hadn’t spent so much time worrying over his studies as he’d done focusing on them almost like an escape. Even then… He could see well enough, from projects and tests throughout the semester, that he wasn’t performing as well as past semesters. He wasn’t failing, but he knew he could do better. All he could tell himself now was that, with the semester they’d had, he could have done worse.

One afternoon, he found himself at the library, with Bishop and a few others from their classes, for a review session. He had only just taken a seat when he spotted Maya, way on the other side of the area lined with tables and chairs and presently packed with students, sitting and studying at one of those tables, with Franny and Kayla, and Lily Weaver, and Aminah Ali, and some more of their classmates. If it wasn’t that they were in the middle of a library, especially one packed with students stressing over finals, he would have let out the all familiar cry the two of them used to let out, whenever they’d be in the gym, one of them in the middle of a basketball game, the other up in the stands. It would have made her laugh, that much he was sure of.

For now, he could only be contented of the fact that she was here, surrounded by friends, and it just might be what she needed in order to pull her focus together and prepare herself for finals. Just as he was about to sit down and look away, she happened to look up and around, and she spotted him.

_“How’s it going over there?”_ he signed.

_“Slower now that they’ll realize there’s all you guys over there,”_ Maya signed back with a smile. As predicted, her responding to him had been enough to get the others’ attention and make them look and see what Maya was looking at.

_“Sorry. Pretend I’m not here.”_

_“Impossible.”_

With a quick and reciprocated sign of _I love you_ , they both turned back to their respective tables and respective studies.

His first exam coming up would be the one for Professor Hitchins. Lucas was kind of glad, to be honest. His position had in no way changed where the man was concerned, especially as his boot licking ways had only gotten more frustrating, so it wasn’t that he was looking forward to the test. More to the point, he was looking forward to being done with it, to have it put behind him. If there was any way at all to get around him, he was going to make damned sure he never had to take another class taught by Clinton Hitchins.

“Heard a couple of the girls in there saying they thought he’d give you full marks because you’re his ace student all of a sudden,” warned one of his other classmates, Delia, as he walked out of the room after handing in his test. He turned around to see her sitting in the hall, he guessed, waiting for her girlfriend, who was still inside.

“Yeah, well, let them think what they want to think,” he sighed.

“Good plan,” Delia nodded. “Hey, your girlfriend’s that blonde who’s in TXNY, yeah?”

“You’ve heard about them?” he asked, nodding.

“Yeah, Steph and I met at one of their shows last year,” Delia smiled. “Anyway, I think she was looking for you earlier, she was sort of hanging around for a minute, then she took off again. She looked kind of upset.” He let out a breath, reaching for his phone.

“Thanks,” he gave a quick wave to Delia before starting down the hall.

“Study group at the café tomorrow!” she called after him and he held up his hand in a thumbs up for confirmation.

He tried to call Maya but got her voicemail. Looking at the time, he remembered she had a test of her own right about now, so she must have been out there by this time. He hated to think of her having to sit through a test with something working against her in her head, and he hated it even more for knowing he couldn’t do anything to change it. Not knowing anyone’s schedules, he could only open this to the home thread on his phone.

_Lucas: Has anyone heard from Maya in the last half hour? Heard she came looking for me, but I just got out of a test and now she’s in one._

He paced about for a little while, phone gripped in his hand. She must have gotten a call, a message, something, but who from? One of her siblings in New York? Her aunt in Arizona? Her grandmother in Florida? What if something had happened with her mother and the baby, back in Austin? It could have been anything, in any one place or another.

None of the others had heard from her in any way that would suggest something was wrong. Thinking for a few seconds, he remembered where her test was supposed to take place, so he went off that way and took up residence on a nearby bench, pulling out one of his notebooks to review for his next exam while he waited for Maya to exit.

He couldn’t say for sure how successful he was on that front, but bit by bit the minutes passed, and a little over an hour after he’d arrived, he heard steps coming his way and looked up to find it was Maya. One way or another, her having been stuck with a test to take had softened some of the worry off her face, but it was still there in her features.

“What happened?” he asked as she came and sat next to him.

“Cara got in a fight with one of the girls she went to school with,” Maya revealed, a flightiness in her motions he recognized as a deep desire for her to be somewhere she couldn’t.

“Is she okay?” Lucas’ eyes went a bit wide, imagining sweet, smiling Cara in any kind of a fight that didn’t involve pillows or water or paintball shooters.

“Few scrapes and bruises, nothing that won’t heal, but…” Maya shook her head, trying to hold her emotions together. “Abigail was beside herself, I think it’s all finally starting to get to her. Taking Cara out of school was supposed to keep this from happening, but now…”

They only had a few more days of this, of having to think about school, and then they’d be in the clear for the next few months, but life and their problems were not on the same schedule, were they?

“What’s she going to do now?” Lucas asked.

“Doesn’t know yet,” Maya shook her head. “She thinks maybe she needs to get her in therapy, her and the others, too, probably, but she doesn’t feel like it’ll be enough.” One look at her and he could tell she felt the same way. “I know we were supposed to go up and see them in New York over the summer, but… Maybe they should come to Texas instead, get away, try and clear their heads?”

“I think that might be good for them, yeah,” he nodded. After silence had started to set in, he had to ask. “How did it go in there?” he nodded back to the room where she’d been taking her test. She let out a breath, ran a hand through her hair.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I was kind of on auto-pilot. They were essay questions, so I pretty much rattled off everything I knew. No idea if any of it will stick.” He supposed that was better than her having been so caught up in her own head that she couldn’t come up with anything, right? “You ever really want to punch something, or… just yell at the top of your lungs until there’s no more breath in you?” she asked.

“I can think of one time, yeah,” he looped his arm with hers. It had been the morning after the accident, when he’d gone home with his parents. He _had_ unleashed all those feelings, in the backseat of his parents’ car. He couldn’t say whether it had really helped in the end, except that he’d needed to let all of it out. “When’s your next final?” he asked, pulling out his pocket watch, the one she’d given him years ago, and unhooking it from his belt loop. “Soon, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. Two of them, almost back to back, had felt like excess even before this. He reached for her hand, the owl and the nightingale peeking from the sleeves of their looped arms, and he set the watch in her palm.

“I know it’s a tall order today, but it’s never let us down before, yeah?” he closed her fingers around the object, warmed from his pocket.

“I don’t see it starting today,” she sniffed, nodded.

He walked her to her next exam room when the time came, and they parted after she clipped the chain to her belt and slipped the watch in her pocket. Lucas watched her go, taking a breath and passing every hope he had of that watch’s powers into the object now in Maya’s possession. It wasn’t going to let them down, not today.

TO BE CONTINUED


	262. Their Balance of Reality

She had a very real scare that she might have spaced out through the whole exam period when, at one point, she blinked and realized she’d written all of two lines and then stopped. All around her, pencils were scratching away, and hers was just gripped in her hand, unmoving. She looked up at the clock on the wall and saw, with some relief, that it had only been twenty minutes since the test had started. Still, that meant she’d been sitting there, doing nothing, for a good fifteen of those minutes.

Maya took a deep breath, closing her eyes and imagining she could hear that clock, ticking away in her pocket. It was too faint for her to actually hear it, even in the near silence of the room, but she had heard it enough times over the years that the specific sound it made was as familiar to her as anything. She was almost certain she could pick it out from a series of tick-tick-ticking watches, eyes closed as they were now.

So, she conjured up that sound in her head, and she let it bring in other familiar things, like the feel of Lucas’ hand when it held hers, or his arms when he kept her close, the warm scent of him… It was always so much easier to find peace when he was there with her, and she never took that for granted, not ever. Life could just sneak up on you and throw you a for a loop and… _Tick tick tick…_ She breathed, and she opened her eyes, and slowly she started to write again.

As much as she tried to tell herself that she couldn’t fix everything, that she couldn’t be everywhere for everyone, she couldn’t help it, she needed to do it, or to just… to feel like she wasn’t letting them down, like they’d know that they mattered to her, and that she wasn’t going to have them go through any of this on their own. She had been so focused on Luna the last couple of days, and then… Abigail’s call… _Cara…_ It had all just hit her, blindsided her, and she couldn’t do a thing about it.

The only thing she could do now, and the thing she really needed to do, was finish this test. Just a few more of these, just a few more and they’d be in the clear until fall… She went on writing, absently counting out the ticking of her imaginary clock with a finger silently tapping against the desk where she sat. This, right here, all she was studying, all she was working toward sharing with other kids out there, once upon a time it had felt like a genuine salvation to her, and if she managed to let it do its thing…

She thought of Cara, saw her sweet kid sister’s face in her mind, imagined… whatever that other girl might have done to it… No, she wiped away those bruises. She imagined the two of them, this summer, standing side by side in her favorite museum back in Austin. She wasn’t going to let her down. She’d find a way, she’d help her, maybe with this, maybe with art… music… That was the art _they_ shared, and Cara had loads of it in her. Right now, it was getting chaotic in her head, but under all that, she knew, her sister was still in there, a little different but still Cara.

Maya finished her test, really, with all of thirty seconds to spare. Everyone else was gone by the time she walked up and handed in her booklet. That didn’t matter. The important part was that she’d finished. She walked out and found Lucas had been kept company by Franny, and Kayla, and Lily. He could have easily told them about what she’d told him before, but she knew he hadn’t by the looks on her friends’ faces. Of course, he wouldn’t. He’d leave it up to her to decide, as much as possible. Her friends had been able to write off her behavior as general finals stress coupled with lingering grief, and she decided she wanted to keep it that way, at least for now.

That evening, it was back to the house, back for more studying, but there was no way around it. She needed to talk to her sister, needed to know that she was okay. She sent out a message, asking if she would get on Skype with her. When Cara replied, she wanted to know whether her mother had told her about what happened that day. Maya told her yes, and it took a solid twenty minutes before she finally heard the familiar bells from her laptop. The call connected, and when the image came up, she had to pull her breath in to keep from having too much of a reaction, seeing the bruise around her sister’s clear blue eye, the swelling cut at her nose, the scuff on her chin…

“Hey…” her shoulders curled in, like she was trying to get as close to her sister as possible, even though they were so very far away from one another.

“Hey,” Cara quietly replied, bowing her head to hide her face.

“What happened?” Maya asked. All she had was Abigail’s version, which she knew better than to assume was the whole story.

“Bethany,” Cara spat the name, arms crossed over herself. Maya spotted a large band-aid just above her sister’s elbow. She’d heard the name before, knew this girl as Cara’s chief tormentor. “She posted about me, called me out, said I was just broken now, that I wasn’t in school anymore because I was sent into a psychiatric ward for the deranged. I told her I’d show her who the crazy one was.”

“By fighting her? What did you think was going to happen?” By the way her sister looked away again, her lips pressed together but trembling, Maya knew: what she thought was going to happen was exactly what did happen. She’d never gone in there believing she’d win, she’d gone in knowing she’d get knocked around the way she did. _You ever really want to punch something, or… just yell at the top of your lungs until there’s no more breath in you?_ That was what she’d told Lucas, just hours ago, and it felt now like this was exactly what Cara had been after, except in her case she hadn’t been the one doing the real punching. She’d needed… to feel something real, undeniable. “Damn it…” Maya mumbled so quietly, turning her face away now, not wanting her sister to see her crying, but how could she not? A few more days…

“Won’t do it again, okay?” Cara insisted. “Next time, I’ll just…”

“No,” Maya cut her off. “No next time, you can’t…” She looked down, then up again. “You’ve got everyone scared out of their minds, Cara. Including me, and what’s worse is you’re so far away right now and I can’t…” She had to stop, had to take a breath. A creaking in the floor made her turn back and look to the door, just catching a flash of red hair that told her that her shouting had brought Sophie from her room, before moving away again, so not to intrude. If Lucas wasn’t at the bookstore right now, working, he would be out there, too.

“I don’t know what else to do,” Cara told her, and to hear her now, like so much of the pretence was melting away, Maya could almost find her little sister again.

“Look,” she took a deep breath. “I have a few more days of finals, but after that, I want you to come down to Texas, spend the summer with me, okay?” Cara’s eyes brightened just a bit, much as she tried to conceal that spark. “You and the others. I’ll talk to your mother, we’ll work it out. What do you say?” Seconds went by, the sisters looking at each other through screens that bridged the distance between them. Finally…

“Fine, okay,” Cara told her. “Want me to go get her?”

“Yeah, sure, we…” Maya started to say, but Cara was already getting up and moving out of sight. She was limping, favoring her left leg. When she was gone, the sob Maya had been holding back just rode its way out of her. She pressed her hand to her mouth as she still tried to contain herself.

When Lucas came home from his job at the bookstore, he went up the stairs and walked into the room to find Maya curled up asleep on the still made bed, still dressed from the day, with Peanut also sleeping, there in the crook of her arm. He tried to get her settled in properly, but the moment he touched her, her eyes fluttered open.

“Hey…” she spoke, sounding half asleep and wide awake at the same time. “How was work?”

“Kind of dead,” he shrugged. “Not that we could complain. It made it easier to sneak some studying in,” he explained, setting his book bag down on the floor as he sat on the bed and she propped herself up by planting her hands on the mattress behind her. “Wish you’d been out there with us.”

“It was probably for the best that I wasn’t,” Maya told him, and Lucas soon guessed…

“You spoke to Cara?” She nodded. “How bad was it?”

“Which part, the one where she got into a fight she knew she wouldn’t win, or the one where she’s covered in cuts and bruises and walking funny?” He had known Cara since she was eight, same as Maya, and the thought of her being hurt in any way was making him angry, so he had some idea of what Maya would be feeling right about now. “I spoke with Abigail though,” she told him after a breath. “They’ll be flying in the day after finals are done.”

“Here or Austin?”

“Here, for now.” As messed up as it was, the knowledge that they would be here in a few days felt to her like just what she needed to make it through the rest of her tests. Just stick it out a little longer, and she could hold them in her arms. Would it help? Would Sam let himself feel his loss? Would Eliza start to speak again, would Wyatt not feel so scared to be alone anymore? Would Cara… be Cara again?

“Good,” Lucas nodded. “You’ve all earned yourselves a good summer together.”

“As a family,” she finished the sentence, whether it needed it or not. Even as she said it though, it felt like she was marking it with an asterisk, a footnote, pointing out all the ways it could go wrong. For one thing, there was still the Luna situation, and now, on top of that, there were the elder Harts… This summer needed to be one thing, but whether it would get to be that one thing instead of a mess, they couldn’t say.

“Want me to quiz you?” Lucas asked. Maya looked at him, gave a small smile.

“Honestly, I think I just need to sleep through the night, get up early and study some more then.”

“Alright, sounds good,” he nodded. “So I quiz you tomorrow.”

“You just really want to quiz me, huh?” she chuckled.

“Did I never tell you about my childhood game show host phase?” he asked. Her eyebrow raised even as her lips pressed together to hold in a laugh.

“Known you almost nine whole years, and this is how long it took me to hear about that one?”

“Hey, I have to keep _some_ material for occasions like this.”

“You’re right,” she had to agree. “This is definitely one of those. Side question, are there any photos?” He smiled. “Oh, there are videos, aren’t there?”

TO BE CONTINUED


	263. Their Balance of Steps

The next few days felt like a non-stop hurdle race. Every part of their lives felt like they were going from one checkpoint to the next, just to get themselves one step closer to the finish line. As distant as it would get to feel for a while, they were definitely gaining on that end goal, nearer and nearer, until finally it was the last day, until they were walking into that last exam, and then walking out of it, freed and unleashed on to the summer.

Lucas finished _his_ ‘final final’ of the semester, knowing that at that very moment Maya would still only be starting hers. Seeing as he literally had nothing else that he needed to do that day, it meant he got to do what he wanted. And what he wanted was to be there when his girlfriend got over that last hurdle, reached the end and finally just… breathed out. He knew more than almost anyone what kind of hell finals had been for her this time around, and she deserved to be given something to smile about again. His choice: making a quick detour for home and recruiting Peanut to be his cute, giddy self, and have him there for her to find when she got out of that room.

As was to be expected, their canine friend was the king of the campus that day, running around as far as his leash would let him go (and proving the necessity for said leash in the process) and making friends with every person he crossed. Seeing how happy they all were to see him, Lucas thought maybe having puppies around during finals might not have been a bad idea as a regular thing.

When it was finally Maya that he saw, Peanut was practically flying, the way he’d leap in excitement, and oh, that smile on her… It was enough to send his heart flying just as much and then some. Maya came jogging up, and when she picked up the dog, she rightly unclipped the leash. There was no chance of him going anywhere now, not when _she_ was here.

“Man, these new students are getting smaller and smaller,” she shook her head.

“Hairier, too,” Lucas agreed. Peanut barked.

“Cuter, definitely cuter,” Maya beamed, kissing the dog’s head.

They arrived home before long, finding the place in full activity, as the roommates, along with a few guests, were in the process of preparing dinner. Lucas and Maya both guessed most of them had likely won their invitations in coming out of those last finals along with one of those who lived here and being told ‘hey, why don’t you come over, we’re making dinner.’ After the stress of the past week and some, the promise of food beyond ‘whatever’s quickest and handy on the way to more studying’ had to sound like just the answer to everything they could ever ask for.

“If Colton hadn’t heard something about a guy hanging around with a small dog, I would have thought you’d run away, Peanut butt!” Rosa practically cooed as the dog was released into the house again. He came running up to her and she picked him up.

“Sorry, ‘Peanut butt’ was needed,” Lucas told her, looking like he wasn’t sold on the name add on. He heard snorting from behind him though, so at least Maya enjoyed it… Possibly, she really enjoyed hearing _him_ say it.

“Can I do anything to speed things up in there? I’m starving, and the smell is just… I’m drooling over here, actually drooling,” Maya insisted.

“I have no idea, I’ve been banished out here for eating too much of the ingredients,” Rosa sighed.

“Right, so I guess that leaves me to go and find out,” Lucas went off toward the kitchen.

“Excited to see your brothers and sisters tomorrow?” Rosa turned back to Maya after watching him go. Maya let out a breath. Could ‘excited’ even really cover what she was feeling? “Anxious?” Rosa amended, like she’d read as much on her roommate and bandmate’s face. “Nervous?”

“A lot of emotions, coming from a lot of different places,” Maya told her. She’d told Rosa about what had been happening with Cara, one of the few, outside of Lucas and Riley. Ever since Rosa had told her about her father, how he’d died, it had settled in her like the two of them shared something, like she could tell her things and she’d understand, more so than some of their friends.

“They can have my room while you’re still in Houston. I’ll take the couch, or maybe I can just go spend some time at my mom’s.”

“You don’t have to, I’m sure we can…”

“I have bunk beds, they can go two above and below, then they can all stay together,” Rosa pointed out, and that basically won the argument.

“Thank you,” Maya reached over and hugged her.

“Anytime,” Rosa promised. “Shorties sticking together, remember?” Maya laughed.

“Hard to forget.”

They packed as many chairs around the table as they could, and even then, they needed to have some people standing as they ate, leaning on the counters, or the walls, sometimes sitting on a boyfriend or girlfriend’s lap… It was just what they all needed, in some way or another, but more often than not, Lucas’ primary concern was Maya, and he could see it was so absolutely true where she was concerned. For that evening, surrounded with friends and classmates, there were no worries getting to her. She could forget, and even though it might have made her feel bad, like she _shouldn’t_ forget, even for the span of an evening, in the long run it would be a good thing.

“Can’t believe we already have one year left,” Riley declared, as dinner being over had given way to some people heading home, and others settling in around the couch to watch a movie. A few still, like Riley, and Maya and Lucas, and Dylan, were in the kitchen, volunteers in the cleaning efforts.

“Can’t believe Sophie will be a cop in a few months,” Dylan added. After all this time of waiting to even start her training, the training part itself felt like it had gone by in no time at all. They had all gotten to see the future Officer Zvolensky transition, her more decisive side, which usually only showed up in times of crisis or needs for a quickened pace, now getting to feel as though _it_ had gotten more decisive, too, about being accessed at a moment’s notice.

“One year though…” Maya had to agree with Riley. Sometimes, she couldn’t believe it either.

“You know what comes after this next year is over?” Lucas turned to her.

“Besides us going back to Austin, me putting this whole education thing to good use while you carry on with another four years?” she asked. He smiled.

“Well, I should say you know what comes in the fall after next?” he adjusted his question. She looked at him, like she was still not grasping what he was getting at, but then… _Oh…_

“Ten years,” she smiled.

“What’s that?” Dylan asked.

“Oh, he’s right,” Riley blinked.

“Is he? About what?” Dylan looked around, still not getting it.

“Ten years since I moved to Austin, and I met him, and Zay, and you, and Asher and Nadine,” Maya explained. Saying the number, it felt like a lot, but then all they had to do was to think about all the things that had happened in this time and… yeah, they could believe it amounted up to a decade.

“One more year after that and it’ll be ten for me, too,” Riley smiled along. “Although I did know you guys for a while before that, over the computer, so in some ways I think it still counts.”

“I’d say so,” Maya nodded before looking back to Lucas. “You know, by the time you finish those next four years, I will have known you more than half my life. I’m kind of okay with there being more years with you than without.”

“I know what you mean,” Lucas nodded along.

“Oh, while I’m thinking about it,” she reached into her pocket and unhooked the watch, holding it out to him.

“Are you sure you’re ready to give it back? You can hold on to it as long as you need,” he insisted.

“I think I’ll be okay for now,” she tipped her head until he took it and hooked it back in place. “Sometimes, just knowing that you have it, that you’ll give it to me if I need it… it kind of helps already. Plus, we’re on vacation now, and… Abigail and the kids will be here tomorrow…” She was nervous about seeing them, she was. She couldn’t wait to see them, yes, but then how could she _not_ worry about this summer? What if it only made things worse? What if, even when they were here with her, they were still just… out of reach?

“So, we were thinking of driving out to Austin tomorrow, after they all show up. That way, you’ll have more of the place to yourself, and I get to see Hunter and everyone,” Riley beamed, like she hadn’t totally tipped her hand that she mostly wanted to get to see her baby brother.

“And Rosa’s going to her mother’s, so that’ll just leave us and Sophie and Chiara,” Lucas counted off. The two of them had debated going to Italy over the summer, even if it was only for a couple of days, but there was really no way, with Sophie’s being ever so close to stepping out there in uniform for the first time, a rookie officer. Once Maya, Lucas, and their guests went on their way to Austin, they’d have the house to themselves, _their_ house, after that next and final year sent four of them out of the house and the city. There’d still be Rosa of course, halfway through her four years by then. Whether they decided to take in any more roommates beyond that, it would be entirely their choice to make.

When Maya’s phone rang, left there on the counter while they were doing dishes, Riley was the first to reach it, and she answered. She smiled, learning that she was speaking to…

“Oh, hello, nice to hear your voice, Maya’s Aunt. It’s Riley Matthews,” she presented herself, even as Maya was attempting to get her phone from her. “Yes, that’s me. Okay, she’s here, hold on,” she finally relinquished the phone, which Maya took while giving her oldest friend a half stink eye and walking away from the sink.

“Hey, Luna, how are you doing?” she asked.

“My mother showed up here tonight, she mentioned that the two of you talked?” Luna told her, sounding not so much upset at _her_ but still definitely upset at something or someone, and as she gasped, Maya hoped it wasn’t at her mother.

“She did? I-I mean… yes, I called her a few days ago,” she admitted. At the sink, Lucas turned to look at her.

“And you told her about Kermit, and about… about me.”

“I didn’t have a choice, when I realized she didn’t know, I… called her, called the house, because… I had to.” She paused, hesitated. “Is she still there?”

“Oh, yeah,” Luna replied, and she sounded as though what she really said was ‘is she ever’ or ‘that’s not even the half of it.’

“Okay, good, that’s… I mean… Have you been speaking, or…”

“She says that she’s not going back to Florida,” Luna informed her, and Maya almost dropped her phone.

“Wait, what?”

“She left my father. She wants to move in with me… and the girls.”

TO BE CONTINUED


	264. Their Balance of Breath

Their friends both in the kitchen and the living room, when they saw Maya hurry off up the stairs, phone in hand, did not know what was happening, but they _were_ suddenly alert to the fact that something _was_ happening. Lucas hurried after her, meeting all curious eyes with a plea to just not interfere for the time being. When he reached the top of the stairs and came up to their room, he had heard the door shut all of two seconds before he got to it, so he knocked once. She knew it would be him, so she opened it and let him in, even as she finally spoke again.

“Luna, I swear I had no idea this would happen, I… I’m so sorry.”

“Please, you don’t have to,” Luna breathed out. “To be honest, in the long run, it might actually be good for them.”

“Really?” Maya blinked. Lucas was looking at her with eyes full of questions, so she balanced her phone between shoulder and ear and signed _‘My grandmother left my grandfather. She’s in Arizona with Luna and she says she is moving in with her and the girls.’_ Lucas’ shocked expression was probably what her own face had looked like a minute ago, when _she’d_ heard it for the first time.

“I know it sounds horrible, but it’s true. The two of them, they were almost like Kenneth and I. They stopped being good for each other a long time ago. The difference is I left a whole lot sooner than she ever did.”

“You think she’s really going to stay? She’s not going to change her mind and go back?”

“They’re both hard-headed enough that, when they make a decision, they don’t go back on it. If they did, they might have tried and reconnected with Kermit while he was still…” Luna trailed off, in what Maya was very familiar with as a strike of grief from out of nowhere. She understood what her aunt meant though. They weren’t the type to make any choice lightly, so if she said she wasn’t going back to her husband, then that was that, wasn’t it?

“And she’s going to move in with you.”

“She’s upstairs now, unpacking in the guest room, which I guess is her room now. I haven’t seen or spoken to her in three years, I… When I opened the door and saw her there, my first reaction was just… relief. I was glad to see her. Now that the surprise has worn off though, I just know how she can get… But then I’ve always thought that she and my dad could be better people if they were apart, so maybe I’ll find out if that’s actually true. She says that tomorrow morning we’re going to Kenneth’s house and bringing the girls home.”

“That’s good, isn’t it? That’s what you want?” Maya asked.

“Of course, it is, I just… I…” She was overwhelmed, and Maya could hear it. Worse, she felt like it was all her fault. It _was_ her fault, she’d set this in motion when she’d called Elizabeth Hart, but… It could all still end well, couldn’t it? If they got through it, if they pushed on, or… Or it could all become an even bigger mess. Now her impulse was to go to Arizona, to put herself in the game instead of calling shots from the sidelines, but… But Abigail and the kids were flying in tomorrow. “I’ll call you back,” Luna quickly told her, suggesting that her mother was coming back down the stairs and she needed to get off the phone.

“O-okay, I…” Maya barely managed to say before the line went dead. In frustration, she tossed her phone, which thankfully landed on the bed. She took two steps one way, two the other, hands gripped around nothing. She didn’t know how to manage this feeling ramping up inside her chest. “Damn it…” she finally muttered under her breath. Lucas held out his arms to her and she gripped her hands on to those. “What did I do?” she looked at him.

“You didn’t…”

“Lucas, I know you love me, and you will stand by me on pretty much everything. I appreciate it, don’t think I don’t, but I pretty much broke a marriage of forty-some years, that is not some small thing I can brush aside, I…” She had to take a few breaths, had to try and calm herself, but the magnitude of what she’d just heard was taking up residence in her brain, and it was expanding out. “Oh…” she spoke quietly.

“What is it?” Lucas asked, trying very much to get a look at her face. He knew that posture. It was her ‘I’m about to cry and I’m really trying not to’ stance.

“I should have called them…” she told him.

“What do you mean?”

“At the hospital, when I first wanted to do it, I should have called them. She might have come, and he might have seen her one last time before… before…”

“No, hey… She probably wouldn’t have made it in time anyway,” he reasoned.

“Maybe not, but if I’d just called them earlier, if I…” she shook her head. The tears were coming now. He pulled her into his arms and held her.

“It wasn’t all up to you, okay? Abigail could have called them, and she didn’t. Luna could have called them, and she didn’t. You couldn’t have known this would happen, and it’s not your fault that you didn’t, you…”

He stopped himself, figuring it wasn’t a good time to remind her that the biggest issue where she was concerned was that, after having been out of these people’s lives for so long, in a lot of ways she was still on the outside looking in. She had known Abigail and the kids for four years, had only really been on speaking terms with her father for a little over a year when he’d died, and she’d met Luna only a month ago, spoken to her grandmother for the first time a few days past. She was only equipped to know so much, and she had done her best with what she had, to help them. The whole thing looked sort of chaotic now, but it could still work itself out, even though it was sort of hard for her to see the big picture at the moment.

“I just need it all to stop…” she breathed. “I need things to be normal again, whatever normal is supposed to mean anymore, I…”

“Yeah,” he replied, sidestepping the reflex to say, ‘I know,’ because even though he felt so much for her, for all of them who were directly affected by this loss, he really couldn’t know what they were feeling, could he?

She told him what Luna had told her on the phone, about her mother’s arrival, and the unlikelihood of her coming back on her choice. The fact that Luna believed her parents had been long overdue for a separation could have felt like a perfect answer to Maya’s current emotional state, like ‘there, see, maybe you did them a favor.’ But he doubted she would see it that way, so he said nothing.

“Tomorrow, your brothers and sisters are coming,” he reminded her. “And you’ll get to just hang out, all of you.” The both of them might have increased their work hours over the summer, but they’d both kept to their usual schedules of a few weeknights and much of the weekends, where the rest was usually filled with classes and study time. They would be taking time off before long, heading to Austin in wait of the birth of Haley Hunter. That meant she’d get loads of time to spend with her siblings here. “I know your confidence is rattled right now, but mine isn’t, and I fully believe that you’ve got this.”

“I really want to get annoyed at how sure you are right now, but I can’t pull it off,” she muttered into his shoulder. He smiled.

“We could sit here all night, figure out a plan for the next few weeks. I’ll get us some food, maybe a couple of drinks…”

“Sounds more like the recipe for some tipsy hook up… Not that I’m opposed…”

As he left her in the room to go downstairs, Lucas let out the sigh he’d been working to keep in while he’d been upstairs. He could understand her feeling powerless over the situation. He kind of felt powerless, too, a lot of the time, as he’d want to help her work through everything, even though he could only do so much. Every blow that came along would just knock her further and further down, and his hand could only reach so far.

Returning down to where their roommates were piled on to the couch, he’d known he would be pelted with questions as soon as they saw him, and there was no way of dodging, so he gave them as brief of a rundown as he could, what he felt Maya would be okay with him sharing. He made a quick raid in the kitchen, and then he was back up the stairs, a whistle rallying the troupe of Trix, Lou, and Peanut until they followed him back to the room. Here, he opened the door to let them in before following and shutting the door.

“Hey, pups,” Maya breathed with a smile, crouching, and moving to sit on the floor from where she’d been sitting on the bed a moment before. They crowded around her, too many for her to attend each one at the same time, but they all seemed fine with waiting their turn. Lucas came and sat with her, depositing his loot on the bed, where he found a notebook and pen waiting. He smirked, picking them up. “Mine,” Maya reached over and took these, laying them in what part of her lap was not presently occupied by a dog. “I’m ready,” she declared with a firmly decisive nod. There she was…

They could only focus on so much at a time, that was what they were both allowing themselves to accept. So, they were going to focus on what would be at hand: the New York siblings. Maya couldn’t and wouldn’t forget the Luna of it all, but for now they just had to let that one advance on its own, to see what would happen next. Those four kids needed something else, and their big sister just might have been the one to provide it for them.

Maya had expressed her wish. She needed things to be normal again. That wasn’t just going to miraculously happen for them. She knew it, he knew it. The quartet flying in tomorrow with their mother needed some of that, too. They all had their issues, no doubt, but then every day of their lives since their father had died had probably gotten to feel like everyone was watching them, seeing nothing but their loss and their grief. Maybe the best she could do for them was to have them here and treat this visit as they would once have done, as they _had_ done, the summer when they had last visited. They were on summer vacation, visiting their big sister, and they were going to have fun. They would get to be kids again.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Maya asked. They’d been sitting here, making plans, for a couple of hours now. The dogs were asleep, the food was gone, and the drinks were making their heads swim just a bit, a nice, cozy swaying. Lucas was leaning against the side of the bed, while Maya was leaning against him.

“Nothing’s set in stone. We’ll see how it goes,” he promised, pulling the notebook lightly from her hands and setting it back on the bed behind him, holding her close. “It’s your call, I’ll back you up.”

TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
